Rosetta’s comet theory—has two distinct lobes.

Rosetta’s comet—has two distinct lobes.


Researchers at Purdue and the University of Colorado Boulder conducted a research of simulating one thousand comet clones just to observe how the Comet 67P behaves under the influence of the gravity of the Sun and Jupiter. So with the conducted experiment the researchers came up the the conclusion that the 67P are in fact two distinct comets, which break up, orbit one another, and smash together again and again for all of cometary eternity. And despite how strange this relationship sounds, it may be a lot more common than we thought.

The team now plans to study other imaged comets in more detail, to see if they could be subject to similar forces. If bilobed comets, like 67P and Halley’s comet, turn out to be cosmically common, it’s possible our solar system is full of shapeshifting space rocks that are far more dynamic than they seem.

In the future it might not shapeshift as much, as it did in the past since..

How do they break apart?

a reply to: LauGhing0ne


Given the twin-lobbed comets that we know, They have substantial material shared. If one of those break apart, would not the area(s) of former mutual contact not be evident to a discerning eye?

a reply to: Aliensun

Which do we know of ?

a reply to: LauGhing0ne
From the source article:

Separately, over two-thirds of comet nuclei that have been imaged at high resolution show bilobate shapes, including the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (67P), visited by the Rosetta spacecraft.

www.nature.com... I'd like to see a rendering of the simulations they ran.



a reply to: Aliensun
There are some "odd" geological (wrong word) features on 67P, the only one we've had a real close look at:
www.aanda.org...

But have we ever seen two cometary chunks orbiting each other?

Binary comets?

originally posted by: gspat
How do they break apart?

If they outgas, wouldn't that potentially provide the needed impetus to break the lobes apart? Then when they go back into the cold parts of space they could get pressed back together?

Also, if they ever went past something with enough gravity at the right angles to pull them apart, they might fracture apart on the weak zones. Of course, the same forces could push them back together.

a reply to: ketsuko

What would be the force that "pressed" them back together I wounder? Surely not gravity as it would be quite small and any impact large enough would more likely fracture the pieces further.

It seems more likely that this is one object and the shape is due to an interaction with the Sun. For whatever reason the middle of comets get excavated faster than the "lobes".

a reply to: Devino

I'm not saying it's right, just trying to theorize what might explain it.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: Devino

I'm not saying it's right, just trying to theorize what might explain it.

I agree with you and I am simple thinking out load, so to say.