Interstellar body that passed through our solar system in 2019 is classified as the first pure comet



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Scientists have revealed that Comet I / Borisov, which passed close to the sun in 2019, is one of the most primitive comets of all time, and new observations using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) from the European Southern Observatory in Chile indicate that the comet did not. from which star to influence its original state, so it remained pure.

According to the UK newspaper “Daily Mail”, comets, which are cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rocks and dust, can be changed by heat and radiation from stars such as our sun.

But the fact that it did not pass near a star did so in the form of the cloud of gas and dust that originally formed the comet, as I / Borisov was discovered by astronomer Gennady Borisov with a telescope on August 3, 2019 and confirmed that he came from outside the solar system a few weeks later.

Comets orbit the sun in a very elliptical orbit, which means that they are not completely circular and can spend hundreds and thousands of years in the depths of the solar system before returning for their closest approach. closer to the Sun.

ESO scientists believe that 2I / Borisov never passed near a star before coming closest to the sun in just over two astronomical units (AU) near the sun on December 8, 2019.

2I / Borisov survived its closest approach to the Sun, but not without partial decay, as astronomers revealed last year.

It was assumed that the comet had been shattered when it reached this proximity, but astronomers said only part of it burst and most of the comet survived unscathed, and the Agency space now says that 2I / Borisov “may be the most primitive and pure of all comets.”.

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