Comet collisions every six seconds explain 17-year-old stellar mystery (stars, solar, saturn)

[Brian.Pearson]

"Hundreds of trillions of comets orbit around 49 CETI and one other star whose age is about 30 million years. Imagine so many trillions of comets, each the size of the UCLA campus — approximately 1 mile in diameter — orbiting around 49 CETI and bashing into one another," Zuckerman said. "These young comets likely contain more carbon monoxide than typical comets in our solar system. When they collide, the carbon monoxide escapes as a gas. The gas seen around these two stars is the result of the incredible number of collisions among these comets.

"We calculate that comets collide around these two stars about every six seconds," he said. "I was absolutely amazed when we calculated this rapid rate. I would not have dreamt it in a million years. We think these collisions have been occurring for 10 million years or so."

[harry chickpea]

Remember the Millennium Falcon going through that asteroid field?

Interesting though, in a serious manner. Such collisions would inevitably create more complex molecules needed as a precursor to carbon based life forms.

[Glitch]

A 40 MYR OLD GASEOUS CIRCUMSTELLAR DISK AT 49 CETI: MASSIVE CO-RICH COMET CLOUDS AT YOUNG A-TYPE STARS
A Resolved Molecular Gas Disk around 49 Ceti

It should be noted that the number of comets, and their size, around 49 Ceti is an assumption. There is no direct evidence that any comets exist around 49 Ceti at all.

[Brian.Pearson]

They do talk about comets in your link. Plus, they also make a lot of assumptions.

[Glitch]

Originally Posted by Brian.Pearson

They do talk about comets in your link. Plus, they also make a lot of assumptions.

This is true. As the OPs article, and my links explain, they theorize that the carbon-monoxide gas is being produced by large colliding comets. They have no evidence that the comets exist. The only thing they know for certain is:

• There is a lot of dust around 49 Ceti and its companion; and
• They have detected larger concentrations of CO than should be around a star that is 40 million years old.

Everything else is merely scientific speculation in an attempt to explain why there is so much CO gas around a star that should have consumed most of its gas within the first 10 million years. In other words, they have absolutely no idea what is actually happening. They are guessing at what might be occurring based upon our very limited understanding of the universe.

It could be that they are right, and there are mile-wide comets colliding every few seconds. However, it could also be that they are flat out wrong, and there is another process occurring to explain the abundance of CO.

[Brian.Pearson]

They wondered why there is so much gas, over time (from the original post), so I'm guessing the the only thing that could keep this much gas in orbit would be the abundance of gas from those comets.

I agree there is a lot of guessing going on.

[Glitch]

Originally Posted by Brian.Pearson

They wondered why there is so much gas, over time (from the original post), so I'm guessing the the only thing that could keep this much gas in orbit would be the abundance of gas from those comets.

I agree there is a lot of guessing going on.

That is the thing, it is the only thing that they can imagine can produce this much CO. Their problem is their limited imagination. There are all kinds of different processes of which we have absolutely no understanding, as yet. Maybe it is CO geysers, like on the moon of Saturn, Enceladus. Or perhaps there are volcanoes that spew CO, like they way the moon Io spews sulfur around Jupiter.

Unlike these scientists who feel compelled to explain the process without sufficient information, I am content just saying "I do not know ... yet." I have no overwhelming desire to manufacture an explanation, even if it is scientific speculation.

The amount of CO around 49 Ceti, based upon our current understanding of solar system mechanics, should not be there. Additionally, the CO could not have been around for 40 million years, so some process is continually producing CO. We just have no idea what that process is ... yet.