Rosetta images reveal large, growing crack on comet 67P

Image credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO; all others: ESA/Rosetta/MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

New Delhi: Images returned from the European Space Agency`s Rosetta mission reveal a large and growing crack on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, suggesting that the comet might split up one day.

A 1,600-foot-long fracture that runs through the comet`s neck was spotted in August 2014. The fracture was found to have increased in width by about 100 feet by December 2014.

In images taken in June 2016 by the Rosetta probe, a new 500- to 1,000-foot-long fracture was identified parallel to the original fracture spotted in August 2014.

“The large crack was in the ‘neck’ of the comet -- a small central part that connects the two lobes,” said El-Maarry, from the University of Colorado at Boulder in the US, adding that the crack was extending and that the comet may split up one day.”

Notable differences are seen before and after the comet`s most active period - perihelion - when it reached its closest point to the Sun along its orbit.

"As comets approach the sun, they go into overdrive and exhibit spectacular changes on their surface," El-Maarry said.

Between August 2014 and September 2016, Rosetta orbited comet 67P during the comet`s swing through the inner solar system.

"We saw a massive cliff collapse and a large crack in the neck of the comet get bigger and bigger," El-Maarry said.

"And we discovered that boulders the size of a large truck could be moved across the comet`s surface - a distance as long as one-and-a-half football fields," he pointed out.

Images from the Rosetta probe also indicate that during its most recent trip through the inner solar system, the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was a very active place - full of growing fractures, collapsing cliffs and massive rolling boulders.

Rosetta is a European Space Agency mission with contributions from its member states and NASA.

The study on 67P’s changing surface was published on Tuesday, March 21, in the journal Science.

(With IANS inputs)