I T IS HARDLY surprising that in the 17th and 18th centuries scientists likened the movements of the solar system to the ticking of well regulated machinery. The clockwork of orreries, mechanical models of the solar system, neatly encapsulated the apparently clockwork nature of the heavens, each planet following its designated course just as it always had, world without end.
The beginning, though, was much less orderly. Wind the clock back far enough and the clockwork goes awry. When the solar system was in its infancy, it now seems, planets changed their orbits with feckless abandon, swinging in towards the sun and out again, sometimes swapping places, possibly leaving the solar system altogether. These peregrinations seem to explain long-standing mysteries about why the solar system is the way it is.
Many things are taking place:
A star on the edge of the Solar System just got a Bengali name | Business Insider India
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Interstellar Comet Visits Our Solar System, Awes Astronomers - Are We There Yet - Space -
These two images, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, capture comet 2I/Borisov streaking though our solar system and on its way back to interstellar space. The comet appears in front of a distant background spiral galaxy (2MASX J10500165-0152029). The galaxy's bright central core is smeared in the image because Hubble was tracking the comet.
Astronomers have their eyes on a rare comet zooming 100,000 miles per hour through our solar system. It's rare because it's coming from outside our solar system. The comet named 2I/Borisov is the first confirmed interstellar comet.
Nasa releases unseen photos of mysterious object travelling at astonishing 100,000mph | London
The second photo later captures the object during its closest approach to the Sun as it continues to travel through the solar system.
Hubble revealed that the heart of the comet is a loose combination of ices and dust particles and is likely no more than 3,200ft across, which roughly adds up to the length of nine football fields.
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The comet will make its closest approach to Earth in late December at a distance of 180 million miles before continuing its journey past Jupiter and then back into outer space.
In case you are keeping track:
Kinesthetic Radial Model of the Solar System Activity | NASA/JPL Edu
NASA Releases New Photos Of Object That Came From Another Solar System
Nasa has released images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, which shows 2I/Borisov, a mysterious object that entered our solar system earlier this year.
2I/Borisov is believed to be a comet, and it was initially spotted back in August. It was discovered by a Crimean amateur astronomer by the name of Gennady Borisov. After it was discovered, scientists all over the world began to pay attention to the object, and the Hubble Space Telescope began taking pictures sometime in October.
Tesla unveils 15.4 kW home solar system - The Economic Times
Meteorites lend clues to solar system's origin
The solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago by the gravitational collapse of a molecular cloud core, which resulted in the formation of a circumsolar disk of gas and dust (sometimes called the solar nebula).
"To understand how the solar system evolved toward its present-day configuration, the events and processes occurring during the earliest stages of solar system history must be reconstructed at a very high temporal and spatial resolution," said LLNL cosmochemist Thomas Kruijer, lead author of the paper.
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