Comet K2: big and doing unexpected things
Link here. The article provides a nice overview of the observations so far of this very distant but very large comet making its suspected first close approach to the Sun this week, though still beyond the orbit of Mars and barely visible to amateurs.
K2 was first sighted in May 2017 at a much farther distance from the Sun than most comet discoveries. It had developed a coma much earlier than expected, which scientists now think came from from carbon monoxide.
“Carbon monoxide has been detected in other comets closer to the sun, although in much lower quantities than water. Carbon monoxide is very volatile and hard to freeze into a solid.” Jewitt and his colleagues theorized that as the comet slightly warmed while moving toward the planetary region of the solar system, the carbon monoxide ice near its surface turned into a gas that streamed into the vacuum of interplanetary space like constant wind. This wind stirred up dust particles from the comet’s surface, creating the round puffball-like coma.
But it took several failed attempts to measure the chemical composition of the comet to confirm the theory, Jewitt said. The team finally succeeded last year when the comet reached the orbit of Jupiter, and the scientists finally spotted carbon monoxide in the heart of the comet.
Comet K2 also did not develop a comet tail as expected. This appears to be because the particles in its coma are much larger than expected, something that at present is a complete puzzle.
Link here. The article provides a nice overview of the observations so far of this very distant but very large comet making its suspected first close approach to the Sun this week, though still beyond the orbit of Mars and barely visible to amateurs.
K2 was first sighted in May 2017 at a much farther distance from the Sun than most comet discoveries. It had developed a coma much earlier than expected, which scientists now think came from from carbon monoxide.
“Carbon monoxide has been detected in other comets closer to the sun, although in much lower quantities than water. Carbon monoxide is very volatile and hard to freeze into a solid.” Jewitt and his colleagues theorized that as the comet slightly warmed while moving toward the planetary region of the solar system, the carbon monoxide ice near its surface turned into a gas that streamed into the vacuum of interplanetary space like constant wind. This wind stirred up dust particles from the comet’s surface, creating the round puffball-like coma.
But it took several failed attempts to measure the chemical composition of the comet to confirm the theory, Jewitt said. The team finally succeeded last year when the comet reached the orbit of Jupiter, and the scientists finally spotted carbon monoxide in the heart of the comet.
Comet K2 also did not develop a comet tail as expected. This appears to be because the particles in its coma are much larger than expected, something that at present is a complete puzzle.