Scientists conduct research using observation, experimentation, and simulation techniques. Usually, researchers try to get all of these methods to converge on the same result, but sometimes, on the contrary, finding an unexpected "outlier" when using one of the methods may hide hints of a more complex picture of the processes being studied. This is precisely what happened in a new study led by astrophysicists led by Gal Sarid, who studies comets, asteroids and planetary formation and was involved in studies of comet 174P / Ehekla earlier this year, which resulted in an article in the peer-reviewed scientific magazine. In a new study, Sarid discovers that the comet is not behaving at all as suggested in this early article.
"This is further confirmation that Comet Ehekla is an unusual object in the solar system," said Maria Womack, professor of physics at the University of South Florida, USA, and the main author of the new study.
Comets are massive balls of ice and rocks, containing volatile compounds such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen cyanide and methanol in frozen form. When a comet approaches the Sun, volatiles evaporate and form a vapor-gas envelope around the comet, which leads to an increase in the observed comet brightness. With the removal of the tailed guest from space from the Sun, its brightness gradually decreases. However, some comets unexpectedly show a repeated increase in brightness levels, which is already observed at a time when the comet is relatively far from the Sun.
Comet Ehekla is part of a population of objects called centaurs, whose orbits lie between the orbits of Jupiter and Neptune. This comet also belongs to a narrower classification group of centaurs, exhibiting comet-like behavior. The comet contains quite a lot of carbon monoxide, which sublimates from its surface when exposed to sunlight. In their study, Sarid and his team found that the level of carbon monoxide emitted by the comet is about 40 times lower than that of other comets in the solar system. According to the team's assumptions, this may be due either to the peculiarities of comet Ehekles as a representative of the centaur class, or to the individual characteristics of this comet, making it a unique object for the solar system.
Compiled from the University of Central Florida.