Every now and again we discover incredibly anomalous things in our neighborhood of the universe that makes us say what the heck is that? And now just as the case has so often been in the past as the mystical array of all things weird and wonderful captivates the imagination of the human state. We are only beginning to understand and in the process of developing our thoughts to meet a realistic universe, we are going to test our abilities to understand. Wait, do you hear this? The planet Jupiter has protected the earth in the past from comet and asteroid strikes. The giant planet's gravitational influence over passing objects sees them destroyed by such forces, but the weirdness of Jupiter is always going to show us things that we can't yet understand, and that is because these things don't exist close by to the earth. Our cosmic neighbor it seems has tried to keep all the entertainment to itself, and this has led to a recent discovery that astronomers have hailed as a unique comet like asteroid, a fitting labeling for something that we are struggling to classify. Last month the University of Hawaii telescope known as Atlas detected a near earth comet and now they are making the headlines again as this incredible discovery has the world of astronomy at a standstill never before has such an object been observed by human eyes. Describing the event the University says these are a group of Trojan asteroids at the planet Jupiter that have seemingly sprouted tails and they are converting to comets, perhaps this is some sort of great unknown catapult getting ready to take a pop at the earth. Astronomers have reported in the past of comets seemingly originating in the direction of Jupiter, this is a truly fascinating discovery and the birth of answers that could be gained is mouthwatering. Early in June 2019 Atlas reported what seemed to be a faint asteroid near the orbit of Jupiter and the minor planet center designated the new discovery as 2019 LD2. The inspection of Atlas images taken on June 10th of that year by collaborators Alan Fitzsimmons and David Young at Queens University in Belfast revealed it's probable comet-like in nature with follow-up observations by UH astronomer. The first was by UH astronomer J.D. Armstrong and his student Sidney Moss on June 11th and 13th using the Los Golden Maris Observatory Global Telescope network confirm the comet-ary nature of this body. Then in July when new Atlas images capturing 2019 LD2 again and now truly looking like a comet with a faint tail made of dust or gas. The asteroid passed behind the sun and was not observable from the earth in late 2019 and early 2020 but upon its reappearance in the night sky in April of this year, a routine Atlas observation confirmed that it still looks like a comet. This asteroid has somehow germinated into a comet and these observations show that 2019 LD2 has probably been continuously active for almost a year, stunning astronomers and other researchers across the entire globe. While Atlas has discovered more than 40 comets, what makes this object extraordinary is its orbit because the early indications that it wasn't asteroid near Jupiter's orbit have now been confirmed. Through precise measurements from many different observations and in fact 2019 LD2 is a special kind of asteroid called a Jupiter Trojan and no object of this type has ever been seen to spew out dust and gas like a comet truly monumental in every sense. Trojan asteroids follow the same orbit as a planet but stay either around 60 degrees ahead or 60 degrees behind along the orbit. Earth has at least one Trojan asteroid and Neptune has dozens but Bigel Jupiter has hundreds of thousands if not millions. The Jupiter Trojan asteroids orbit the Sun in two huge swarms, one swarm orbiting ahead of the planet where this comet was found and one swarm orbiting behind it. The Trojan asteroids have been captured into these orbits by Jupiter's strong gravity and what makes these comet like asteroids so interesting is that most Jupiter Trojans were captured billions of years ago. So any surface ice that could vaporize to spew out gas or dust should have done so long ago, leaving the objects quietly orbiting as asteroids not behaving like comets. An expert researching the new findings said recently that we have believed for decades that Trojan asteroids should have large amounts of ice beneath their surfaces but never had any evidence until now. Atlas has shown that the predictions of their icy nature may well be correct. What could have made 2019 LD2 suddenly show comet light behavior? Maybe Jupiter captured it only recently from a more distant orbit where surface ice could still survive. Maybe it recently suffered a landslide or an impact from another asteroid exposing ice that used to be buried under layers of protective rock. Whatever the case may be, new observations to find out are being acquired and evaluated. What's certain is that the universe is full of surprises and serves to guard the Earth from dangerous asteroids, often make unexpected discoveries of harmless but fascinating objects that can reveal more about our solar system's history. But what do you the subscribers of the Lost History Channel think about this anyway? Comment below guys and as always, thank you for watching. you