Health & Science briefs
Hubble spots strange asteroid
The Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a six-tailed asteroid in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Scientists say they've never seen anything like it. The comet-like tails change shape as the asteroid sheds dust. The streams have occurred over several months.
A research team believes the asteroid, designated P/2013 P5, is rotating so much that its surface is flying apart. It's believed to be a fragment of a larger asteroid damaged in a collision 200 million years ago.
Scientists using the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii spotted the asteroid in August. Hubble picked out all the tails in September. The discovery is described in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Olympic torch set for spacewalk
A Russian rocket soared into the cosmos Thursday carrying the Sochi Olympic torch and three astronauts to the International Space Station ahead of the first spacewalk for the symbol of peace.
Video streamed by NASA reported a flawless docking with the space station about six hours after the craft blasted off from Russia's manned space facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
The unlit torch for the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi is to be taken on a spacewalk Saturday, then return to Earth late Sunday with three departing space station astronauts.
Cargill to label 'pink slime' meat
Cargill Inc. says it will start labeling beef products that contain finely textured beef after the ingredient came under attack as "pink slime" last year.
The Minneapolis-based meat company said the new packages will appear before next year's grilling season and is in response to consumer demand. It says packages will note when a product "Contains Finely Textured Beef."
Finely textured beef is made by separating the bits of meat that are stuck on fatty trimmings. Those bits are treated to kill bacteria; the resulting product is mixed with ground beef. The filler has been used for decades in the U.S.
No floating island of tsunami debris
Federal officials say there is no island of debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami floating toward the U.S.
Some media reports have warned of a Texas-size island of wreckage, based on a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration map of debris. But NOAA marine debris chief Nancy Wallace said that's not true. She said Thursday that there's an area in the Pacific where debris is likely to concentrate more, but there's not much there.
She said if you were on a boat in that area, chances are you'd be able to see maybe one or two pieces of debris.
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