Zoom in / Geminids put on a big show every year.
Every year, sky watchers can witness the spectacle of the Geminids slithering across the night sky from mid-November to late December. However, this meteorite is very unusual, and not only because it is one of the easiest to see.
Meteor showers usually come from comets that fly past the sun. Comets are composed of frozen gas, dust, and rock, and the sun’s heat vaporizes some of this gas and releases it into space, removing debris that eventually falls to Earth. But the Geminids are remarkable in that they came from an asteroid, not a comet. Asteroid 3200 Phaeton is the source of this debris, but asteroids are not affected by the sun’s heat like comets, so it’s unclear why Phaeton left a trail of debris.
NASA scientists analyzing data from the space agency’s Parker Solar Probe have finally found the most likely answer to the riddle of how Gemini formed: a catastrophic event. Scientists say in Stadiums Recently published in The Planetary Science Journal.
in pieces
So how does the Parker Solar Probe, designed to study the Sun, provide clues to how Gemini was born? Its orbit takes it directly through the Geminid’s core at perihelion, or the point where 3200 Phaeton approaches the Sun. While flying through the meteor shower, Parker is bombarded with dust grains that emit electrical signals upon impact. These signals are detected by the FIELDS instrument, which is designed to measure (among other things) electric and magnetic fields. The speed at which the dust grains move and how strong they are – an indication of their mass – gives an idea of what could be behind the formation of gemini.
Parker’s data, combined with Earth simulations and observations, convinced the science team, led by planetary scientist Wolf Cuvier, that Geminid was not consistently separated from 3200 Phaeton. The phaeton and the resulting debris may have been caused by a collision or explosion that destroyed a much larger object, possibly a comet. Cuvier and his team think it’s also possible that a similar collision resulted in two nearby asteroids.
Such a collision might shed light on another mystery: Gemini’s mass. Together, they are at least as massive as and possibly larger than their parent asteroid. 3200 Phaeton did lose some material in orbit, but it wasn’t enough to calculate Geminid’s mass.
The Geminids flow mass is estimated to be on the order of or greater than that of the 3,200 Phaethon parent body, indicating that the flow formed in a potentially catastrophic event that dumped a large amount of mass in a relatively short period of time. said the scientists also in the study.
disaster
Cuvier’s team used Parker’s data to come up with a model of how the Geminids formed. Taking into account the effect of dust particles hitting the lander, they ran several disaster simulations. The first model simulates a typical asteroid destruction event; The second involves a more violent event that will spread faster-moving debris over a wider area. The third model leads to the formation of meteors from comets.
It turns out that the most likely scenario is also the most violent, and this is supported by Geminid observations from Earth. Would this destruction event have sent space rocks to Earth’s surface thousands of years ago? No matter how threatening it may seem, it is highly unlikely. None of the three models show any debris hitting our planet.
No matter how sensitive the Parker FIELDS tools are, there are still some things they can’t tell us. What catastrophe formed the Geminids is still unknown. Whether it is a collision or a gas explosion, it will affect the shape and width of the debris flow. While Parker can’t film the structure live, other assignments are possible. JAXA is next Destiny + mission It will indeed head straight to 3200 Phaeton once it launches in 2024. That could shed more light on how the Geminids came to be by making more direct observations. Until then, we will continue to stare at the winter sky and wonder.
Journal of Planetary Science, 2023. DOI: 10.3847/bsj/acd538 (About DOIs).
Elizabeth Raine Creature Writing. His work has appeared on SYFY WIRE, Space.com, Live Science, Grunge, Den of Geek and Forbidden Futures. When he’s not writing, he’s deforming, drawing, or impersonating characters no one has ever heard of. Follow him on Twitter: @hravenrayne.
2023-06-28 01:36:44
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