Latest Study: Astronomers Find Seven Dark Comets

Illustration of dark comets in space (photo: dock. NASA)

JAKARTA Dark comets are one of the astronomical objects full of mystery. These objects moving in space fall into the comet category, but look more like asteroids.

This object was first discovered less than two years ago. Shortly after the first discovery, astronomers managed to find six other dark comets. After several years had passed, astronomers again discovered the presence of a dark comet.

NASA revealed that these findings have been published in a paper at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. There are seven dark comets that have been discovered and the whole comet is divided into two different populations.

The first population is comets with a large category in the outer solar system, while the second population is comets of smaller size in the inner solar system. Apart from being a cometary position, this object also has other characteristics.

"We have a large number of dark comets so we can start asking if there is anything that can tell the difference,"ORdy Seligman, co-author of the paper. "We found that our solar system contains two different types of dark comets."

After analyzing comet reflectivity, astronomers realized that the outer dark comet has similar characteristics of Jupiter's family comet. These comets tend to have larger sizes, could be hundreds of meters or even more.

Meanwhile, the dark comet on the inside moves in an almost circular orbit and is smaller than the one on the outside. It can be tens of meters in size or maybe even smaller.

Currently, Seligman and his colleagues are studying the dark comet deeply to find answers to some of their questions, such as where the dark comet came from, what causes its acceleration to be abnormal, and much more.

"The dark COMEt is a new potential source that has delivered the material to Earth needed for the development of life," Seligman said. The more we can learn about them, the better we can understand their role in the origin of our planet.