• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Tuesday, September 9, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Chemistry

Nickel atoms detected in the cold gas around interstellar comet 2I/Borisov

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
May 19, 2021
in Chemistry
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
IMAGE
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

IMAGE

Credit: ESO/P.Guzik/M.Drahus

Unbound nickel atoms and other heavy elements have been observed in very hot cosmic environments, including the atmospheres of ultra-hot exoplanets and evaporating comets that ventured too close to our Sun or other stars. A new study conducted by JU researchers reveals the presence of nickel atoms in the cold gasses surrounding the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov. The team’s finding is being published in Nature on 19 May 2021.

Interstellar comets and asteroids are precious to science because, unlike millions of minor bodies that formed in our Solar System, they originate from distant planetary systems. Until very recently, the existence of such cosmic vagabonds has merely been an interesting possibility, based on the fact that our Solar System ejected most of the primordial comets and asteroids into the interstellar space in its early days. The objects came to light in 2017 with the unexpected detection of the asteroidal 1I/’Oumuamua, followed by the discovery of the only known cometary interloper, 2I/Borisov, in 2019. “The scientific value of these objects is absolutely overwhelming, as they carry a plethora of information about their home planetary systems,” says Piotr Guzik of the Jagiellonian University in Poland, author of the new study on 2I/Borisov.

The gasses around 2I/Borisov enabled astronomers to obtain the first precious insights into the chemical composition of an alien icy world. “We were curious what atoms and molecules make up the gasses around 2I/Borisov,” explains study co-author Micha? Drahus of the Jagiellonian University. There was only one way to find out. Over three nights in late January 2020, the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory in Chile was pointed at comet 2I/Borisov to collect the object’s faint light. The incoming photons were directed to the X-shooter spectrograph, which split the light into its constituent wavelengths, enabling the identification of atoms and molecules through their characteristic spectral signatures.

Guzik and Drahus immediately scrutinized the incoming data and realized the existence of unforeseen spectral features. “At first, these features seemed impossible to identify with standard cometary species,” says Guzik. After months of fruitless research, the team was close to giving up. But unexpectedly, a solution appeared on the horizon. “It was literally a ‘Beautiful Mind’ kind of situation, when the wavelengths of these lines materialized in a tabulated spectrum of comet Ikeya-Seki and pointed at atomic nickel,” says Guzik, who first realized the surprising answer. “It didn’t seem to make any sense,” Drahus adds, “but it really did!”

The problem was that comet Ikeya-Seki passed so close to the Sun that the surrounding dust started evaporating, releasing various metals. The same mechanism could not apply to the cold comet 2I/Borisov, which passed too far from the Sun. “The nickel in 2I/Borisov seems to originate from a short-lived nickel-bearing molecule that is incorporated in the cometary ice and sublimates at low temperatures,” explains Guzik. “This is really cool because heavy elements have not been observed in cold cosmic environments before.” According to the study, nickel is not very abundant, accounting for less than 1 in 100,000 atoms in the gasses around 2I/Borisov.

###

The study was supported by the National Science Centre of Poland through ETIUDA scholarship no. 2020/36/T/ST9/00596 and SONATA BIS grant no. 2016/22/E/ST9/00109, as well as the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education through grant no. DIR/WK/2018/12. The project is part of research conducted at the Department of Stellar and Extragalactic Astronomy of the Jagiellonian University’s Astronomical Observatory.

Media Contact
Piotr Guzik
[email protected]

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03485-4

Tags: AstronomyAstrophysicsComets/AsteroidsSpace/Planetary Science
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Innovative Methods for Generating Methanol Using Electricity and Biomass

Innovative Methods for Generating Methanol Using Electricity and Biomass

September 9, 2025
blank

Isotope Tafel Analysis Reveals Proton Transfer Kinetics

September 9, 2025

Gemini South Uncovers Elusive Cloud-Forming Chemical on Ancient Brown Dwarf

September 9, 2025

Physical Neural Networks: Pioneering Sustainable AI for the Future

September 9, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • blank

    Breakthrough in Computer Hardware Advances Solves Complex Optimization Challenges

    151 shares
    Share 60 Tweet 38
  • New Drug Formulation Transforms Intravenous Treatments into Rapid Injections

    116 shares
    Share 46 Tweet 29
  • First Confirmed Human Mpox Clade Ib Case China

    56 shares
    Share 22 Tweet 14
  • Physicists Develop Visible Time Crystal for the First Time

    50 shares
    Share 20 Tweet 13

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Thriving Amidst Venus’s Hostile Environment: Discovering Rare Earths and Essential Metals

Thirteen U.S. Journalists Awarded Fellowships for Aging-Focused Science Reporting

Innovative Methods for Generating Methanol Using Electricity and Biomass

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.