This illustration depicts asteroid Phaethon being heated by the Sun. The asteroid’s surface gets so hot that sodium inside Phaethon’s rock may vaporize and vent into space, causing it to brighten like a comet and dislodge small pieces of rocky debris. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/IPAC
The SOHO observatory has challenged previous theories about Phaethon, a ‘rock comet’ linked to the Geminid meteor shower, by suggesting that its brightness and tail are caused by sodium emission, not dust release. This discovery also implies that some ‘comets’ might be more similar to rocky asteroids….
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News Source: scitechdaily.com