Astronomers Discover ‘Dark Comets’ Could Be Far More Common Than Once Believed
Out there in the blackness of space lurks more than 35,000 near-Earth objects. Now a new study has revealed that many of the ones discovered so far might be more than just common space rocks.
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00:00Out there in the blackness of space lurks more than 35,000 near-Earth objects.
00:08Those are classified as any object in orbit in our system, which passes by our planet
00:12within 1.3 astronomical units.
00:15And now a new study has revealed that many of the ones discovered so far might be more
00:19than just common space rocks.
00:20A new report outlines that as many as 60% of the near-Earth objects, which look like
00:25any other ordinary asteroid, could be what are known as dark comets.
00:29So what does that mean?
00:30Well, comets are simply rocks with ice and other material that off-gas once they get
00:34close enough to the sun.
00:35When that happens, they grow a tail of that very material, releasing it wherever they
00:39go.
00:40With some astronomers positing that's exactly how we got water initially on Earth.
00:44Dark comets, on the other hand, are comets without this tail, and therefore without the
00:47apparent off-gassing.
00:48However, they do have an accelerated spin and orbital speed associated with traditional
00:54comets.
00:55The researchers say they think these objects came from the inner and or outer main asteroid
00:58belt.
00:59Saying about the find, there may be more ice in the inner main belt than we thought.
01:03There may be more objects like this out there.
01:05This could be a significant fraction of the nearest population.