Gas and dust are released as comets approach the Sun. This activity slows when comets pass near or inside Earth. The comet-fading phenomenon occurs when comets make repeated passages through the more distant region beyond Saturn.
Kaib is an associate professor in the Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences at OU.
Long-period comets, those that take at least hundreds of years to go around the Sun once, spend most of their lives thousands of times further from the Sun than the Earth is. The comets' icy surfaces are turned into gas by the intense heat of the Sun.
Astronomers can find comets relatively easy because of the cometary activity. The activity of comets passing near Earth decreases as the Sun's heating depletes their surface ice supply.
Kaib discovered that comets passing through the outer solar system also have this fading phenomenon. It's surprising that comets experience less heating from the Sun than those closer to Earth. Water-based ice cannot evaporate on comets because the Sun's heating is so weak.
Kaib ran computer simulations of comets traveling near the giant planets so they could make smaller excursions away from the Sun.
The outer solar system has many more comets on these shrunken orbits than on larger ones. Shrinking causes comets to fade, which will make older comets invisible to astronomy.
Due to their remoteness, comets are hard to study, and so the understanding of comets is mostly based on studying the ones on Earth. Kaib found that passages through the outer solar system may affect the physical properties of comets.
The results of computer simulations of comet production were combined with the current catalog of known distant comets. This current work would not have been possible without it.
Kaib expects the Legacy Survey of Space and Time to increase comet discoveries.
He said that the comet fading characterized in his work will be critical to properly understanding and interpreting the imminent deluge of newly discovered comets.
The OU Supercomputing Center for Education and Research was where the simulations were performed. Kaib is on sabbatical at Case Western Reserve University.
More information: Nathan A. Kaib, Comet fading begins beyond Saturn, Science Advances (2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm9130. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abm9130 Journal information: Science Advances Citation: Scientists discover distant long-period comets quickly fade away (2022, March 30) retrieved 30 March 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-03-distant-long-period-comets-quickly.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
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