Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko is falling apart

Images show cracks in the comet.

Analysis of the images of the comet taken by Rosetta spacecraft show that its surface is changing faster than expected.

These data were obtained on the basis of a comparison of images taken by the Rosetta probe in 2014 and 2016.

Researchers have always suspected that the surface of the comet will change as it approaches the Sun, but the first time they were able to collect substantial evidence that is happening – and these changes have been very dramatic.

“It’s those processes that we could not really evaluate to the Rosetta mission. The probe gave us the opportunity to look at the comet in ultra-high resolution for more than two years,” – experts underline ESA.

Under the action of heat and centrifugal forces in August 2014 at the jumper, connecting the two parts of the comet’s nucleus, was cracked. By December she stretched at 500 meters, and in the summer of 2016. parallel to it, a second crack length up to 300 meters.

Also camera of the Rosetta probe detected a fragment weighing about 130 thousand tons was shifted about 140 meters, and before this movement was marked by emissions of the substance from the surface.

According to scientists, the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko after a relatively short time split into two fragments.

paradox