Study Casts Doubt on 36-Foot KY26 Dark Comet Theory as Lost Soviet Probe Idea Gains
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Nov 12
Study Casts Doubt on 36-Foot KY26 Dark Comet Theory as Lost Soviet Probe Idea Gains
1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Nov 12
Summary
A new peer-reviewed Icarus study says 1998 KY26 is likely too warm for buried water ice, undercutting the "dark comet" explanation for the object's unexplained nongravitational acceleration.
Georgia Tech researchers calculated water-loss rates that they said effectively rule out KY26 being a dark comet now, even though that theory had been used to explain its extra push through space.
A separate analysis by Avi Loeb, Adam Hibberd and Adam Crowl found a simplified Phobos 1 model matched eight observation sets and that sunlight pressure on a spacecraft-like shape fit hundreds of telescope and radar observations.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said he has seen no evidence KY26 is anything other than an asteroid and stressed the roughly 36-foot object poses no threat to Earth.
Hayabusa2 is scheduled to rendezvous with KY26 in July 2031, a mission that could finally determine whether the object is a rocky asteroid or the long-lost 1988 Soviet Phobos 1 probe.