Under the gaze of two Catholic University research professors in physics, comets are yielding secrets about their origins.
Comets are frozen relics from the formation of our solar system.
DiSanti and Neil Dello Russo observed and measure the ratio of carbon monoxide to water in Comet Hale-Bopp. Theirs was the first direct study of the amount of carbon monoxide relative to water and the first time CO has been distinguished quantitatively over a range of distances from the sun. The findings were published in Nature . Comets forming in the relatively warm early solar system would contain more water and less carbon monoxide than comets formed in the cold, dense cloud of pre-solar system gas and dust. Hale-Bopp gave off 12 percent carbon monoxide to water, leading the team to conclude that the comet formed in the region between Jupiter and Neptune and was then thrust into deeper space.