Astronomers Find Dark Comet Again, Is It Dangerous?

Astronomers Find Dark Comet Again, Is It Dangerous?

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NASA astronomers succeeded in discovering seven new dark comets, this discovery was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science on December 9 2024. This discovery adds to the list of dark comets that have been identified in our solar system, so that there are 13 dark comets that have been identified.

Launching the Space page on Monday (16/12/2024), a dark comet is an object that has unique characteristics because visually it looks like an asteroid, but moves with typical comet behavior. This comet tends not to have the bright tail that is usually seen in comets in general.

However, the movement of this space object shows the influence of gas release from its surface. The dark comet phenomenon first attracted the attention of scientists in March 2016 when a deviation in the orbit of the asteroid 2003 RM was observed.

This small deviation cannot be explained by the standard acceleration of the asteroid such as the Yarkovsky effect, which is a small acceleration due to thermal radiation. Although no comet tail was detected, this deviation suggests that 2003 RM has characteristics similar to a comet that is experiencing gas release.

In 2017, the discovery of the first extrasolar system object, 1I/2017 U1 ('Oumuamua), again strengthened the hypothesis of dark comets. This object shows a similar trajectory shift due to the release of gas from the surface, although no tail is visible.

Astronomers divide these dark comets into two main categories based on their size and orbit. Outer dark comets have similar characteristics to Jupiter family comets.

They have highly eccentric (elliptical) orbits and are large in size. Outer dark comets can reach hundreds of meters or more in size.

Meanwhile, deep dark comets are smaller, measuring tens of meters or less. This type of dark comet moves in a more nearly circular orbit in the solar system.

Dark Comet Threat

This mysterious, nearly invisible object could pose a greater threat to Earth than scientists thought. These small, fast-spinning objects are loitering near Earth, possibly after moving from farther away in the solar system.

These objects may be sources of water and other volatile elements, which can also pose a hazard. Comets originate from the outer regions of the solar system, where low temperatures allow molecules such as water to freeze.

Although comets usually have stable orbits, they can sometimes be disturbed by gravitational interactions with giant planets. This causes some icy rocks to rotate towards the inner solar system.

When that happens, the heat from the sun causes it to disintegrate. On the other hand, asteroids are usually located in the inner solar system, between Mars and Jupiter.

Asteroids are much rockier than comets, so they can survive longer in sunlight. However, asteroids also sometimes fall into unstable orbits that bring them very close to Earth.

However, dark comets behave like asteroids and comets. Launching the Live Science page on Monday (16/12/2024), the dark comet is small, only tens of kilometers wide.

This comet does not show the release of gas or evaporation of volatile elements such as water. However, this comet also does not move in a perfect orbit.

Instead, this comet shows evidence of "nongravitational" acceleration. In other words, there are several other forces capable of pushing the dark comet's orbit.

The researchers concluded that dark comets have a composition similar to asteroids and are the result of fragmentation of larger objects. Based on this evidence, researchers suspect that dark comets likely originate from the main asteroid belt that was knocked out of its orbit by Saturn's gravity.

The unstable orbits of dark comets and their unusual combination of properties make them extremely dangerous near-Earth objects. Dark comets are also small, fast moving and difficult to detect.

Additionally, these objects do not behave like asteroids and comets, making them difficult to predict.

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