A comet threatening Earth in the movie Don’t look up is one of the so-called long-period comets that regularly escape from the Oort cloud. The same is the case with the Tsuchinshan-Atlas comet.
Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas is one of them that is currently casting a spell over our sky at sunset AstronomersAstronomers Called a long-period comet. It has been 80,000 years since our closest approach to our star. Whereas Halley’s Comet, for example, comes to us about every 76 years. This is because the comet comes to us from the Tsuchinshan-Atlas a. the cloudthe cloud The hidden object that astronomers have discovered surrounds our solar system. Oort Cloud.
The Oort Cloud is still invisible to astronomers’ instruments.
They can only imagine it, because it is made up of things so small and so far away. the lightthe light of any stars that researchers have not yet been able to distinguish. Although they estimate that the Oort Cloud is made up of 100 billion icy bodies. These are as many as there are stars The Milky WayThe Milky Way. Another of these objects, discovered just a few days ago, Comet C/2024 S1 (Atlas) will also pass close to Earth on October 24.
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Astronomers believe that comets from the Oort cloud could have hit Earth billions of years ago, carrying at least part of the water needed for life to grow on our planet.
About 75 years ago, Dutch astronomer Jan Ort made the breakthrough. ModelingModeling It has since been confirmed – that Badal Jo PortPort Now his name could almost be made. JupiterJupiter. Then, after gravitational perturbations, it would have been pushed back to the borders of our solar system. 16,000 billion kilometers from us, for some of the objects that make it up. It is about halfway to our nearest star, Proxima Centauri.
Oort cloud comet threat hovers over Earth.
If scientists are interested in long-period comets like Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas, it is precisely because they pose a particular threat to our Earth. The risk of collision is certainly low, but not zero. And above all, it is difficult for astronomers to predict when and where such a comet will appear. Currently, about a dozen are identified each year. Usually when they have already crossed.orbitorbit Jupiter’s but new devices may expand the list. And in 2029, the investigation Comet Interceptor of ESA,European Space AgencyEuropean Space Agencywill position itself in space while waiting for a comet to arrive from the Oort Cloud. to study it more closely and provide astronomers with valuable information about these still mysterious objects.
