Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science

Another comet breaking up

Just when comet 73P/SW has been in the news as breaking up we have another comet with similar prospects, but beyond Saturn's orbit.

From Newscientistspace

Something substantial has broken off an icy 50-kilometre object beyond the orbit of Saturn, leaving puzzled astronomers trying to figure out why.
Comets have been seen breaking up before, but only after heating when passing close to the Sun or a gravitational disturbance following a close encounter with a planet.
However, at 1.9 billion kilometres, this object is very far from the Sun. Another mysterious feature is that much more gas and dust is escaping from the breakaway fragment than from the parent body. The disintegration has created a dust cloud more than 100,000 km across and which is several times brighter than the original object was before the event.

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (3 posts)