The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Unusual comet comes very close to the sun: does it come from an alien planetary system?

2023-02-02T09:54:16.655Z


Comet 96P/Machholz 1 comes much closer to the sun than the planet Mercury. Does the strange comet come from another planetary system?


Comet 96P/Machholz 1 comes much closer to the sun than the planet Mercury.

Does the strange comet come from another planetary system?

Frankfurt – Comet 96P/Machholz 1 is no ordinary comet.

When examining the chemical composition of 150 comets, researchers at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff found that all of the comets studied had identical levels of the chemical compound cyanogen.

The only exception: Machholz 1. The comet discovered by Don Machholz in 1986 has less than 1.5 percent of the normal cyanogen value, and it also contains fewer carbon molecules.

In a study published in

The Astronomical Journal

in 2008 , researcher David Schleicher came up with three possible explanations:

  • Theory 1:

    The comet could have formed in an extremely cold region of the solar system, which is why it has few carbon molecules.

    This could also apply to cyanogen, according to Schleicher's theory.

  • Theory 2:

    The second theory has to do with the orbit of comet Machholz 1: it regularly comes very close to the sun.

    It's possible that the returning heat of the sun made the cyanogen disappear.

  • Theory 3:

    Schleicher's third theory is the one that makes the comet particularly exciting: the researcher can imagine that comet Machholz 1 could come from outside our solar system.

Comet 96P/Machholz 1 could come from an alien planetary system

Comet Machholz 1 may have been ejected from its actual planetary system by the gravity of a giant planet.

After a long journey through the universe, an accidental encounter with the planet Jupiter may have drawn it into orbit around our sun.

Behavior of Comet Machholz 1 is unusual

The behavior of comet Machholz 1 in our solar system is unusual: it repeatedly passes close to the sun and has so far survived each of these hot encounters.

Most comets that come close to the sun are smaller than 10 meters and break up from the heat of the star.

However, with a mean diameter of 6.4 kilometers, Machholz 1 is unusually large for a comet approaching the Sun.

"96P is a very atypical comet, both in composition and behavior," astrophysicist Karl Battams told Spaceweather.com.

On January 31, 2023, the comet moved very close to the sun again and was observed by the sun probes of the US space agency Nasa.

"Hopefully we'll get some nice scientific data out and be able to share it with everyone as soon as possible," hopes Battams.

Space Newsletter

Subscribe to the free space newsletter and stay up to date.

Comet 95P/Machholz 1 is three times closer to the Sun than Mercury

On January 31, Comet Machholz 1 came three times closer to the Sun than Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun.

NASA's SOHO spacecraft captured images of this flyby that show the comet survived this extremely hot encounter.

This is by no means the norm: comets are made up of dust and rocks held together by ice.

That is why they are also often referred to as "dirty snowballs".

When a comet approaches the sun, it gets warmer and the gas that holds the celestial body together goes directly into the gaseous state.

This is how the tail of a comet is formed and it can happen that the comet breaks up.

(tab)

Another comet is currently visible in the night sky: Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is visible in the sky with binoculars until about mid-February.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-02-02

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.