Quote:
Originally Posted by higginsdj
Yes.
No, by definition, a comet will exhibit a coma at some point during it's life, an asteroid won't. An Asteroid that suddenly displays a coma will be reclassified.
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I guess there is one exception (so far) to this definition .. P/2010 A2.
They seem to have ended up classifying this as a binary asteroid because no gases were detected in the tail (via spectroscopic analysis), but it exhibited all the visual characteristics of a 'comet' (as I understand it), due to the debris in the tail.
Perhaps the gas part is now a differentiating factor, as a result of this (?)
Interesting …
Cheers