In the earliest years on planet Earth, as our world was still forming, frozen comets were essential sources of carbon that could be on initial life, a new study says.
University of Minnesota astronauts have conducted infrared observations of Comet Catalina, a comet that visited our solar system in 2016, to determine if comets played a role in the initial life of our planet.
The team was able to detect large amounts of carbon – a chemical essential for life as we know it – inside the tail of the comet.
‘We are still unsure whether the Earth could absorb enough carbon on its own when it was formed,’ said study author Charles Woodward.
So carbon – rich comets could have been an important source in delivering this essential element that led to life as we know it. ‘
This image of a comet from the Oort Cloud as it passes through the inner solar system with dust and gas emptying into its tail shows how these frozen visitors could produce carbon. delivered to a hot, rocky world like the Earth
The carbon-rich Comet Catalina was first discovered in 2013 on its final cycle and for the first time through the indoor solar system
In early 2016, Comet Catalina entered the inner solar system from the Oort cloud, an area at the very edge of the solar system where comets are born.
He soon appeared to stars on Earth before slipping past the sun to disappear forever out of the solar system and into interspecific space.
Among the many observations that captured a view of this comet, which appeared near the Big Dipper, was the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a NASA telescope in flight.
Using one of his unique infrared instruments, SOFIA was able to select familiar fingerprints inside the comet’s dusty glass – carbon.
This discovery helps planet scientists to explain more about the origin of life on Earth as it ‘becomes clear that comets like Catalina could be an essential source of carbon’ when the solar system was created early, the team explained.
Using new results from SOFIA, a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center, the U.S. team was able to better understand the potential impact of these comets billions of years ago. when planets like Earth and Mars first began to form.
Comet Catalina and others of its kind have orbits so long that they reach our celestial thresholds relatively unchanged.
This effectively freezes them in time – with much the same as that discovered in the earliest days of the solar system when planets were beginning to enter the world. they are today.
This ‘time capsule’ provides researchers with rare opportunities to learn about the early solar system from which they come and how our own planet may have been formed.
NASA was able to observe the frozen visitor using infrared cameras, allowing astronauts to get a clearer picture of its contents – finding a carbon-filled tail
SOFIA’s infrared was able to capture the composition of the dust and gas as it emptied from the comet, forming its tail.
The observations showed that Comet Catalina is full of carbon, suggesting that it was formed in the outer regions of the primordial solar system, which maintained a reservoir of carbon that could be important for spawning life on Earth. , Mars and Venus.
Although carbon is a key part of life, it cannot survive over time in a very hot world.
The early Earth and other terrestrial planets of the inner solar system were so hot when they were formed that elements such as carbon were lost or depleted.
Infrared observations of the comet helped researchers see that it was full of carbon, allowing these comets to theorize helping to spawn the hot, rocky Earth early.
Comet Catalina was visible through small telescopes or binoculars on January 1, 2016 as it made its closest approach to Earth on its way into intersex space.
While cooler gas giants like Jupiter and Neptune could support carbon in the outer solar system, the size of Jupiter’s jumbo may have prevented carbon from mixing back into the system indoor sunshine.
This prompted the U.S. team to study how incoming rocky planets became the carbon-rich world in which they live today by examining the data emanating from the comet.
Researchers believe that a small change in Jupiter’s orbit allowed small, early precursors of carbon-mixture comets from the outer regions into the inner regions, where it was introduced for planets like Earth and Mars.
The comets came from the outer edges of the solar system, full of carbon, taken off wide orbit by Jupiter’s gravitational force, and pushed toward the inner rocky world closer to the sun. .
Comet Catalina’s rich carbon composition helps explain how planets formed in hot, poor carbon regions of the early solar system became planets with the life-supporting element, he said. the authors of the study.
‘Comets and other small groups affect all terrestrial worlds, which contain carbon and other elements,’ said Woodward.
‘We are getting closer to understanding just how these effects on early life’s planets could be captured.’
Additional new comets need to be considered to determine if there are many other comets full of carbon in the Oort Cloud, which would further support the comets provided carbon and other elements that support the terrestrial planets.
As the world’s largest air observatory, SOFIA’s mobility allows it to monitor newly emerged comets as they pass through the solar system.
The results of this study were published in the Planetary Science Journal.