Duck Shaped Comet is Two-in-One
Scientists were surprised when the Rosetta Spacecraft revealed that the comet it was sent to was so strangely shaped, but now they think it's because it's two comets in one.
Comet 67P's strange head and body appearance is because it is two comets fused together
When the European Space Agency's Rosetta Spacecraft rendezvoused with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko last year, scientists were startled by the strange shape of the comet. The comet had two distinct lobes, one larger and one smaller, which looked a little like the body and head of a bathtub rubber duck.
Further examination and high-resolution imaging of the comet has explained its strange shape. According to research by Dr. Stephen Lowry, a Senior Lecturer in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Kent, and a member of the science team for the OSIRIS camera on the Rosetta Spacecraft, it's because Comet 67P was once two comets. Layering in the structure of the two lobes of the comet doesn't line up as it would if the comet were an eroded single object.
Two individual comets must have experienced a very slow collision - at no more than walking speed - very early in the life of our solar system.
Related Links
- Paper in Nature
- European Space Agency release
- BBC story
- Popular Science story