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A research group from Kobe University has demonstrated that the heat generated by the impact of a small astronomical body could enable aqueous alteration and organic solid formation to occur on the surface of an asteroid. These results have significantly increased the number of prospective astronomical bodies that could have brought water and the origins of life to Earth.
NASA has selected Northern Arizona University assistant research professor Alicia Rutledge as one of only five early-career scientists in the country to receive funding through its Planetary Science Early Career Award program, which supports outstanding early-career individuals.
Rutledge s proposal, Ice, Ice, Rock: Analog Studies in Cold Environments to Understand Past Climate, outlined how the award would enable her to invest in a portable laboratory that she could use to better conduct her research.
A new study by a Belgian team using data from the European Southern Observatory s Very Large Telescope has shown that iron and nickel exist in the atmospheres of comets throughout our Solar System, even those far from the Sun. A separate study by a Polish team, who also used ESO data, reported that nickel vapor is also present in the icy interstellar comet 2I/Borisov. This is the first time heavy metals have been found in the cold atmospheres of distant comets.
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Credit: ESO/P.Guzik/M.Drahus
Unbound nickel atoms and other heavy elements have been observed in very hot cosmic environments, including the atmospheres of ultra-hot exoplanets and evaporating comets that ventured too close to our Sun or other stars. A new study conducted by JU researchers reveals the presence of nickel atoms in the cold gasses surrounding the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov. The team s finding is being published in
Nature on 19 May 2021.
Interstellar comets and asteroids are precious to science because, unlike millions of minor bodies that formed in our Solar System, they originate from distant planetary systems. Until very recently, the existence of such cosmic vagabonds has merely been an interesting possibility, based on the fact that our Solar System ejected most of the primordial comets and asteroids into the interstellar space in its early days. The objects came to light in 2017 with the unexpected detection of the asteroidal 1I/ Oumuamua, followed