Set as Homepage - Add to Favorites

九九视频精品全部免费播放-九九视频免费精品视频-九九视频在线观看视频6-九九视频这-九九线精品视频在线观看视频-九九影院

【??? ? ??】Scientists spotted a giant comet spewing gas 2 billion miles from sun

A strange,??? ? ?? city-sized cometseems to have woken up early as it drifts toward the sun— even though it's still much farther than Saturnin space.

Using a giant Chilean desert telescope, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, scientists got a detailed look at C/2014 UN271. This comet, commonly known as Bernardinelli–Bernstein, is one of the largest and most distant ever detected, and it’s doing something no one saw coming. Despite being extremely far from the sun's heatin the freezing outskirts of the solar system, this 500 trillion-ton behemoth is already breaking down and releasing gas.

Scientists aimed ALMAat the comet in March 2024 and saw carbon monoxide — a gas that usually doesn’t show up in observations that far away — gushing out of its surface in jets. The team also picked up signs of dust and heat coming from its icy, 85-mile-wide nucleus. 


You May Also Like

It’s the farthest comet ever caught doing this in millimeter-wavelength light, which the ground telescope uses to look at cold cosmic objects.

"We’re seeing explosive outgassing patterns that raise new questions about how this comet will evolve as it continues its journey toward the inner solar system," said NASA's Nathan Roth, lead author of the new research, in a statement.

SEE ALSO: Ancient moon volcanoes made tiny glass beads. Here's what they mean.

Comets, known for their millions-of-miles-long streaks, are among the oldest objects in the solar system. These boulders of ice, dust, and rock are leftover from the early days of planet formation, about 4.6 billion years ago. 

Astronomers often think of them as time capsules of the ancient solar system, perhaps holding the secrets of how primitive Earth got water and other critical chemistry to eventually spawn life. So far there are over 4,000 known cometsthat scientists continue to track.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

As comets swing closer and closer to the sun, their ice disintegrates, converting from a solid to a gas in one fell swoop, skipping over the liquid phase. Their tailsare made of vaporizing ice, dust, and carbon dioxide debris.

But this comet — still 1.5 billion miles away — is already active and has been for at least the past year, according to the new studypublished in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The findings show complex and evolving jets of carbon monoxide bursting from the comet’s nucleus.

"These measurements give us a look at how this enormous, icy world works," Roth said.

Bernardinelli–Bernstein has an estimated 3-million-year-long orbit, taking it about half a light-yearaway from the sun. It’s thought to come from the so-called Oort Cloud, a sphere of ancient, icy objects surrounding the solar system. NASA says this cloud remains a theory because the comets there have been too faint and distant to be directly observed.

A diagram compariting comet nucleus sizeComet Bernardinelli-Bernstein, with a nucleus roughly 85 miles wide, is the largest detected so far. Credit: NASA / ESA / Zena Levy (STScI) illustration

Bernardinelli–Bernstein is now traveling inward, with its closest point to the sun expected in early 2031. The gas coming off the comet mostly seems to be carbon monoxide, which can evaporate at low temperatures. Scientists also looked for formaldehyde but didn’t find any.


Related Stories
  • What are comets? The secret lives of space snowballs, explained.
  • Comet caught strangely zigzagging its way through space
  • The best telescopes for gazing at stars and solar eclipses in 2024
  • Vigilant amateur asteroid hunters keep watch for menacing space rocks
  • Scientists just discovered a mysterious new world far beyond Pluto

What's perhaps more intriguing than the gas itself is how it's coming out. The telescope's view showed that the jets of gas were spurting from different locations on the comet that shifted around over time.

Shortly before the team's observations, the comet had an outburst — a short, bright flash of activity — then calmed down a few weeks later. That kind of behavior suggests the comet has a complex, active surface with lots going on just beneath it.

As the comet keeps heading toward the sun, traveling into warmer regions, more types of gases might begin to escape. Scientists think methane could start to emerge soon, followed by other chemicals like ethane and perhaps ammonia or acetylene closer to 2031. 

The researchers say the comet may provide a rare "window" into the composition of small Kuiper Belt Objects, ice-rock bodies orbiting the sun beyond Neptune, thought to be relatively unchanged over billions of years.

"As UN271 continues to approach the Sun," the authors wrote, "additional volatiles should be expected to activate, revealing the primitive chemistry preserved within." 

0.1916s , 9847.453125 kb

Copyright © 2025 Powered by 【??? ? ??】Scientists spotted a giant comet spewing gas 2 billion miles from sun,Data News Analysis  

Sitemap

Top 主站蜘蛛池模板: 亚洲色成人一区二区三区 | 亚洲国产综合 | 无人区码一码二码三 | 精品亚洲欧美无人区乱码 | 日韩a∨精品一区二区三区 国产亚洲视频中文字幕97精品 | 日本中文字幕人成中文字幕 | 一区二区高清不卡 | 草草视频手机在线观看视频 | 精品成人a区在线观看 | ⅹxxx乱大交| 国产精品天天在线午夜更新 | 51xx影视午夜福利 | 在线日韩欧美一区二区三区 | 亚洲国产日韩欧美一区二区三区 | 一本大道之中文日本香蕉 | 激情五月综合网 | 在线看免费看国产精品视频 | 国产专区视频在线观看 | 试看试看视频 | 二区日韩国产精品 | 在线视频一区二区三区在线播放 | 小明欧美精品视频在线观看 | 影院热映大片 | 五月丁香中文字 | 91香蕉网站在线 | 亚洲国产日韩a在线观看 | 免费人成网站免费看视频 | 精品国产一区二区三区2025 | 一本一道日韩一二三四区免费 | 国产亚洲欧美日韩精品一区二区 | 国产精品国产自线拍免费不卡 | 在线观看一二三四区 | 欧美区精品系列在线观看不卡 | 日韩欧美中文制服在线电影 | 国产福利观 | 男女午夜视频在线观 | 国产男女猛视频在线观看 | 国产在线精品拍揄自揄免费 | 激情国产原创在线观看 | 网站在线观看 | 中文字幕在线永久免费精品 |