The familiar solar system with its 8 planets occupies a tiny space inside a large spherical shell containing trillions of comets – the Oort Cloud. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Posted on 11/10/2014 2:10:10 PM PST by BenLurkin
What’s a comet that doesn’t look like a comet? The question sounds contradictory, but astronomers believe these objects exist. As comets pass through the solar system, they bleed ice and dust as the Sun’s effects wash over their small bodies. Over time, some of the objects can keep going like ghost ships — just without the ices that used to produce a show.
There already is a class of objects called damocloids that are believed to be extinct comets, but scientists believe they have found something new with two mysterious visitors — what they call “naked” comets — from the outer Solar System.
...
The automated Pan STARRS1 survey telescope found C/2013 P2 in August 2013, with astronomers remarking its orbit resembled that of a comet. But, C/2013 P2’s surface was quiet. A second look the next month with the 8-meter Gemini North telescope in Hawaii revealed a little bit of light and a dusty tail. The object stayed at about the same brightness, even when it got to its closest approach to the Sun (2.8 AU) in February 2014.
After the comet swung around the Sun and telescopes could look at it again, examinations with the Gemini North telescope found something weird: the object’s spectrum looked red. This makes it look more like a Kuiper Belt object — something that roams in shallower waters in the Solar System, beyond Neptune’s orbit — than a typical comet or asteroid.
While results were still being analyzed, in September a NASA survey found an object with curiously similar properties: C/2014 S3. When it was found, the object had already passed its closest approach to the Sun in August. But from analyzing the orbit, the scientists saw it had come
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Personally I suspect that some come from outside our solar system anyway.
What’s the white dot to the right of Neptune? Welcome back, Pluto?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.