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Image depicting comet, as scientist discover an aurora on a comet

Aurora on a comet is detected by scientists for the first time ever

 

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An aurora on Earth is wonderful to watch. But is an aurora on a comet possible? Let’s find out.

An aurora is a natural phenomenon where you can see a display of a natural-coloured (green, red, yellow or white) light in the sky. It is also called polar lights or northern lights.

An aurora is caused by the streams of electrified particles (which are emitted by the Sun) trapped in the magnetic field of a planet.

Auroras are not unique to Earth. They have been spotted in the atmospheres of every other planet except Mercury. Even Jupiter’s moons Ganymede and Europa have auroras.

However, for the first time ever, scientists have detected an aurora on a comet.

It was spotted by the Rosetta spacecraft. This was a joint mission between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

Rosetta spotted a strange glow coming from a comet called 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/C-G). A closer study showed it was caused by an aurora of far-ultraviolet light that can’t be seen by the naked eye.

Why is this exciting news?

This news is exciting because an aurora never been observed on such a small object as a comet. It is also surprising because comet 67P/CG does not have a magnetic field.

The glow around the comet is generated by interactions between charged particles from the Sun and the material streaming from the comet itself.

The Rosetta spacecraft was built to study comet 67P. Rosetta caught up with Comet 67P in August 2014 after being launched in 2004. Its mission ended in September 2016 after a hard landing on the comet.

Here is a video of auroras on Earth:

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