A student has unraveled a long-standing cosmic enigma concerning some of our solar system\u2019s most peculiar objects: icy \u201csnowmen\u201d that populate its outer reaches, according to The Independent.<\/p>\n
\nAstronomers have long debated the origins of these ‘contact binaries’ \u2013 objects comprising two connected spheres, reminiscent of a snowman.<\/p>\n
\nNow, researchers at Michigan State University claim to have evidence.<\/p>\n
\nThese peculiar celestial \u201csnowmen\u201d are found in the Kuiper Belt, a vast expanse beyond Neptune, which is filled with icy remnants dating back to the solar system’s formation. The region lies beyond the turbulent asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.<\/p>\n
\nThese ancient building blocks, known as planetesimals, have largely persisted untouched for billions of years. Roughly one in 10 of these objects are classified as \u2018contact binaries.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nThe enduring mystery has been how such delicate structures could have formed without being violently smashed together.<\/p>\n
\nJackson Barnes, a graduate student at the university, has developed the first computer simulation to show how such two-lobed shapes can arise naturally through gravitational collapse.<\/p>\n
\nThis is the process by which matter contracts under its own gravity, overpowering forces that would otherwise pull it apart.<\/p>\n
\nThe research has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.<\/p>\n
\nEarlier computer models treated colliding objects as fluid-like blobs that quickly merged into single spheres, making it impossible to recreate contact binaries.<\/p>\n
Using high-performance computing facilities, Barnes\u2019 simulations instead allow objects to retain their strength and settle gently against one another.<\/p>\n
\nOther theories have suggested that rare events or exotic conditions might be required to produce these shapes, but researchers say such explanations are unlikely to account for their apparent abundance.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIf we think 10% of planetesimal objects are contact binaries, the process that forms them can\u2019t be rare,\u201d said Earth and Environmental Science assistant professor Seth Jacobson, the study\u2019s senior author.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cGravitational collapse fits nicely with what we\u2019ve observed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nContact binaries were first seen in close detail in January 2019, when Nasa\u2019s New Horizons spacecraft flew past a Kuiper Belt object later nicknamed Ultima Thule.<\/p>\n
\nThe images prompted scientists to re-examine other distant bodies, revealing that about 10% of planetesimals share the same distinctive shape.<\/p>\n
\nIn the sparsely populated Kuiper Belt, these objects drift largely undisturbed and are rarely hit by other debris.<\/p>\n
\nIn the early history of the Milky Way, the galaxy consisted of a disc of gas and dust. Remnants of that era persist in the Kuiper Belt today, including dwarf planets such as Pluto, along with comets and planetesimals.<\/p>\n
\nPlanetesimals are among the first solid bodies to form as dust and pebble-sized material clumps together under gravity. Much like snowflakes compressed into a snowball, they are loose aggregates pulled from clouds of tiny particles.<\/p>\n
\nBarnes\u2019 simulation shows that as one of these clouds rotates, it can collapse inward and split into two separate bodies that begin orbiting each other.<\/p>\n
\nSuch binary planetesimals are commonly observed in the Kuiper Belt. Over time, their orbits spiral closer until the pair gently touch and fuse, preserving their rounded shapes.<\/p>\n
\nThe reason these fragile-looking structures survive for billions of years, Barnes explained, is simple chance. In such a remote region, collisions are rare. Without a major impact, there is little to pull the two bodies apart, and many contact binaries show few, if any, impact craters.<\/p>\n
\nScientists have long suspected gravitational collapse was responsible, but until now they lacked models capable of testing the idea properly.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe\u2019re able to test this hypothesis for the first time in a legitimate way,\u201d Barnes said. \u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s so exciting about this paper.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHe believes the model could also help researchers understand more complex systems involving three or more bodies. The team is already working on simulations that better capture the details of the collapse process.<\/p>\n
\nAs future space missions venture deeper into the outer solar system, the researchers said the familiar snowman shape may turn out to be far more common than once thought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A student has unraveled a long-standing cosmic enigma concerning some of our solar system\u2019s most peculiar objects: icy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-328223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}