Astronomers Find Tailless Comet in the Oort Cloud
Posted on April 30, 2016
Astronomers have found a tailless comet in the Oort cloud. Astronomers suspect the comet is made of inner Solar System material from the time of Earth's formation. It has been dubbed a Manx comet after the tailless cat breed.
The rocky comet has the characteristics of a pristine inner Solar System asteroid. It was observed using the ESO's Very Large Telescope and the Canada France Hawai`i Telescope. Lead author Karen Meech of the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy and her colleagues conclude that C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS) formed in the inner Solar System. It has been preserved in the deep freeze of the Oort Cloud for billions of years.
Meech says in the announcement, "We already knew of many asteroids, but they have all been baked by billions of years near the Sun. This one is the first uncooked asteroid we could observe: it has been preserved in the best freezer there is."
Co-author Olivier Hainaut says, "We've found the first rocky comet, and we are looking for others. Depending how many we find, we will know whether the giant planets danced across the Solar System when they were young, or if they grew up quietly without moving much."
A research paper on the comet was published here in the journal, Science Advances. Take a look: