Comet 2I / Borisov , discovered last summer , is the first interstellar comet ever detected in the Solar System . It camefrom another starand went for afateful trekthrough our corner of the galaxy . Researchers have been intelligibly bewitch by this interstellar visitor , trying to understand how unlike it is from the comets in our own Solar System .
Previous studies have highlight both similarities and differences . Now , a Modern piece of research publish inThe Astrophysical Journal Lettersprovides a wider glide path to this discussion . research worker tracked the body of water personnel casualty of Borisov as it made its close approach to the Sun , and while it suggests the comet is not sincerely a bizarre aim , it also does n’t belong with any know families of comets in the Solar System .
“ Borisov does n’t outfit neatly into any class of Solar System comets , but it also does n’t stand out exceptionally from them , ” lead author Zexi Xing , a alumna scholar at the University of Hong Kong and Auburn University in Alabama , order in astatement . “ There are known comet that share at least one of its properties . ”
Comet Borisov has surely a hatful in common with comets in the Solar System . Several chemicals were found in standardised quantities on this interstellar visitant , and the level of piss product as it got close to the Sun was in business with prognostication from homegrown comet . All comets are small polar bodies made up of frozen gases , rock , and detritus , that – in our Solar System at least – orb the Sun . When a comet ’s celestial orbit takes it close to the Sun , the heat melts the ice and it fragment , spewing out gas and dust , creating agaseous tailas the comet continues on its journeying .
Borisov reached theclosest point to the Sunon December 8 and at visor activity 55 pct of its surface ( about the area of Central Park ) was active . It released 30 liters ( 8 gallons ) of water per second base , about enough to fill a tub in 10 seconds . Its journeying through the Solar System be the comet 230 million liters ( 61 million gallons ) of water .
Borisov ’s alive area is about 10 times larger than what we ’ve discover in comets from our Solar System . Another singular difference is the level of activity suddenly dropped off as the comet moved out from the Sun ; a change much more sudden than in previously keep objects . This could have been induce by a variety of factors , include the fact thatit began breaking aside . add up thehigh level of carbon monoxideseen in two recent sketch , Borisov is certainly something unlike .
How this object fits with our world-wide idea of comets is not at all obvious . The discovery of Comet 2I / Borisov , by unpaid astronomer Gennady Borisov on August 30 , 2019 , is a pivotal stop in our understanding of these minor planets in the Solar System and beyond .
