Poisonous Gas-Induced Violent Comet Collisions Occurring in Nearby Solar System

Through the use of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) telescope, astronomers have discovered clumps of carbon monoxide gas near the star Beta Pictoris in a young, nearby solar system.

The astronomers have reported that these clumps of carbon monoxide are contributing to violent comet crashes that are visible to sky-watchers. The results of the observations from the Joint ALMA Office in Santiago, Chile will be published this week in the journal Science.

The youth of Beta Pictoris may allow the astronomers to witness what a developing planetary system might look like. The star is only 63 light years away and 20 million years old, compared to our 4.5 billion-year-old solar system. The astronomers believe that either two Mars-sized planets have collided or that groups of comets are slamming into each other at enormous rates.

"The most abundant source of carbon monoxide in a young solar system is collisions between icy bodies, from comets up to larger planet-size objects," said the study's lead author, Bill Dent, in this National Geographic article. "Unless we are observing Beta Pictoris at a very unusual time, the carbon monoxide must be continuously replenished."

The production of this massive amount of carbon monoxide would mean that comets would have to be colliding every five minutes, which has led the astronomers to believe that there is some sort of traffic jam amongst the comets in the nearby solar system. For more than 200 million billion tons of carbon monoxide to be produced, something unusual must be happening.

You can see the collisions by visiting the National Geographic website and following their step-by-step procedure. Those in the Southern Hemisphere have the greatest viewing advantage because Beta Pictoris is best seen from locations south of the Equator.

To read more about Beta Pictoris and the enormous cloud of carbon monoxide, visit this Los Angeles Times article.