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      Why Do Comets Have A Green Glow? | Answer Inside

      Have you ever wonder why the heads of comets always glow green and their tails does not? Scientists have figure it out the answer by studying a molecule found on Earth.

      What are Comets?

      We must first understand what comets are. 

      As per NASA, comets are “cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock, and dust that orbit the Sun.” 

      In frozen form, comets can be as large as a small town on Earth.

      When it orbits too close to the Sun, a comet develops a glowing green head due to dust and gases being release from the object. 

      Comets were form when our solar system was made and are essentially leftovers of a cosmic dance.

      Most comets are situate in the Kuiper Belt that goes beyond Neptune.

      Right now, there are 3,743 known comets.

      Why do Comets Glow Green?

      In 1930s, Nobel-winning scientist Gerhard Herzberg said that a comet’s glow originate from a molecule made from two carbon atoms bonded together call as “dicarbon”, as per PopSci report.

      Researchers want to test this theory out and publish their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

      Scientists at University of New South Wales in Australia couldn’t even get their hands on a bottle of dicarbon because it’s extremely reactive.

      Dicarbon can easily be find in space inside stars, comets and many more.

      But Earth’s oxygen essentially burns up most of it.

      To overcome this handicap, scientists synthesis dicarbon in a lab setting with assistance from vacuum chambers and three different ultraviolet lasers.

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      And, Gerhard Herzberg was right as the green light in comets actually comes from dicarbon molecules that are capable of emitting and absorbing light when expose to sunlight.

      Gerhard Herzberg wasn’t completely right about the mechanism though.

      Now that we know what makes comets glow, more could be learn about the universe’s formation from these ancient rock-icy remains.

      THANK YOU FOR READING.

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