Exocomet
An exocomet, or extrasolar comet, is a
The majority of discovered exocometary systems (
Observations of comets, and especially exocomets, improve our understanding of
Researching exocomets might provide answers to fundamental questions of the past of the solar system and the development of a life-supporting environment. Researchers can investigate the transport of water, cyanides, sulfides and pre-biotic molecules onto Earth-mass exoplanets with the help of exocomets.[17][18]
Nomenclature
The scientific term of an exocomet is Falling Evaporating Body (FEB).[6] The term Evaporating Infalling Bodies (EIBs) was first used,[19] but eventually the term FEBs was adopted from the "Falling Evaporating Bodies" model[20] or Falling Evaporating Body (FEB) scenario.[21]
Observation
The exocomets can be detected by spectroscopy as they transit their host stars. The transits of exocomets, like the transits of exoplanets, produce variations in the light received from the star. Changes are observed in the absorption lines of the stellar spectrum: the occultation of the star by the gas cloud coming from the exocomet produces additional absorption features beyond those normally seen in that star, like those observed in the ionized calcium lines. As the comet comes close enough to the star, cometary gas is evolved from the evaporation of volatile ices and dust with it. The absorption lines of a star hosting exocomets represent, beside a stable component, one or several variable redshifted components. The variable components change on short-time scales of one hour. The variable component represent the exocomets. The exocomet falls towards the star and any absorption line produced by the evaporation of the exocomet is redshifted compared to the absorption line of the star.[8]
Observations of
During formation of the Oort Cloud through planetary perturbations, stellar encounters, and the galactic tide, a comet can be ejected and leave the solar system.
Observations of
Indirect evidence of exocomets
Exocomets are suggested as one source of white dwarf pollution. After a star from the main sequence becomes a giant star, it loses mass. Planetesimals in an analog of the solar Oort Cloud can be directed toward the inner stellar system. This is a consequence of the mass-loss during the AGB stage.[32] The giant star will eventually become a white dwarf and an exocomet that gets too close to the white dwarf will sublimate or tidal disrupted by the gravity of the white dwarf. This will produce dusty debris around the white dwarf, which is measurable in infrared wavelengths.[33] The material can be accreted by the white dwarf and pollute the atmosphere. This pollution appears in the spectra of a white dwarf as metal lines.[34] In 2017 a study concluded that spectral lines in the white dwarf WD 1425+540 are attributed to an accretion of a Kuiper-Belt analog. Kuiper-Belt objects are icy bodies in the solar system that sometimes become comets.[35][36] Dusty material around the white dwarf G 29-38 also has been attributed to an exocomet.[37]
A gaseous cloud around 49 Ceti has been attributed to the collisions of comets in that planetary system.[38]
Gallery
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'Oumuamua exiting the Solar System (artist concept) (animation)
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Video – artist's impression of exocomets orbiting the star Beta Pictoris.
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Artist's impression of an exocomet falling into white dwarf WD 1425+540.[35]
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Artist's concept of a cloud of disintegrating exocomets around KIC 8462852 (Tabby's Star).
See also
- Exomoon – Moon beyond the Solar System
- Exoplanet – Planet outside the Solar System
- Interstellar object – Astronomical object not gravitationally bound to a star
- Kepler space telescope – NASA spacecraft for exoplanetology (2009–2018)
- List of stars that dim oddly– Stars that dim in an odd way
- Rogue planet – Planetary object without a planetary system
- 2I/Borisov – Interstellar comet passing through the Solar System, discovered in 2019
References
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- ^ "'Exocomets' Common Across Milky Way Galaxy". Space.com. 7 January 2013. Archived from the original on 16 September 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
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- ^ EDT, Meghan Bartels On 10/30/17 at 2:24 PM (2017-10-30). "Astronomers have detected comets outside our solar system for the first time ever". Newsweek. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
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- ^ "Exocomets plunging into a young star (artist's impression)". www.spacetelescope.org. Retrieved 12 January 2017.