Tailless Comet Named Manx That May Give Clues On the Earth's Birth Found

A weird-looking but equally fascinating rocky tail-less comet has been recently observed by astronomers as zips into our inner Solar System. This first-of-its kind unique comet and its composition may potentially undermine our previous understanding of earth's beginning, offer hints on how our solar system and planet evolved through eons of time, and simply redefine what these space bodies should be like.

The comet is said to carrying 1 million times less water in the form of ice than previously documented comets scientists earlier uncovered. Apparently, the cosmic body is composed of solid rock with semblance of an asteroid instead of ice like most comets are.

"We already knew of many asteroids, but they have all been baked by billions of years near the Sun," said University of Hawaii-based researcher Karen Meech according to a press release.

"This one is the first uncooked asteroid we could observe: it has been preserved in the best freezer there is."

The comet, codenamed C/2014 S3 (discovered using PANSTARRS telescope) and nicknamed 'Manx' after a breed cats with no tails, should offer scientists some important hints as to how our Solar System including our planet Earth came into being.

"Its current long orbital period (about 860 years) suggests that its source is in the Oort Cloud - an extended shell of icy objects that exist in the outermost reaches of the solar system, and it was nudged comparatively recently into an orbit that brings it closer to the Sun. C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS) is the first object to be discovered on a long-period cometary orbit that has the characteristics of a pristine inner Solar System asteroid," Economic Times reported.

With this new and exciting discovery, scientists are currently thrown into a frenzied research to learn how many more its kind exist in the universe which may put an end to an ongoing debate on how the Solar System came to be in its present configuration.

"Depending how many we find, we will know whether the giant planets danced across the solar system when they were young, or if they grew up quietly without moving much," remarked astronomer Olivier Hainaut of European Southern Observatory in Germany as per Reuters report.