Thursday, March 28, 2024
Home » NASA’s Hubble captures comet-like object full of elements essential for life

NASA’s Hubble captures comet-like object full of elements essential for life

by Rajat Gaur
2 minutes read

Scientists have discovered a massive, comet-like object falling toward a burned-out star using NASA‘s Hubble Space Telescope. The remains of the comet-like object scattered around a burned-out, compact star known as White Dwarf. Scientists used the telescope to detect the debris polluting the atmosphere of the compact star.

The white dwarf is located in the constellation Bootes, the Herdsman, approximately 170 light-years away. As can be seen in the photo, the comet-like, icy object is similar to Halley’s comet in chemical composition, however, it is 100,000 times more massive in comparison. Scientists found in their study that it contains higher amount of water and is full of elements essential for life like oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and sulfur.

According to the research, these findings are evidence for a belt of comet-like bodies orbiting the white dwarf just like our solar system’s Kuiper Belt. The findings also suggest that there are more unseen surviving planets around the white dwarf.




These white dwarfs are the results of these icy, comet-like bodies that forms these compact stars when collapsed.

These unseen planets “may have perturbed the belt and worked as a ‘bucket brigade’ to draw the icy objects into the white dwarf. The burned-out star also has a companion star, which may disturb the belt, causing objects from the belt to travel toward the burned-out star.”

Siyi Xu, who led the team that made the discovery, said- “Nitrogen is a very important element for life as we know it. This particular object is quite rich in nitrogen, more so than any object observed in our solar system.”

Many scientists believes that comets from the Kuiper Belt, just like above mentioned comet-like object, may have been responsible for delivering basic building blocks of life and the water to Earth billions of years ago as Kuiper Belt is home to many dwarf planets, comets, and other small bodies left over from the formation of the solar system.

The study highlights the fact that these white dwarfs’ planetary system shares characteristics with our solar system which suggests that other planetary systems would also, as these comet-like, icy bodies may be present in these planetary systems too.

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