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The Learning Kingdom's Cool Fact of the Day for August 4, 1999
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What solar system object spins fastest?
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The fastest known spinning object in the solar system is the asteroid
1998 KY26, a 30 meter (100 foot) chunk of carbon, water ice, and
organic substances that completes a rotation every 10.7 minutes. It
rotates ten times as fast as the next fastest object, and sixty times
faster than most asteroids.
1998 KY26 is an "Earth-crossing" asteroid, meaning that its orbit
crosses Earth's orbit. During a recent pass, scientists discovered
that it contains about 3.8 million liters (1 million gallons) of
water, making it potentially valuable as a resource for future space
explorers.
Because it spins so fast, 1998 KY26 would be a challenging place to
land. Its tiny gravity is just barely enough to keep visitors from
being flung out into space by its rapid spin.
SpaceViews News report of the discovery, with a picture:
http://www.spaceviews.com/1999/07/24a.html
What are the chances of an Earth-crossing asteroid hitting Earth?
http://impact.arc.nasa.gov/
http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/~hudson/Research/Asteroids/
More Cool Facts about asteroids:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1998/06/01.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1998/08/04.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/03/25.html
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