When comet C/2019 Y4 ( ATLAS)disintegrated earlier this year , there were sundry feelings from the comet community .
On the one manus , hopes of viewing the comet from Earth with the naked centre were literally shattered , but on the other hired man , its spectacular fragmentation offered a rare opportunity for astronomers to poke into ATLAS ’ remnants . In doing so , an external team of astrophysicists have discovered that Comet ATLAS ’ comatoseness ( the dusty gasbag surround the comet ’s nucleus ) and bob containedhigh level of carbon .
“ ATLAS was expected to be the smart comet of 2020 , seeable from the Earth with a nude eye , ” Ekaterina Chornaya , a graduate student student at Far Eastern Federal University , Russia , say in astatement . “ However , alternatively of watch the comet itself , we witness its decomposition .
“ Luckily , we had begun photometric and polarimetric written report before the process start , and because of that , we are able to compare the physical composition of the comatoseness before and after the dissolution , ” Chornaya continued . “ In the trend of radioactive decay we notice a striking growth of the positive polarization leg which , according to modeling , is coherent with a high concentration of carbonaceous molecule . "
As ATLAS was a prospicient - point comet , it rarely approached the Sun , which allowed it to forestall its ancient elements , such as atomic number 6 , from succumbing to the Sun ’s heating influence . Therefore , using the evidence from ATLAS , the research worker believe that carbon grade in other comet coma could be used to estimate the time they have spent in the Solar System . A lower C subject matter would suggest a shorter period comet that has spend more time in close proximity of the Sun , and frailty versa .
In ATLAS ’ vitrine , as described inMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , the power of dust corpuscle in its comatoseness to plunge , refract , and polarize light gave away the comet ’s carbon secret . In fact , these measurements from ATLAS were similar to one of the brightest comet in history – Comet Hale - Bopp ( C/1995 O1 ) .
Even though the strong , icy ATLAS failed to exist its head trip around the Sun , another rock on the block hasrestored comet - hunter ’s 2020 hopes . Now visible to the bare optic just after sunset , Comet NEOWISEwill be seeable in the North - West for over an hr in the evening and visible for about an hour in a North - Easterly centering before sunrise .
