Mysterious 'X' found in space

• Monday, 15 February 2010
• Alexandra Wenman
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Is it a comet, a meteor or an asteroid? Scientists are at a loss…

Scientists are apparently baffled by a mysterious X-shaped object flying through space.

Named only as P/2010 A2, the object has a 140m off-centre nucleus and a bizarre x-shaped tail.

"It is unlike any object ever seen before," Nasa's Dr Robert J Nemiroff told London's Metro last week. " All the clues suggest it is debris left over from a recent collision between two small asteroids. If this is true, the collision probably occurred at 11,000mph - and released more energy than a nuclear bomb."

The zooming object - first spotted between Mars and Jupiter only last month - has now been captured by the Hubble Telescope. See pictures here.