File:It's Raining Comets (Eta Corvi).jpg
Original file (4,267 × 2,400 pixels, file size: 347 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)
Captions
Summary[edit]
DescriptionIt's Raining Comets (Eta Corvi).jpg |
English: It's Raining Comets
This artist's conception illustrates a storm of comets around a star near our own, called Eta Corvi. Evidence for this barrage comes from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, whose infrared detectors picked up indications that one or more comets was recently torn to shreds after colliding with a rocky body. In this artist's conception, one such giant comet is shown smashing into a rocky planet, flinging ice- and carbon-rich dust into space, while also smashing water and organics into the surface of the planet. A glowing red flash captures the moment of impact on the planet. Yellow-white Eta Corvi is shown to the left, with still more comets streaming toward it. Spitzer detected spectral signatures of water ice, organics and rock around Eta Corvi -- key ingredients of comets. This is the first time that evidence for such a comet storm has been seen around another star. Eta Corvi is just about the right age, about one billion years old, to be experiencing a bombardment of comets akin to what occurred in our own solar system at 600 to 800 millions years of age, termed the Late Heavy Bombardment. Scientists say the Late Heavy Bombardment was triggered in our solar system by the migration of our outer planets, which jostled icy comets about, sending some of them flying inward. The incoming comets scarred our moon and pummeled our inner planets. They may have even brought materials to Earth that helped kick start life. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech |
Date | |
Source | http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/multimedia/pia14739.html |
Author | NASA/JPL-Caltech |
Licensing[edit]
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse |
This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.) | ||
Warnings:
|
File history
Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.
Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
current | 20:41, 14 December 2011 | 4,267 × 2,400 (347 KB) | Hibernian (talk | contribs) |
You cannot overwrite this file.
File usage on Commons
There are no pages that use this file.
File usage on other wikis
The following other wikis use this file:
- Usage on ast.wikipedia.org
- Usage on bs.wikipedia.org
- Usage on ca.wikipedia.org
- Usage on en.wikipedia.org
- Usage on en.wikibooks.org
- Usage on es.wikipedia.org
- Usage on eu.wikipedia.org
- Usage on fi.wikipedia.org
- Usage on fr.wikipedia.org
- Usage on it.wikipedia.org
- Usage on ja.wikipedia.org
- Usage on ko.wikipedia.org
- Usage on pl.wikipedia.org
- Usage on ru.wikipedia.org
- Usage on www.wikidata.org
Metadata
This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.
Date and time of data generation | 20:37, 14 December 2011 |
---|---|
Date and time of digitizing | 20:37, 14 December 2011 |
DateTimeOriginal subseconds | 00 |
DateTimeDigitized subseconds | 00 |