Interstellar Comet Borisov Was Leaking Metal When It Zipped Past Us in 2020
Anti-aristarchus writes:
Interstellar Comet Borisov Was Leaking Metal When It Zipped Past Us in 2020:
Gaseous nickel was shedding from interstellar comet 2I/Borisov when it briefly visited our solar system two years ago, according to a new study. Sounds like weird behavior for a comet, but as related research shows, the spewing of atomic metals might actually be a regular thing that comets do, whether they're local or from across the Milky Way.
Two new papers, published in the journal Nature, are updating our understanding of comets, both in terms of their origins and the conditions under which they formed. Combined, the papers are allowing for an unprecedented comparative analysis, in which astronomers are contrasting local comets to one that formed far, far away.
We're talking about interstellar comet 2I/Borisov, which visited our solar system in January 2020. Astronomers were able to identify its interstellar nature owing to its peculiar orbit. Recent research suggests Borisov is a fragment of a Pluto-like object, having formed in the Kuiper belt of its home star system. Borisov is often overshadowed by 'Oumuamua-the first known interstellar object to visit our solar system (which it did in 2017)-but Borisov is equally deserving of attention, mostly because of the similarities it shares with native comets.
[...] Taken together, the two papers point to a common process of cometary origin. These shared chemical properties imply that native comets and Borisov formed under similar conditions and in similar places within their respective star systems. And as Bodewits and Bromley explain, should astronomers be able to "unravel the origin of iron and nickel in regular comets and this interstellar object," they may "uncover a story of organic chemistry between shared different planetary systems."
Not sure which is more interesting, gaseous nickel, or metallic hydrogen.
Journal References:
1.) Piotr Guzik, Micha Drahus. Gaseous atomic nickel in the coma of interstellar comet 2I/Borisov, Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03485-4)
2.) J. Manfroid, D. Hutsemekers, E. Jehin. Iron and nickel atoms in cometary atmospheres even far from the Sun, Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03435-0)
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