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Saturn and Jupiter and Comets

28 November 2020
Astronomy

At https://phys.org/news/2020-11-comet-ld2-atlas-transitioning.html … this is more on the idea of comets transitioning from Centaurs beyond Jupiter and moving through a gateway to become one of the Jupiter Familay of comets, or JFCs. Comet 2019LD2[ATLAS] is a centaur but is actively in the process of bursting through the gateway. It is thought. The transition is expected to take place within the next 40 years, in the life time of most young people alive today. They will get to see if Clube and Napier were right, or wrong.

It is thought LD2 is a pristine comet and its water ice has probably never sublimated previously. See https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/abc888

At https://phys.org/news/2020-11-scientists-controversial-results-comet.html … Here we have recognition of controversial results from data taken from observing comet 41P back in 2017. This study is designed to show the different sets of data are really all part of one whole. In other words, the chemical composition of a cometary coma can  change rapidly, literally during just one day. The sun, it is said, affects the nucleus of a comet as it approaches the inner areas of the solar system. The Comet 41P observations go back to 2017 and came up with differing results. For example, the colour ranged from red to blue as a result of different photometric filters etc.

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