Astronomers from the University of Anitoquia, Medellin, Colombia, led by Anitoquia astronomer professor Ignacio Ferrin, discovered the graveyard of the comets. They elucidated the way some of these objects have returned to life after having been inactive for millions of years. These objects are thus referred to as 'Lazarus comets'.
The asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars of Jupiter was examined in the study.12 active comets have been cited in the asteroid main belt region in the last decade. This actually surprised the team, leading to the investigation of the origin of these objects.
Professor Ferrín says that indeed, they found a graveyard of comets. The asteroids taking paths around the Sun for years which seemingly have no activity, could not be dead rocks at all. It was found that some of them are dormant comets that may be active again once the energy that they obtain from the Sun increases minutely.
The latter is most likely to happen, since the orbits of many objects in the asteroid belt are pushed by the gravitational force of Jupiter, subjecting their orbits to alteration, thus lessening the minimum distance of the object from the Sun (perihelion) and leading to an increase in average temperature.
Having this claim, it could be inferred that millions of years ago, the main belt was populated by thousands of active comets. Those active comets became mature and ceased from being active. Today, we are seeing the remnants of the active past. The 12 comets are true ones, which were “brought to life” again after their minimum distance from the Sun decreased. “The little extra energy they received from the Sun was then sufficient to revive them from the graveyard.”
The term Lazarus comets was used to describe those objects, having returning to life after being dormant for thousands or even millions of years.
Source:
Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) (2013, August 2). Astronomers discovery a graveyard for comets. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 6, 2013,
Prepared by: Ericka Jane Angeles
The asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars of Jupiter was examined in the study.12 active comets have been cited in the asteroid main belt region in the last decade. This actually surprised the team, leading to the investigation of the origin of these objects.
Professor Ferrín says that indeed, they found a graveyard of comets. The asteroids taking paths around the Sun for years which seemingly have no activity, could not be dead rocks at all. It was found that some of them are dormant comets that may be active again once the energy that they obtain from the Sun increases minutely.
The latter is most likely to happen, since the orbits of many objects in the asteroid belt are pushed by the gravitational force of Jupiter, subjecting their orbits to alteration, thus lessening the minimum distance of the object from the Sun (perihelion) and leading to an increase in average temperature.
An illustration depicting the models of the main asteroid belt found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The topmost image shows the traditional model, the second image shows the proposed model, and the last image shows how the belt looked like millions of years ago. (Ferrin, 2013)
Having this claim, it could be inferred that millions of years ago, the main belt was populated by thousands of active comets. Those active comets became mature and ceased from being active. Today, we are seeing the remnants of the active past. The 12 comets are true ones, which were “brought to life” again after their minimum distance from the Sun decreased. “The little extra energy they received from the Sun was then sufficient to revive them from the graveyard.”
The term Lazarus comets was used to describe those objects, having returning to life after being dormant for thousands or even millions of years.
Source:
Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) (2013, August 2). Astronomers discovery a graveyard for comets. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 6, 2013,
Prepared by: Ericka Jane Angeles
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