Dark Comets Earth's Water Delivery Mystery
A University of Michigan study suggests that up to 60% of near-Earth objects could be dark comets, mysterious asteroids that likely contain or once contained ice. This indicates a potential route for delivering water to Earth. The findings support the theory that asteroids in the asteroid belt, located between Jupiter and Mars, have subsurface ice.
Dark comets exhibit characteristics of both asteroids and comets: they lack comae but show nongravitational accelerations due to sublimating ice. The study, led by graduate student Aster Taylor, identified that many dark comets likely originated from the asteroid belt. This suggests that there is more ice in the inner main belt than previously thought and introduces another mechanism for transporting ice into the inner solar system.
The research involved creating dynamical models to trace the origins of dark comets, finding that many came from the asteroid belt. The team also discovered that dark comets, like one called 2003 RM, might originate from Jupiter-family comets. The study concludes that the process of these objects breaking apart due to rapid rotation, caused by sublimating ice, results in smaller, fast-rotating dark comets. This research was published in the journal *Icarus*.
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