German scientists have discovered the first binary asteroid also classified as a comet.
The Hubble Space Telescope captured between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter a pair of asteroids, jointly called 288P, which orbit each other and have a tail of dust, which is the definitive characteristic of comets.
The combination of orbital characteristics of 288P is "different from all other known binary asteroids," Jessica Agarwal of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany and lead author of the study, told Space.com. describes the new discovery.