The first comet known to have visited us from another solar system also appears to be more «virgin» than anyone else examined by the scientists.
These are the findings of a large new study that examined the “comet» 2I/Borisov, the only second interstellar object that scientists have seen.
The object does not appear to have passed near any other star – which means it represents a pristine piece of the gas and dust cloud that formed it.
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«The 2I/Borisov could represent the first truly virgin comet ever observed», says Stefano Bagnulo of the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, who led the new study, which was published in Nature Communications.
The researchers have already managed to use information about the visitor to understand more about the distant system from which it originated, they reported in another study in Nature Astronomy.
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The object has a "coma," or dusty envelope, made up of very small grains, as well as water and carbon monoxide that changed as it "flew" away from the sun. This suggests that the comet is made up of pieces taken from different parts of its own system, indicating that whatever system it came from was mixed together, perhaps by giant planets, in a similar way to what happened in our own.
The comet was discovered for the first time by an amateur astronomer named Gennady Borisov – who gave it its name – in 2019. As soon as it was discovered, experts rushed to gather as much information as possible about it and we are able to confirm that it was the first comet that came to us from outside our own solar system.
But further research showed that sun was probably the first star to approach, leaving it "virgin."
The 2I/Borisov is very different from the objects in our solar system, except for the famous comet Hale-Bopp. Hale-Bopp is believed to have passed our Sun only once before its famous journey more than 20 years ago. Research on 2I / Borisov shows that it is similar, but even more pristine. It brings with it signatures – unchanged from its journey beyond other stars – of the place where it was born.
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«The fact that the two comets are extremely similar indicates that the environment from which 2I/Borisov originated is not that different in composition from the environment in the early solar system», said Alberto Cellino, co-author of the study, from the Astrophysical Observatory of Turin.
Source of information: independent.co.uk
