New Delhi (SunstarTV Bureau): Comets, the frozen leftovers from the formation of the Solar System, are one of the biggest attractions for stargazers and astronomers across the world.
A new study reveals that scientists can detect meteor showers from the debris in the path of comets that pass close to Earth’s orbit.
The meteor shower survey published in the journal Icarus states that these meteor showers are detected only if the comet’s orbit has an orbital period of fewer than 4000 years. Long-period comet meteor showers are significantly dispersed in solar longitude and speed.
Researchers detected that the number of known meteor showers with long-period comet parent bodies has grown from 5 to 14. Ranging from a few miles to tens of miles in size, these comets spew up dust and gas as they come close to the Sun creating illumination in their path due to heat.
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, in a statement, said that comets comprise only a small fraction of all impactors on Earth, but researchers believe they caused some of the biggest impact events over the planet’s history because they can be big and the fact that their orbits are such that they can impact at high speed.
The researchers studied the data from the Cameras for Allsky Meteor Surveillance (CAMS) project and found that long-period comet meteor showers can last for many days. The surveillance project observes and triangulates the visible meteors in the night sky using low-light video security cameras to measure their trajectory and orbit.
“This creates a situational awareness for potentially hazardous comets that were last in near-Earth orbit as far back as 2,000 BC,” said meteor astronomer and lead author Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute in a statement. Expressing surprise over the continuous return of the comets in our Solar System, Jenniskens added, “This was a surprise to me. It probably means that these comets returned to the Solar System many times in the past, while their orbits gradually changed over time.”
The meteors present a new picture of the universe and the study of their trajectory and features is a key part of several space organisations including Nasa, that track them to be a step ahead in protecting assets and astronauts in outer space.
(Sources: India Today)
