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3200Phaethon-Feature

The Solar System is full of some really weird stuff. Venus, despite being farther from the Lord's day than Mercury, has a considerably higher surface temperature. Uranus is tilted on its side and rotates in ane direction, while its moons orbit it commonly. Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically agile body in the solar organisation, Mars has a volcanic bulge the same mass as Ceres that may be responsible for changing the orientation of the planet's crust with respect to its own axis of rotation. The existence and composition of our own Moon is an ongoing puzzle we're trying to solve, and we haven't yet found a solar system that looks anything like our own. Other solar systems often characteristic so-called "hot Jupiters" orbiting tightly around their host star, our Jupiter sits in the heart of the solar system — which is probably why life exists on this planet in the beginning place. It may even be why this planet exists in the showtime place.

Given these facts, information technology shouldn't exist surprising that there'due south a really weird asteroid-comet hybrid whizzing around complicating things. And thanks to a close flyby concluding Dec, we're a piddling bit closer to understanding this intriguing rock. 3200 Phaethon is unambiguously a rocky asteroid with a closer arroyo to the Dominicus than whatsoever other named asteroid. Its perihelion distance is just 0.14 AU — less than half of Mercury's ain approach distance. Its orbit closely resembles that of a comet rather than an asteroid, however, and its orbit and position correspond well with it existence the source of the Geminid meteor shower. But that'due south too where the confusion comes in because if 3200 Phaethon is the source of the Geminids, it's the merely asteroid known to cause a meteor shower — that'due south a feature of comets.

3200 Phaethon'due south orbit. Epitome past NASA JPL

The difference between a comet and an asteroid is typically their composition: Asteroids are principally composed of rock and metals, comets are a collection of h2o ice, some rock, and dust. Asteroids formed closer to the Sun, where the star's heat meant there was little to no water ice present. The coma of a comet — the brilliant fuzzy gaseous blur we see effectually its caput — forms when water ice and grit sublimate from inside the core or the surface. Asteroids don't contain these ice reserves and therefore don't sublimate in the same fashion. Or then we idea. But 3200 Phaethon blurs these distinctions in some interesting means.

The squad's new findings show that 3200 Phaethon may not be related to the Pallas meteor family, every bit was previously idea. The falling star's albedo is only slightly college than charcoal, even if it shares a blueish hue with the much brighter 2 Pallas. An investigation revealed that the asteroid is the aforementioned color everywhere, implying information technology'south been fried by repeated exposure to the Sun at such close range (Space.com reports that at close range, Phaethon's surface temperature would exceed 1500F / 800C). It's thought that 3200 Phaethon could exist a comet remnant that's been cooked to a crisp by the Sun over fourth dimension — while the asteroid does requite off some grit as it approaches our star, information technology's not nearly enough to sustain the Geminids over fourth dimension.

The amass findings mostly confirm that 3200 Phaethon isn't exactly a comet or an asteroid, but an object with some of the characteristics of each that puts a foot in both camps. The more we discover about our own backyard, the more fascinating information technology looks.

Feature image past Heather Roper/University of Arizona

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