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Second Alignment Plane Discovered in Solar System Can Help Study Origin of Comets
News 18A new discovery suggests that our solar system has another alignment plane. It shows that ‘aphelia’ of comets, which is the point of highest distance from the Sun, tend to fall close to either the well-known ecliptic plane where the planets reside or a newly discovered “empty ecliptic”. The new information can help create models and analyse how the comets may have originally formed in the solar system. Older models of the solar system suggested that long-period comets may have formed near the ecliptic and later travelled into their respective orbits. Arika Higuchi, assistant professor, University of Occupational and Environmental Health in Japan, who has studied the effects of the galactic gravity on long-period comets through analytical investigation of the equations governing the orbital motion, suggests there is a second plane known as “empty ecliptic.” This ecliptic, she suggested, is inclined similarly to the observed Milky Way ecliptic at 60 degrees, but it is in the opposite direction.
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