Comet Surprises with Oxygen

The comet with the difficult name, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (more easily referred to as 67P/C-G, or even 67P) was visited by the ESA's Rosetta probe, which in turn sent the Philae to land on the thing. Quite a trick, traveling for ten years and meeting up with the moving object was impressive, but to have a robotic probe land on it, well, that really takes the rag off the bush.

67P / Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / NAVCAM, License CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

Like so many other celestial objects under investigation, this comet is being a mite irksome for believers in an ancient cosmos. It's emitting water and oxygen, and not acting as old as secularists would like it to be. In fact, 67P is showing evidence of what biblical creationists have been saying all along: the universe was created recently.

The European Space Agency's Rosetta probe travelled all the way to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko to collect unprecedented cometary details. The space probe keeps sending unexpected particulars about the comet—particulars with implications far beyond the comet itself.

As Rosetta approached the comet in the fall of 2014, its instruments began detecting chemicals in space nearby the comet. The mission's earliest discoveries included an unexpected fountain-like emission of over 6,000 gallons of water vapor per day. Similar to the plumes that eject material into space from Saturn's moon Enceladus, this surprising level of activity points to a much younger comet than commonly asserted.

To finish reading about the peculiar particulars, click on "Unexpected Oxygen on Young-Looking Comet".