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Cometary spin-down

The rotation rate of a comet more than halved in two months — a much greater change than has previously been observed. This suggests that the comet is in a distinct evolutionary state and might soon reorient itself.
  1. Jessica Agarwal

    1. Jessica Agarwal is at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.

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Kilometre-sized chunks of ice and dust known as cometary nuclei were left over from the formation of the Solar System1. The vast majority of these objects orbit the Sun in one of two cometary reservoirs beyond the orbit of Neptune: the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud. When an object from one of these reservoirs enters the inner Solar System, it becomes an active comet — its ice is transformed into gas and carries along embedded dust to form a diffuse envelope (coma) and tail. On page 186, Bodewits et al.2 report a dramatic decrease in the rotation rate of comet 41P/Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresák (comet 41P) indicating that this object could soon enter a phase of rotational instability and reorientation that has never before been seen in a comet.

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Nature 553, 158-159 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-00008-6

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