A comet's lonely journey

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Comets are left-over building blocks of planets, composed of ice, dust and gases. Dr. Dennis Bodewits, associate professor in Auburn University’s Department of Physics, unlocks information hidden inside these dirty snowballs through laboratory astrophysics and observations with space telescopes.

“I am truly excited that our research on comet 2I/Borisov has received tremendous news coverage,” Bodewits explained. “Being able to promote Auburn University on a global scale helps to showcase the importance of our research and the impact we can make.”

Bodewits used both the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory space telescope to research interstellar comet 2I/Borisov that traveled through our solar system in late 2019, and is only the second interstellar comet ever observed from outside our solar system.

Bodewits uses laboratory astrophysics to understand more about the water in comets. His research provides insight about the origins of the universe and tells us more about planetary objects from millions of years ago.

Comet 2I/Borisov contained very large amounts of carbon monoxide gas, and Bodewits used it to trace the origins of the object to planetary systems with much colder temperatures than ours. Such environments can be found around M-type stars, red dwarfs, which are the most common stars inour galaxy.

Nature Astronomy published the research from Bodewits titled, “2I/Borisov is a carbon monoxide-rich comet from another star.” The research received international coverage from USA Today, BBC News, Scientific American, EarthSky, New Scientist and numerous other outlets.

NASA showcased the research from Bodewits and Dr. Zexi Xing, a post-doc at Auburn, whose collaboration measured the water production of comet 2I/Borisov as it approached the sun. To view NASA’s video about this comet, visit aub.ie/comet.

Bodewits and Xing also participated in a live discussion on April 28 on Reddit's AskScience forum, where they interacted with people from around the world, answering questions and sharing their research. To view a transcript of the discussion with more than 300 comments, visit aub.ie/askscience.

Xing, who studied at the University of Hong Kong and is from mainland China, recorded the activity of the comet using ultraviolet light. She led the work on the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory space telescope published in Astrophysical Journal Letters and promoted by the American Astronomical Society.