Comet ATLAS may have enjoyed a brief moment in the spotlight earlier this year when it was predicted to be one of the brightest comets that sky watchers have seen in the past decade. But the brittle kite literally cracked under pressure, disintegrating into smaller pieces in April 2020.
However, their brief encounter with our Solar System was not wasted as scientists believe they can use ATLAS to determine the age of comets, thus offering clues to the evolution of our planetary system and how it came to be.
The study, published this week in the Monthly notices from the Royal Astronomical Society Daily, it suggests that the amount of carbon found in a comet’s coma, the envelope that surrounds a comet’s nucleus, indicates the age of that comet.
Comet C / 2019 Y4 (ATLAS) was discovered on December 28, 2019 on its way to the inner Solar System. When first observed, the comet was quite weak but continued to increase in brightness at a rate of 0.25 magnitude every day as it approached the Sun.
Comet ATLAS was slated for a heated reunion with the Sun on May 23, where it would have been as close as 72 million miles from the star, closer than the planet Mercury is to the Sun. However, before could do it, the comet fell apart.
“ATLAS was expected to be the brightest comet of 2020, visible from Earth with the naked eye,” said Ekaterina Chornaya, a graduate of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the Federal University of the Far East, and co-author of the new study. a declaration. “Instead of looking at the comet itself, however, we witnessed its disintegration.”
Comets are icy bodies of frozen gas, rock, and dust, material likely dating back to the formation of the Solar System.
As comets get closer to the Sun, the star’s powerful gravity can weaken and separate them as they get closer.
However, due to the proximity of Comet ATLAS, astronomers were able to observe it before and after it disintegrated, and compare its composition.
In doing so, the researchers behind the new study noticed an increase in the amount of carbon found in the coma after it disintegrated.
Solar radiation tends to evaporate carbon and other materials found in comets.
As a result, the study concluded that the more carbon is in the coma of a comet, the less time it has been around the Sun, the less carbon it is, the more time it has been around the Sun.
Since comets are made of the same material as planets and other celestial objects in the Solar System, scientists study comets to learn more about the evolution of our galactic neighborhood. By analyzing the age and composition of comets, they can determine how rocky planets like Earth formed compared to gas giants like Jupiter.
Summary: We observed Comet C / 2019 Y4 (ATLAS) before and after its disintegration while taking polarimetric measurements over a wide range of phase angles. The decay event was characterized by dramatic growth of the positive polarization branch that is consistent with a high relative abundance of absorbent material of up to (96.5 ± 3.4) percent. This polarization peak relaxed as the carbonaceous particles are preferably swept out of the coma due to the pressure of solar radiation. Observations suggest that the primary material stored in comets is extremely rich in carbonaceous material. The pristine cometary material is processed by subsequent solar interactions, forming a refractory crust on the surface of the nucleus. Polarimetry provides a means of measuring the volume ratio of the carbonaceous material and, therefore, the weathering that has occurred in the comet due to these interactions. The polarimetric response of Comet C / 2019 Y4 (ATLAS) appears similar to that of Comet C / 1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp), except in some eras that are similar to that of Comet C / 1996 B2 (Hyakutake).
