Interstellar Space

---

Graphics: The interstellar visitors have been detected in our Solar System Last Year

The First known Comet to us to visit from another star system with an unusual make-up, according to new research.

The interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov has been detected in our Solar System in The Past year.

These mysterious visitors from the depths of the universe, were able to compare the astronomers an unprecedented opportunity to comets that formed The Sun .

New data suggest, contains large amounts of carbon monoxide - a possible indication of where it was "born".

The Results appear in Two separate scientific publications, from nature to Astronomy .

an international team under the direction of Martin Cordiner and Stefanie Milam from the American Space Agency Nasa) Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, pointed the direction of The Comet on 15 and 16 December 2019.

Alma consists of 66 antennas on the summit of a mountain in Chile, to observe the sky at sub-millimetre wavelengths.

Dennis Bodewits from Auburn University in Alabama, and colleagues gathered, UV observations of the interstellar Comet - known as 2I/Borisov - with the and the.

Two compounds were detected: Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN) is often found in comets of our Solar System , but carbon monoxide (CO) found in unusually high concentrations,

comets are made of Gas , ice and dust; they form turbulence in the disk of material that surrounds a star, if your planets are born. You can have seed young worlds with the chemicals necessary For Life , and brought water to the early earth.

The Teams were ejected Two molecules in The Gas , by means of The Comet : Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN) and carbon monoxide (CO).

HCN was detected earlier, in 2I/Borisov, and is in a similar amounts as you comets in the Solar System .

However, they were surprised to see large amounts of CO. Researchers using Alma for your observations estimated that 2I/Borisov, CO-concentration between nine and 26 times higher than that of the average Solar System comets.

"this is The First Time we have ever looked inside of a Comet from outside our Solar System ," said Dr. Cordiner, "and it is dramatically different than most of the other comets we have seen before. "

Dr. Ye Quanzhi , an astronomer at the University of Maryland in College Park , called the Results "very cool and surprising".

The researcher was not involved with the study, told Bbc News : "We have learned in the last couple of months, that Borisov is similar to the "dynamically new' comets in our Solar System (I. e. the indigenous comets formed in The Edge of the Solar System and tend to have a higher concentration of CO), so a high-ish CO abundance of [type of] expected, but such a high CO level (at least a few times higher than the typical Solar System , Comet ) is very surprising - at least for me. "

He added: "It is nice to see that different teams of astronomers working at different wavelengths (Hubble in the ultraviolet, Alma in the radio) are able to confirm each other's Results ".

graphic: 'Oumuamua, discovered in the year of 2017, was The First known visitors from outside the Solar System

carbon monoxide is common in space and can be found in most comets. But, for reasons that remain unclear, there are huge differences in the concentration of CO in these icy objects.

This could result, in part, with those in a star system a Comet . It can also be related to how often a Comet brings the orbit closer to its star and causes it to release more easily evaporates the ices.

Nevertheless, said Dr. Cordiner, "if The Gas we have observed, reflect the composition of 2I/Borisov, place of birth, then it shows that it is formed may be different than Our Own Solar System comets, in an extremely cold, outer region of the distant planetary system. "

Dr. Milam, commented: "The comets are formed must have, a material Very Rich in CO ice, the only to the lowest temperatures in the room, under-420F (-250C). "

Some of The Observations were collected with the Alma antennas in Chile

Dr. Cordiner added that Alma had previously observed discs of dust and Gas from which the planets formed - environment, the young, low-mass stars similar to The Sun .

"Many of these discs extend far beyond the region where Our Own comets are believed to have formed, and contain large amounts of extremely cold Gas and dust. It is possible that the-2I/came to Borisov One of these discs. "

Dr. Bodewits offered a clear take, argue The Comet was formed, to could a Red Dwarf star, The Most common type in the Milky Way . "These stars have Essentials, the low temperatures and light, where a Comet could be found with The Type of composition in Comet Borisov," he Explained .

One of The Teams carried out observations in the ultraviolet with the Hubble space telescope

due to its High Speed (33km/s and 21 km/s), the astronomers suspect, 2I/Borisov was hurled from your host system after interaction with a passing star or Giant Planet .

after that spent millions or billions of years on a lonely journey through Interstellar Space before its discovery on 30 August 2019 by amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov.

the astronomers conduct the investigation of the interstellar intruder, and the recent observations of The Comet .

"I think that Borisov broke in Two - the HST observed The Comet at Two different times and both showed the break-up," said Ye Quanzhi . "Our follow-up observation (under the direction of Qicheng Zhang of Caltech), was a few days after The First discovery, and seemingly an evolution of The Event showed - it seems to be One of the fragments was reduced to a blob of dust. "

2I/Borisov is only The Second inter-stellar object to be detected in our Solar System .

The First , known as'Oumuamua, was in October 2017, at which point it was already high-tailing it out of our cosmic neighborhood. While initially classified as a Comet , it showed no signs of the eruptions of Gas and dust, which is characteristic for these objects (and observed in 2I/Borisov).

proposed'Oumuamua, which has a very elongated shape like a cigar, could be torn a splinter of a planet by its star's gravity.

follow Paul

astronomy, exoplanets, space exploration, nasa, comets, hubble telescope, space, milky way

Source of news: bbc.com