Scientists have discovered a six-tailed asteroid in the asteroid belt located between orbits of Jupiter and Mars.

The asteroid was discovered by scientists using the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii. The tails were found thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, according to NASA.

"We were literally dumbfounded when we saw it," said lead investigator David Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles, in a statement according to NASA. "Even more amazing, its tail structures change dramatically in just 13 days as it belches out dust. That also caught us by surprise. It's hard to believe we're looking at an asteroid."

The comet-like tails also change shape as the asteroid sheds dust.  It's been ejecting dust for the last five months.

The asteroid was named P/2013 P5 by the University of California-led research team, according to the Associated Press.

Scientists have said they've never seen an asteroid like P/2013 P5. It's supposedly rotating so much its surface is "flying apart" according to NASA.

P/2013 P5 is believed to be a fragment of a larger asteroid damaged during a collision some 200 million years ago.

The discovery was detailed in this week's copy of Astrophysical Journal Letters, according to the Associated Press.

"In astronomy, where you find one, you eventually find a whole bunch more," Jewitt said. "This is just an amazing object to us, and almost certainly the first of many more to come." 

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