The mystery of ‘dark comets’ prowling our Solar System
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250807-a-japanese-spacecraft-is-racing-toward-a-mysterious-dark-comet-to-discover-the-secrets-it-holds
The mystery of ‘dark comets’ prowling our Solar System
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250807-a-japanese-spacecraft-is-racing-toward-a-mysterious-dark-comet-to-discover-the-secrets-it-holds
1 Comment
Don’t just post a link, at least copy&paste some text from the article to give us an idea what this is about. I’ll do it for you:
>They are some of the strangest rocks in our Solar System. They aren’t quite asteroids and not quite comets, but a bizarre mixture of the two. These are “dark comets” – and no-one knows quite what to make of them.
>Yet, these mysterious, recently discovered space rocks might be an entirely new class of object in the Solar System that could help to answer questions about how water originated on Earth, according to the scientists trying to study them. They may also pose a previously unrecognised threat to our planet.
>And now we have a chance of finding out more about these strange objects thanks to a Japanese spacecraft racing towards one – by complete coincidence – right at this moment. When it gets there in 2031, we might find out for certain what exactly these objects are and how they behave.