Behind the scenes of cosmic catastrophes around the Sun. There was a "pigtail" - Onet.pl

yesterday 20:52

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Astronomers hoped that observation “comet millennium” will help you find answers to questions concerning, inter alia, the process of planet formation. Today comet, flying near the sun, broke up, though, as Dr. Wojciech Borczyk notes in an interview with Onet, it is difficult to answer the question of what really happened in the space.

According to our current knowledge of the comet’s nucleus is composed of a mixture of ice and dust. When approaching the Sun temperature rise and more intense evaporation of cometary ice. Appears when the “head” and “tail” of the comet – explains Dr. Borczyk in an interview with Onet.

Scientist points out that in some cases, when the comet passes the sun in a very short distance, evaporation can be so intense that it will lead to decay, and even the total destruction of the nucleus. – Whether or not something will decide not only the perihelion distance, but also the structure and the size of the comet’s nucleus. Accurate prediction of such scenarios is very difficult – emphasizes Dr. Borczyk.

Scientist UAM already marked that comets are objects quite unpredictable – both in terms of prediction of their clarity and movement. Comet ISON belonged to the group of so-called. “Comets muskaj?cych Sun” (called “Sungrazing comets”) that the perihelion closer to the star at a very small distance.

Dr. Borczyk also warned that ISON, which includes, among others, water, may be destructive, flying near the sun. The scientist recalled that in the past a lot of comets observed that during such “go” underwent total destruction or broke up into smaller fragments – so it was even with the “Great Comet The September” C/1882 R1.

Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) was discovered on 21 September 2012 with a telescope on the surface of the Earth; discovery that made the Belarusian and Russian Vitaly Nevsky Artiom Nowiczonok. Based on photos taken in June with the help of the Spitzer Space Telescope NASA, calculated that the width of the comet’s nucleus was 4.8 km, and its “tail” had a length of 300 thousand. miles. Astronomers describe it as a “dirty snowball” because it consisted mainly of dust, water and carbon dioxide also assumed that in its composition probably included elements that 4.5 billion years ago may have led to the formation of planets.

researchers thought that by observing the comet could be make arrangements for the formation of the protoplanetary disks that precede the formation of the planets, and perhaps also draw some conclusions about the origin of the Earth.

(op)