When a new comet appears in the sky, there is usually excitement. But things do not always end well for these ancient celestial objects, made of ice, frozen gases and rock, when they approach the sun – and A premature end seems to have been the fate of Cometa C/2025 F2 (Swan) .
All signs suggest that the celestial object, which resembled a diffuse green spot, has disintegrated in recent days, said Qicheng Zang, a postdoctoral researcher who studies small bodies astronomy at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.
The latest terrestrial observations of telescopes seem to indicate that the comet has broken, said Dr. Karl Battams, computational scientist at the US Sol and Heliospheric Division of the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. Additional observations will help confirm whether disintegration is the real cause of the apparent explosion and darkening of the comet.
“There is a cloud of remaining dust that should remain visible telescopically for a few more weeks, but is spreading and disappearing,” said Zang.
Before disintegration, part of the expectation around the comet was the fact that it was discovered only recently, and its closest passage to the sun on May 1 would have a unique observation opportunity, probably not reappearing by hundreds of thousands of years – or leaving the solar system completely.
The object bears its name from the Solar Instrument Wind Anisotropies, or Swan, on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or Soho, a joint project of the European Space Agency and NASA.
Amateur astronomers Vladimir Bezugly from Ukraine, Michael Mattiazzo from Australia and Rob Matson from the US spotted and reported independently the object, known as Comet Swan or Swan25F, while analyzing images captured by the Swan instrument in late March. Minor Planet Center officially designated it as w/2025 F2 (Swan) on April 8.
The three astronomers “noticed a faint spot, indicative of a comet, which seemed to move through the sky over a few days.”
“Since no comet was known in that part of the sky at that moment, they correctly assumed it was a new discovery,” said Battams.
Battams is also the main researcher of the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph instrument set, a set of three telescopes on the Soho spacecraft that takes images of the solar atmosphere.
How to observe the comet w/2025 F2 (Swan)
The comet “will be visible only from the northern hemisphere until early May, and then gradually appear in the skies of the southern hemisphere,” Battams said by email.
From early May, the comet will be visible from the southern hemisphere Shortly after sunset, just above the Horizon line west, near the Taurus constellation. Each day, he should appear louder in the sky.
The fragmentation of a comet
Some reports have shown that the initial brightness of the comet has decreased slightly in recent days, Battams said. Now astronomers recognize that this slight darkening was probably already a sign of the comet’s fate.
“It is likely that the increase in brightness after the comet was discovered, in fact, the comet starting to disintegrate,” Zang said by email. “When they initially break, they expose all the ice inside the sun, causing it to become gas (which we saw as the green shine that made the comet shiny) at once.”
As the ice is over, the gas gradually stops being released, and the comet darkens, he said. “It seems that now we are practically at the point where ice/gas is over, so all that is left is dust.”
Astronomers suspect that the comet came from the OORT cloud, a reservoir of cold bodies believed to exist on the edge of our solar system, out of the hot range of the sun.
“From time to time, an OORT cloud comet is gravitational ‘pushed’ out of this reservoir and begins to fall toward the sun,” Battars said by email. “We believe this comet has been heading into the solar system for about 35,000 years, although it is difficult to be very accurate about these numbers.”
EarthSky said recent observations suggest that the comet completes an orbit around the sun every 2.1 million years.
As comets approach the sun, the warmth of our star causes them to release gas and dust, which provides their tail characteristics.
Larger comets, which are heavier, do not usually disintegrate as they approach the sun. But it is more common for smaller comets, because as their gases release, celestial objects spin quickly until they shattered, Zang said.
“Extreme solar radiation was more than this comet could bear,” said Battams. “Scientists are still trying to find out the details of what causes fragmentations like this. It is almost certainly a combination of factors or processes, but fundamentally everything is due to a comet with a very volatile surface/composition coming too close to the sun. It’s definitely not uncommon, and I’m honestly I’m not surprising that this in particular seems to be doing it.”
Last October, the “Halloween Comet” was disintegrated during its closest approach to the sun.
The object, also known as Comet C/2024 S1 (Atlas), was discovered on September 27 and quickly gained its nickname after speculation that it could be visible in the night sky near the end of October. But as the comet approached the sun, he broke into pieces until finally evaporate, according to NASA.
OC/2024 S1 was a shallow comet, a comet that passes a distance of about 1,367,942 kilometers of the sun. Rasants often vaporize due to the intense and hot solar atmosphere.
The comet was expected to c/2025 F2 (Swan) would ride 50 million kilometers from the sun in May.
Discovering a new comet
The Swan instrument was not designed to detect comets in the night sky, but has contributed to the discovery of 16 comets to this day, Zang said.
“It is a unique instrument designed to map hydrogen in our solar system by observing a certain type of light that is dispersed by neutral hydrogen atoms,” Battars said in an email. “But comets happen to be a very rich source of hydrogen – mainly by water or water being vaporized by the sun – and so they often shine a lot in Swan images.”
Zang watched the comet for the first time on the morning of April 2 and has seen it twice since. He took pictures from the part of the sky where the comet should be, based on coordinates shared by those who found him using the Swan data, and spotted the heavenly object.
Battams said Zang was the first to observe him from the ground after the discovery of amateur astronomers, and his observations were crucial to allow other astronomers to point out their telescopes to the correct location.
Gianluca astronomer Masi also observed the comet twice using a telescope in Manianiano, Italy. Masi manages the Virtual Telescope Project, which offers views of remotely online controlled robotic telescopes.
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This content was originally published in comet can be seen in the sky even after it has disintegrated; Learn more at CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
Charles Grill is a tech-savvy writer with over 3 years of experience in the field. He writes on a variety of technology-related topics and has a strong focus on the latest advancements in the industry. He is connected with several online news websites and is currently contributing to a technology-focused platform.
