The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile has identified the fastest-spinning asteroid known to date. Designated 2025 MN45, this object about 710 meters in diameter completes a rotation every 1.9 minutes. This speed, detected in the observatory's first data, was considered impossible for a body of that size. The finding forces a rethinking of the composition and strength of these celestial bodies.
LSST Technology: Hunting Asteroids in Record Time 🚀
This discovery is a first result from the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), the Rubin Observatory's decade-long program. Its 3,200-megapixel camera and 8.4-meter mirror scan the sky with unprecedented frequency and depth. By capturing images of the same point in the sky every few nights, the system can detect minimal changes and extremely fast movements, such as the rotation of 2025 MN45. The processing software identifies these patterns in the variation of its brightness.
A Spin So Fast It Would Make an Astronaut Vomit 🤢
If someone had the ill-advised idea of trying to land on 2025 MN45, the experience would be brief and dizzying. In the time it takes you to read this sentence, the asteroid would have completed several full rotations. The centrifugal force on its surface would be so intense that any landing module, or even a loose rock, would be flung into space. It seems this asteroid took the motto faster, stronger very seriously.