Analysis of the data collected by the probe "Rosetta" a year of work on the orbit of the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, clearly showed that a celestial body is the "glue" of the two ancient comets colliding with each other during adolescence solar system.
After the probe "Rosetta" woke up in January last year and started to move closer to the comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko, before the eyes of scientists presented itself unexpected sight - it turned out that the celestial body was like in a balloon, and a kind of a dumbbell or duckling for bathroom. This discovery gave rise to fierce debate - whether the comet got such form as a result of the destruction of the central part, or whether it can be the product of the collision of two celestial bodies are glued on impact.
Matteo Massironi (Matteo Massironi) from the University of Padua (Italy) and a number of other planetary scientists working with "Rosetta", found convincing arguments in favor of the second theory, analyzing the images obtained by the camera OSIRIS onboard the probe in November last year and March this year.
How do I find the authors, the depths of the comet in each half, "dumbbell" similar in structure to the original multi-bulb. If the comet would represent a unit, divided into two parts as a result of the destruction of its central regions, then scientists would have seen, figuratively speaking, is not the whole "bulbs", as well as fragments and halves separated by a void.
Reverse says that in fact the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko is the result of the collision and merger of two "protokometnyh bodies in the distant past, stuck together because of the low speed" oncoming traffic ". This is supported by the fact that all high structure on the comet "rotated" is not in the direction of the common center of mass of 67P, and towards those points where they were located the centers of gravity of its halves.
For similar conclusions, albeit on the basis of theoretical calculations, a few months before the Swiss came to planetary scientists, explain why the comet got similar dumbbell shape and calculate the speed at which the ancestors encountered the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
As shown by these calculations, the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and like her "hairy monsters" are born in a relatively quiet and calm conditions. According to planetary scientists, they arise in the course of the collision of two relatively large "nuclei" in the kilometer in diameter that ran into each other at a very low speed - 1.5 meters per second, which is approximately equal to the speed of the bicycle.
The research is published in the journal Nature