A team of NASA researchers was analyzing comet 2I / Borisov, coming from a place 13 light years from Earth, and they have just discovered that it carries a large amount of water.
About two months ago, the interstellar comet entered the Solar System, and from that moment there was speculation about its composition and possible origin.
Now, in a study published in arXiv, Adam McKay and his colleagues at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center have determined the abundance of this element necessary for life.
The team took spectroscopic observations to try to determine the amount of water carried by Borisov (named after his discoverer).
For 1800 seconds, they examined the chemical composition of the gases through the way the sunlight was reflected in the comet.
The scientists realized that much of the light was reflected in water vapor, so they determined that the comet threw 113 x 10 raised to the power of 23 (twenty-three zeros) liters of water per second.
A colossal amount. The scientists also determined that the area that produces water is 1.7 square kilometers.
This discovery reinforces Borisov’s similarity with the comets of our solar system.
Therefore, the place where it comes from (a system of two red dwarfs at 13.15 light years, known as Kruger 60 ) would have an origin similar to our ‘cosmic neighborhood’, which tells us that there could be another planet like Earth generating his own life far from here.
“Comets have a primitive volatile composition that is believed to reflect the conditions present in their region of formation in the protosolar disk (where the solar system is born),” the authors describe in the article.
“This makes comet studies powerful in understanding the physical and chemical processes that occur during the formation of the planet.”
Previously, NASA‘s Hubble Telescope recorded the comet as it moved through our solar system. They observed him traveling 177,000 km / h , covered with dust and gas.
During the two months after the first sighting, other analyzes on 2I / Borisov found cyanide and diatomic carbon, common substances in our solar system.
On December 8, Borisov will advance to the perihelion, his closest approach to the Sun, and scientists will be able to observe in greater detail as he receives more solar brightness, so very soon we can know more about this fascinating object.
Source: Larepublica
