News: NASA scientists are closely investigating a new class of celestial objects known as dark comets.
About Dark Comets
- They are celestial objects that look like an asteroid but move through space like a comet.
- Discovery: The first dark comet was identified in 2016, when asteroid 2003 RM exhibited unusual orbital deviation.
- Types: There are two main types of Dark Comets:
- Inner Dark Comets: They reside in the inner solar system, with nearly circular orbits and are on the smaller side. (10s of meters or less)
- Outer Dark Comets: They have similar characteristics to Jupiter-family comets, with highly eccentric orbits and are on the larger side. (100m or more)
- Characteristics:
- Size: They are often small, with width ranging between just a few meters to a few hundred meters.
- Spin: They often spin quite rapidly and disperse escaping gas and dust in all directions.
- Appearance: They lack glowing tails and appear as faint points of light in space.
