Scientists believe that the comet/asteroid that may have killed the dinosaurs may have come from the group of asteroids called the Flora family. Recently, the Hubble Space Telescope spotted and asteroid circling about 90 million miles from Earth in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists believe that it is also from the Flora family that the dinosaur-killing asteroid came from. They're now studying this comet and they realized that there was something weird about the comet - its nucleus wasn't attached to its tail. They're confused about what this means, but they believe that it's the result of two asteroids colliding and it would be the first case scientists have seen of asteroids in the act smashing together. Studying this comet and other comets like it will help scientists understand how they smash into each other and destroy each other, which will lead to findings in how we can protect ourselves from hitting Earth.
I think that this is really interesting because it can help us figure out how the dinosaurs died while making sure that we don't meet the same fate. I'm also intrigued by what it means when a comet is severed from its tail and it lead me to look up the different parts of a comet. Hopefully scientists will be able to figure out what this unique comet means so that we can start learning how to protect ourselves.
Source of Article
Source of Picture
No comments:
Post a Comment