7
August 2003
Comets: Look beneath the surface
Comets are remnants from the ancient era of planet formation, more than 4 billion years ago, and as such they provide a valuable glimpse of the conditions prevailing in the early Solar System. But evidence is beginning to emerge that comets are not the "pristine" samples of early material they were once thought to be. Out in the "deep freeze" of the Oort cloud and Kuiper belt, comets undergo many subtle evolutionary changes. To obtain genuinely pristine samples of ancient material, it may be necessary to dig a few metres beneath the cometary surface.
The
evolution of comets in the Oort cloud and Kuiper belt
S.
ALAN STERN
Nature 424, 639–642 (2003); doi:10.1038/nature01725
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