Comets | Universe Today

Comets, Solar System

February 26th, 2010

New Results from Stardust Mission Paint Chaotic Picture of Early Solar System

Secondary electron image of the Coki section analyzed in this study showing mineral shards surrounded by compressed aerogel. Credit: Lawrence Livermore National Lab.

One of the most surprising results from the Stardust mission – which returned comet dust samples to Earth in 2006 – is that comets don't just consist of particles from the icy parts of the outer solar system, which was the common assumption, but also includes sooty dust from the hot, inner region close to the Sun. A new study confirms this finding, and also provides the first chronological information from the Wild 2 comet (pronounced like Vilt 2). The find paints a chaotic picture of the early solar system.
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February 11th, 2010

WISE Spies Its First Comet

The red smudge at the center of this picture is the first comet discovered by NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer or WISE is living up to expectations, as it now has discovered its first comet, shortly after finding its first asteroid. The spacecraft, just launched on Dec. 14, 2009 and first spotted the comet on January 22, 2010. WISE is expected to find millions of other objects during its ongoing survey of the whole sky in infrared light. Officially named "P/2010 B2 (WISE)," the comet is a dusty mass of ice more than 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) in diameter.
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February 2nd, 2010

Hubble Takes A Look at Possible Asteroid Collision

Hubble Views of Comet-like Asteroid P/2010 A2. Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (UCLA)

We reported earlier that on January 6, 2010, ground-based observatories may have spotted evidence that two asteroids had collided in the asteroid belt. Now, the Hubble Space Telescope has taken a look at the mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust. With Hubble's sharp vision, astronomers believe a head-on collision between two asteroids has actually occured. Astronomers have long thought the asteroid belt is being ground down through collisions, but such a smashup has never been seen before.
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January 22nd, 2010

Asteroid Detection, Deflection Needs More Money, Report Says

Are we ready to act if an asteroid or comet were to pose a threat to our planet? No, says a new report from the National Research Council. Plus, we don't have the resources in place to detect all the possible dangerous objects out there. The report lays out options NASA could follow to detect more near-Earth objects (NEOs) that could potentially cross Earth's orbit, and says the $4 million the U.S. spends annually to search for NEOs is insufficient to meet a congressionally mandated requirement to detect NEOs that could threaten Earth. "To do what Congress mandated NASA to do is going to take new technology, bigger telescopes with wider fields," said Don Yeomans, Manager of NASA's Near Earth Object Program Office, speaking at the American Geophysical Union conference last month.
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January 19th, 2010

Asteroid Collision May Have Created Comet-like Object

P/2010 A imaged by Dr. Robert McMillan at Kitt Peak, Arizona. Credit: Spacewatch/U of Arizona

A strange comet-like object discovered on January 6, 2010 may actually be the result of a collision between two asteroids. Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) sky survey in New Mexico spotted an object in the asteroid belt, called P/2010 A that looked "fuzzy," with a tail like a comet rather than a speck of light like a normal asteroid. But comets don't normally reside in the asteroid belt, and the object's orbit is all wrong for a comet. While the asteroid belt is made up of debris from the "leftovers" of our solar system, and like the remains of early crashes between giant rocks, astronomers haven't witnessed a collision before.
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November 26th, 2009

Comets Posing as Asteroids (or is the the other way around?)

Images of known MBCs from UH 2.2-meter telescope data. Credit: Henry Hsieh

Asteroids are rocky bodies which belong between Mars and Jupiter. Comets are icy bodies that belong way out beyond Pluto. So what are comet-like objects doing in the asteroid belt?

Filed under: Asteroids, Comets, Solar Astronomy | 5 Comments »

November 25th, 2009

Jupiter – Our Silent Guardian?

Jupiter photo. Image credit: NASA/SSI

We live in a cosmic shooting gallery. In Phil Plait's Death From the Skies, he lays out the dangers of a massive impact: destructive shockwaves, tsunamis, flash fires, atmospheric darkening…. The scenario isn't pretty should a big one come our way. Fortunately, we may have a silent guardian: Jupiter.

November 12th, 2009

Crescent Earth as Seen by Comet Chasing Spacecraft

Title this one "Rich Blue Crescent" (as opposed to Pale Blue Dot.) This spectacular image of our home planet was captured by the OSIRIS instrument on ESA's Rosetta comet chaser today (November 12) at 12:28 GMT from about 633,000 km as the spacecraft approached Earth for the third and final swingby. Closest approach is due at 07:45 GMT, on November 13. You can follow Rosetta's progress at ESA's Rosetta site and the Rosetta Blog.

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November 4th, 2009

Rosetta to Make Final Earth Flyby Nov. 13th

The Rosetta spacecraft will make a final pass by the Earth November 13th to pick up speed on its way to the outer Solar System. Image Credit: ESA The comet chasing spacecraft Rosetta will make its third and final swing by the Earth on November 13th to pick up more speed for the last part of a 10-year journey that lies ahead. Its mission is to place a lander on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and chase the comet for an entire year on its orbit around the Sun. The spacecraft will be visible to observers from the ground in certain locations on the Earth. This last flyby will increase the spacecraft's speed by 3.6 km/s (2.2 miles/s) with respect to the Sun, giving Rosetta the energy it needs to boost it to the outer regions of the Solar System. Read more…

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September 15th, 2009

Mini Comets Ejected from Comet Holmes Caused Outburst

(Left) Image of comet Holmes from the 3.6-meter Canada-France-Hawaii telescope on Mauna Kea showing the large expanding dust coma. On the left, a 'raw' image is shown, in which the brightness reflects the distribution of dust in the coma of the comet (the nucleus is in the bright, point-like region to the upper left of center). On the right is shown the same image after application of the Laplacian spatial filter, to emphasize fine structures. The white/black circular objects are background stars enhanced by the Laplacian filter.

Comet 17P/Holmes caused a sensation in October and November 2007 when overnight, it brightened enough to be visible with the naked eye and became the largest cometary outburst ever witnessed. Using a special filter on the Canada- France- Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii, astronomers were able to peer inside Comet Holmes to determine why the comet became so bright. Images and animations show multiple fragments were ejected and rapidly flew away from the nucleus of comet Holmes.
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August 17th, 2009

Amino Acid Found in Stardust Comet Sample

Artists concept of the stardust spacecraft flying throug the gas and dust from comet Wild 2. Credit: NASA/JPL

NASA scientists studying the comet samples returned by the Stardust spacecraft have discovered glycine, a fundamental building block of life. Stardust captured the samples from comet Wild 2 in 2004 and returned them to Earth in 2006. "Glycine is an amino acid used by living organisms to make proteins, and this is the first time an amino acid has been found in a comet," said Dr. Jamie Elsila of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "Our discovery supports the theory that some of life's ingredients formed in space and were delivered to Earth long ago by meteorite and comet impacts."
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August 5th, 2009

Half Comet-Half Asteroid a Fluke? Nope

Images of known MBCs from UH 2.2-meter telescope data. Credit: Henry Hsieh

Back in 1996, astronomers discovered a strange object in the asteroid belt. They decided it was either a "lost" comet or an icy asteroid, as it ejected dust like a comet but had an orbit like an asteroid. No one had ever seen anything like the object, called 133P. Ever since it was found, astronomers have wondered if it was just an oddity — one of a kind. We now know it is not, and the discovery of more of these half asteroids/half comets means there is a new class of objects in our solar system.
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July 30th, 2009

Newly Discovered Cometary Route Sneaks Past Jupiter, but Decreases Risk of Earth Impacts

A long-period comet called 2001 RX14 (Linear) turned up in images captured in 2002 by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey telescope in New Mexico. Astronomers have used the comet record — including 2001 RX14 (Linear) at left, captured in 2002 by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey — to model a new route for incoming comets that sneaks past Jupiter's gravity.

The pathway might even be the dominant one that delivers Oort Could comets on an Earth-bound trajectory, say the authors of a new study in Science this week — but if that's true, comets only rarely cause extinctions on Earth.

(Image credit: Mike Solontoi/University of Washington)

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July 30th, 2009

Sub-surface Oceans In Early Comets Suggest Possible Origin of Life

A view of NASA's Deep Impact probe colliding with comet Tempel 1, captured by the Deep Impact flyby spacecraft's high-resolution instrument.

A new study claims early comets contained vast interior oceans of liquid water that may have provided the ideal conditions for early life to form.

Filed under: Astrobiology, Comets | 16 Comments »

June 24th, 2009

1908 Tunguska Event Caused by Comet, New Research Reveals

Fallen trees from the Tunguska Event in 1908.

The 1908 Tunguska event has always been mysterious and intriguing because no one has been able to fully explain the explosion that leveled 830 square miles of Siberian forest. But the latest research has concluded that the Tunguska explosion was almost certainly caused by a comet entering the Earth’s atmosphere. And how researcher Michael Kelly from Cornell University came to that conclusion is quite interesting: He analyzed the space shuttle's exhaust plume and noctilucent clouds.
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Comets | Universe Today

Comets, Solar System

New Results from Stardust Mission Paint Chaotic Picture of Early Solar System

WISE Spies Its First Comet

Hubble Takes A Look at Possible Asteroid Collision

Asteroid Detection, Deflection Needs More Money, Report Says

Asteroid Collision May Have Created Comet-like Object

Comets Posing as Asteroids (or is the the other way around?)

Jupiter – Our Silent Guardian?

Crescent Earth as Seen by Comet Chasing Spacecraft

Rosetta to Make Final Earth Flyby Nov. 13th

Mini Comets Ejected from Comet Holmes Caused Outburst

Amino Acid Found in Stardust Comet Sample

Half Comet-Half Asteroid a Fluke? Nope

Newly Discovered Cometary Route Sneaks Past Jupiter, but Decreases Risk of Earth Impacts

Sub-surface Oceans In Early Comets Suggest Possible Origin of Life

1908 Tunguska Event Caused by Comet, New Research Reveals

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