Scientists observe a giant “alien” comet hurtling toward the Sun.
6 km wide space sphere (called 96P/Machholz 1) would come from somewhere outside the solar system and is monitored by Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft from the European Space Agency (ESA) as it hurtled toward Earth inside Mercury’s orbit, leaving a trail of ice in its wake.
96P/Machholz 1 was photographed by NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) spacecraft
96P/Machholz 1 was photographed by NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) spacecraft.
Comet tails are mainly composed of gas, flows behind blocks of ice and frozen gases when heated by solar radiation. In 2008, an analysis of material emitted by 150 comets found that 96P/Machholz 1 contained less than 1.5% of expected levels of chemical cyanogen and was also low in carbon, leading astronomers to conclude that it might be an intermediate object coming from another Sun. System. Now its race toward the Sun could reveal even more of its secrets.
“96P is an atypical comet, both in composition and behavior, so we never know exactly what we might see. I hope we can learn some deep scientific lessons from it and share them with everyone as soon as possible .”said Karl Battams, an astrophysicist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC.
David Machholz first discovered the comet of the same name in 1986 using a homemade cardboard telescope. Most comets that fall toward the Sun tend to be less than 10 m in size and therefore burn up as they approach Earth.
However, Machholz 1’s enormous size (more than two-thirds the height of Mount Everest) appears to protect it from complete evaporation, and SOHO has detected the comet making five close passes around the Sun since its discovery.
Its closest approach to the Sun will be on January 31, when it will be three times closer to Earth than Mercury.
The comet may have found itself in its strange orbit after being ejected from the original solar system by the gravity of a giant planet. Then, after a considerable time of wandering through the universe, a chance encounter with Jupiter may have bent its orbit around the Sun.
Other theories also suggest that this comet may not be an extraterrestrial object, but that it may have formed in poorly understood regions of the solar system or that its cyanide exploded during a repeat journey. around the Sun.
SOHO has discovered more than 3,000 comets since its launch in December 1995, although the spacecraft’s primary mission is to observe the Sun for violent flares called coronal flares. Coronas, or solar flares, can cause geomagnetic storms on Earth.
The strongest of these storms could disrupt Earth’s magnetic field enough to cause satellites to fall to Earth, and scientists have warned that extremely powerful geomagnetic storms could even cause satellites to fall to Earth.
Article source: Tien Phong
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Scientists observe a giant “alien” comet hurtling toward the Sun.
