(MENAFN – IANS)
Washington, March 6 (IANS) Comets may have been an essential source of carbon on planets like Earth and Mars when the solar system was formed early, a new study says.
“Carbon is crucial in learning about the origin of life,” said the paper’s lead author, Charles Woodward, a professor at the University of Minnesota in the USA.
“We are still unsure whether the Earth could absorb enough carbon on its own when it was created, so comets full of carbon could have been an important source in delivering this essential element that gave live as we know it. “
The new findings are based on observations by a telescope on a plane called Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center, and were recently published in the Planetary Science Journal.
For the study, the researcher examined the Catalina comet.
As the frozen visitor hurt from the edge of our solar system past Earth in early 2016, it became apparent to stars like the comet Catalina before it slingshot past the Sun to disappear forever out of the solar system.
Among the many observations that took a look at this comet was SOFIA. Using one of his unique infrared instruments, SOFIA was able to select familiar fingerprints inside the comet’s dusty glass – carbon.
Coming from the Cloud Oort at the remotest parts of our solar system, the comet Catalina and others of its kind have such long orbits that they reach our celestial thresholds almost unchanged .
This freezes them efficiently over time, offering researchers rare opportunities to learn about the early solar system from which they come.
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 potential carbon reservoir for spawning life.
Although carbon is a major component of life, 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.
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.
So how did the incoming rocky planets become the carbon-rich world they are today?
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.
Comet Catalina’s rich carbon assemblage helps explain how planets formed in hot, poor carbon areas of the early solar system became planets with the life-supporting element.
–IANS
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