The velocity of both bodies was of 36,000 km / h
Spitzer Space Telescope detected the wreckage of two fledgling planets around a star, has revealed Propulsion Laboratory Jet (JPL) of NASA.
One of the planets was the size of the moon and the other as Mercury. The collision occurred several thousand years ago, a recent term in astronomical terms. In a statement, JPL said the impact broke the smallest body in a crash so violent that the rocks vaporized and released into space huge lava trails.
"This collision must have been huge and so fast that the melted rock," said Carey Lisse, a scientist at Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University. It is estimated that the movement of both bodies occurred at a rate of more than 36,000 kilometers per hour.
The investigation report will be published in the August 20 corresponding to the issue of Astrophysical Journal. " "This is a very rare and of short duration, but crucial in the formation of Earth-like planets and moons. We are fortunate to have witnessed not long after it happened, "he said.
According to Lisse and scientists involved in research, cosmic crash might have been similar to that created our moon back to 4,000 million years ago when a Mars-sized body slammed into the Earth's surface.
Shock to 100 light years
"The force of this collision was so great that it must have melted the surface of the Earth," said Geoff Bryde scientist JPL and co-author of the report. The remains of this collision formed a record that after the passage of millions of years became what is now the Moon.
The discovery by the Spitzer collision occurred near the star HD 172555, about 100 light years away in the constellation of Pavo. The cosmic collision was detected by the Spitzer spectrograph, a device that measures minute variations in wavelength to the point that allows for the induction of what kind of material an object is made based on the light it reflects. Thus, the scientists analyzed the light from the star and what it found was disconcerting.
During analysis, detected the presence of vaporized rock in the form of silicon monoxide and molten rock as obsidian. On earth, obsidian is usually at the volcanoes and one type of rocks called tektites displayed around craters. The tektites are formed under high pressure and temperature at high speed. Conditions of a clash of great power.
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