This leaves open the possibility that the complex debris tail is the result of an impact between two bodies, rather than ice simply melting from a parent body.
“If this interpretation is correct, two small and previously unknown asteroids recently collided, creating a shower of debris that is being swept back into a tail from the collision site by the pressure of sunlight,” Jewitt says
Asteroid collisions are energetic, with an average impact speed of more than 11,000 miles per hour–five times faster than a rifle bullet. The main nucleus of P/2010 A2 would be the surviving remnant of this so-called hypervelocity collision.
