Saturn kicks out a comet outside our solar system at a scary speed of 6,700 mph. Here's how
Image of the Saturn in space.
Scientists have spotted a very strange activity in our Solar System. They observed that a comet was pushed out of the solar system by Saturn after a close encounter with the planet.
The comet, which was designated Comet A117uUD (A117uUD), was found by theAsteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on June 14, 2024.
However, researchers took the help of 142 observations of the comet and helped to "wind back" its orbit around the Sun.
It was found that Comet A117uUD had a close encounter with Saturn in 2022 which changed the orbit of the comet.
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This encounter between the planet and the comet placed the latter on a highly flattened or elliptical orbit which was supposed to throw it out into interstellar space beyond the Sun's influence.
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The team used models to predict the path of A117uUD and discovered that the comet would exit the solar system while flying at a speed of around 6,710 miles per hour (10,800 km/h).
In comparison, this speed is nearly four and a half times a Lockheed Martin F-16 jet fighter's top velocity.
History of comets exiting the Solar System
This is the second time a comet has been spotted on the verge of exiting the solar system.
The first one spotted was Comet C/1980 E1 (Bowell) which was placed on the escape path of the Solar System after its encounter with Jupiter on December 9, 1980.
"Our results show that the case of comet A117uUD is similar to that of C/1980 E1 (Bowell), disfavoring an extrasolar origin for A117uUD," said the team, which wrote the research in a paper published in the journalResearch Notes of the AAS.
"The fact that two ejections after planetary encounter were observed in less than 45 years suggests that such events are relatively frequent," he added.
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However, the scientists were not clear if A117uUD was a solar system body which was destined to exit the home planetary system.
When the icy space rock was first analysed by the team behind this discovery, they believed its hyperbolic orbit could indicate that probably it was one of the intruders into our solar system.
(With inputs from agencies)