A research team from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan has captured images of a comet near the Sun disintegrating.
The team of astronomers used a fleet of world-leading telescopes that were both on the ground and in space to capture images of a rocky comet near the Sun disintegrating. This is the first time that scientists have captured images of a comet disintegrating and the research team noted that this observation could help explain the scarcity of such periodic comets close to the Sun. These results were published in the Astronomical Journal on June 14, 2022.
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The Subaru Telescope’s wide field of view in Hawaii allowed scientists to spot comet 323P/SOHO as it approached the Sun. This was the first time researchers had observed it with a telescope, which allowed it to better delimit its little-known orbit.
That done, astronomers were finally able to point other telescopes at Comet 323P/SOHO, while they waited for it to move away from the Sun again. The following were used in the study: the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, located on the summit of the Hawaiian volcano Mauna Kea; the Gemini North telescope at the Gemini Observatory, which is also in Hawaii; the Lowell Discovery Telescope, in the US state of Arizona, and the Hubble Space Telescope.
According to observations, the space rock rotates rapidly, taking just over half an hour to go around the Sun. Its color varies so much that it does not resemble any other object in the Solar System. “The coloring is bizarre and changes temporally in a way that has never been seen before,” revealed Hui.
Man-To Hui, the study’s first author, said in a statement that, to the surprise of the research team, 323P/SOHO changed its appearance during its close flyby of the Sun. What was once nothing more than a dot turned out to be the comet’s long tail with ejected dust.
Scientists believe that the intense solar radiation caused parts of the object to break, in a process similar to what happens when ice cubes come into contact with a hot liquid and end up cracking and shattering.
For the authors, such a mass loss mechanism may explain what happens to comets close to the Sun and why they are so rare.
Although the proximity to the star makes these bodies technically difficult to observe, scientists believe that there actually are fewer comets near the Sun, which could indicate that something annihilates them before they can dive into the sun. New studies should bring the answer to this conundrum (in addition to new questions).
How are these comets in orbits close to the Sun created?
The Solar System has been considered a dangerous place in the scientific community for decades. Textbooks demonstrate pictures of celestial bodies circling the Sun in ordered orbits. However, this is because if an object’s orbit doesn’t fit this pattern, the gravitational effects of other objects destabilize the orbit.
Furthermore, a common result for such ejected bodies is to become comets in orbits close to the Sun, where they will eventually plunge into the Sun. Therefore, because these comets pass so close to the Sun, they are difficult to discover and study. Most were discovered by mistake in solar telescope observations.
However, even taking these factors into account, there are considerably fewer comets near the Sun than expected, indicating that something is destroying them before they have a chance to make their final fatal descent into the Sun.
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