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NASA Solves Mystery Of Heavenly Bodies: Herd Of “CynComets” Orbit Sun
by Monica Davis
Scientist working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have been hard at work, trying to find out exactly what is orbiting the outer orbits between Jupiter and Neptune, They finally decided that the objects are centaurs. And these obects are more complicated that we would have thought.
New observations from NASA’s NEOWISE project reveal the hidden nature of centaurs, objects in our solar system that have confounded astronomers for resembling both asteroids and comets. The centaurs, which orbit between Jupiter and Neptune, were named after the mythical half-horse, half-human creatures called centaurs due to their dual nature. This artist’s concept shows a centaur creature together with asteroids on the left and comets at [left]. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“Just like the mythical creatures, the centaur objects seem to have a double life,” said James Bauer of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Bauer is lead author of a paper published online July 22 in the Astrophysical Journal. “Our data point to a cometary origin for most of the objects, suggesting they are coming from deeper out in the solar system.”
“Cometary origin” means an object likely is made from the same material as a comet, may have been an active comet in the past, and may be active again in the future. MOREHERE
Using an infrared telescope, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is studying centaur objects and their cousins– scattered disk objects. In the long run, scientists say these objects will eventually move closer to the sun, or head away from their current locations,
These NASA scientists are like celestial detectives, hunting distant space rocks, determining if thet are comets–composed of ice, or meteors, composed of stone. But they are dipping into mythology as well. Imagine the legendary cynotaur, half man, half horse, flying across the sky in an eternal journey, eventually falling into the sun.
It’s an ironic twist, using modern technology with ancen Greek mythology to find and solve celestial mysteries.
