00:04One of the defining characteristics that separates comets and asteroids is the tail.
00:09Comets have ice and dust which vaporize in the sun's radiant heat, leaving their signature tails drifting behind them.
00:15But there are some asteroids with tails, including the one responsible for the annual Geminid meteor showers on Earth.
00:20Experts have long believed that Phython's tail was simply dust,
00:23part of the hundreds of little bits of debris that get sucked into Earth's gravity well and burn up in
00:27epic meteorite displays.
00:29Now they say it's more complicated and that the tail also includes large amounts of sodium gas.
00:35This was discovered by the Joint ESA-NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO,
00:40a device which has a sodium-sensitive filter on its telescope.
00:43Researchers discovered that just like the ice on comets, the sodium on Phython sublimates as it approaches the sun on
00:49its 524-day orbit.
00:51When that happens, the sodium is heated and releases a tail of gas behind it.
00:55So what about the dust? If ice isn't sublimating, then how are bits of rock breaking free?
00:59Well, the experts say they really don't know.
01:01And the best guess at the moment is that perhaps a piece of Phython broke free many years ago,
01:05and we simply travel through that debris field every year.
01:08and we've already seen onyorum.
01:08As of KostenskrΦΣ
01:08or Spielpl cuzr
01:09and aulysses
01:12is not cofing altogether.
01:12And as of a Japanese sins are never REAL?
01:12And so can we run two years to paint.
Comments