The Colours of Space
November 2nd 2010 05:02
Category: No Category
For most of us space is a cold dark and colorless void.
Make no mistake space is a dangerous place to be in all-be-it, even inhospitable.
But space is not totally devoid of colour and texture for example let’s take the objects closer to home, objects that orbit in the region called the Kuiper Belt.
When images of the Kuiper Belt objects taken (so far around 1,000 directly imaged by the Hubble and some Earth based telescopes ) revealed that many of the icy bodies circling around the sun beyond Pluto appear to exhibit a wide range of colours from red, blue, and white.
These objects are located by vast distances from us and even the humble telescope “sees “these objects are only seen as one pixel of light.
Recent computer modeling suggests that with the right combinations of materials and space environment these distant objects could produce some of those lovely hues.
The computer model also suggests that these objects have many layers, and that the red colours are particularly interesting because they are grouped to the so called Cold Classical Kuiper Belt objects.
There is strong evidence to suggest these objects have some form of organic material located in the layers just under the surface.
There is a strong possibility that that located somewhere beneath the surface crust of some of these objects at least the majority would have liquid water.
How these bodies were formed is still a mystery ever since the first observed Kuiper Belt object, a red Cold Classical named 1992 QB1, was discovered in 1992.
These object could be considered as having dwarf planet status much like Pluto.
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It’s a bit like cosmology hide and seek.