Tailless comet called Manx may hold clues about the evolution of the solar system as it appears to have materials from the Earth's early formation.
The said early materials have originated and have been preserved from the Oort Cloud far from the sun for billions of years.
Observations from the analysis show that the comet is an ancient rock and not a new asteroid that has been abandoned. This means that there is a great potential for it to be among the key components of rocky planets like the Earth, and was dislodged from the inner part of the solar system and maintained in the deep freeze of the Oort Cloud, which is an extended icy portion of the outer solar system.
Lead author of the study Karen Meech says that experts are already aware of multiple asteroids, but all of them have been cooked in the billions of years that they have stayed near the flaming sun.
"This one is the first uncooked asteroid we could observe: it has been preserved in the best freezer there is," Meech says.
Comets' Role In Solar System Evolution
Experts recognized that comets are residual materials during the daylight period of the solar system, which dates back to about 4.5 billion years ago.
Comets are made of ice covered with dark organic surface and are dubbed as "dirty snowballs."
Experts believe that comets are the key components of life to the early years of the Earth and other areas of the solar system, such that they contributed water and organic compounds.
There are numerous models that represent the structures in the solar system. Among the most crucial difference in these models is their prediction of the icy and rocky object ratio. Therefore, identifying a rocky object from an icy Oort Cloud is a very important test of the various models.
For the Manx comets, experts estimate that they need to observe about 50 to 100 to be able to distinguish them from existing models so as to pave the way for a new and rich take on the study of the solar system's origins.
Comet 67P
Comet 67P is among the many short period comets, which have low orbital tendencies and orbital time of less than 20 years.
Comets like 67P are recognized to come from the Kuiper Belt, which is a large storage of small icy materials situated beyond Neptune. Because of crashes and gravitational forces, some of the ice are thrown away from the Kuiper Belt and plunged toward the sun.
When these comets pass by Jupiter's orbit, they gravitationally connect with the planet. Their orbits slowly alter because of these interactions until the time comes when they get discarded out of the solar system or fuse with a planet or the sun.
