A team of astronomers led by Dr. Bumpei Arinobu of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) has discovered a distant space snowman that is helping to unlock the mystery of how some dormant deep space objects become ice bombs.
The object, known as C/2019 Q4 (Borisov), is a comet that was discovered in August 2019 by Gennady Borisov, an amateur astronomer from Crimea. Borisov was observing the night sky with his 0.65-meter telescope when he spotted a faint, moving object that he initially thought was a star. However, further observations revealed that the object was actually a comet.
C/2019 Q4 is a long-period comet, meaning that it takes more than 200 years to orbit the Sun. It is currently located about 350 million kilometers from Earth and is moving towards the Sun. The comet is expected to make its closest approach to the Sun in December 2022.
Observations of C/2019 Q4 have revealed that it is a very unusual object. It has a very small nucleus, which is only about 1 kilometer in diameter. The comet also has a very large and diffuse coma, which is made up of gas and dust that has been ejected from the nucleus.
The most unusual feature of C/2019 Q4 is its double nucleus. This is the first time that a comet has been observed with two nuclei. The two nuclei are about 20 kilometers apart and are thought to be fragments of a larger comet that broke up in the past.
The discovery of C/2019 Q4 is helping to shed light on the mystery of how some dormant deep space objects become ice bombs. It is thought that comets like C/2019 Q4 are born in the outer reaches of the Solar System, where they remain dormant for millions of years. However, when they are disturbed by a passing star or planet, they can be ejected from their orbits and sent hurtling towards the Sun. As they approach the Sun, the comets begin to heat up and release gas and dust, which forms the coma. If the comet gets too close to the Sun, it can be completely destroyed, releasing a huge amount of ice and dust into space.
The discovery of C/2019 Q4 is a reminder that the Solar System is a dynamic and ever-changing place. It is also a reminder that there are still many mysteries to be solved about the objects that inhabit our cosmic neighborhood.
