Comets are the oldest objects of solar system. They have tail of dust and gas and they are not big. Scientists thought that comets are results of old stars' explosion. But the analysis shows something else - the grains of comet contain mix of primordial material which intermingled and froze beyond Pluto's edge, and turn into comets.
"We expected the comet to be largely made out of interstellar grains, materials that formed before the solar system formed and were never really affected much by the solar system," University of Washington astronomer Donald Brownlee said in a telephone interview.
Brownlee says that 10% of materials in comets may come from the inner solar system. Scientists found calcium aluminum and magnesium olivine in the grains of the comet.
The materials which are the reason of solar system's birth (more than 4.5 billion years ago) now are found in the grains of comet.
Many of the grains contained high-temperature minerals that formed in the hottest part of the solar system. One grain was made of a rare mineral seen in some meteorites, which are in the list of the oldest objects of the solar system.
"You were transporting material over really big distances. So that's kind of wacky for us as planetary scientists," Bland said in an interview.
An analysis also found that the comets Wild 2 and Tempel 1, which was studied in NASA's Deep Impact mission, are quite different.
About 50 laboratories are working on the analysis worldwide. So let's wait for new openings.
By Ruzan Harutyunyan for HULIQ
Posted December 15th, 2006 by ruzik_tuzik
