How comets were assembled

Rosetta's target «Chury» and other comets observed by space missions show common evidence of layered structures and bi-lobed shapes. With 3D computer simulations Martin Jutzi, astrophysicist at the University of Bern, was able to reconstruct the formation of these features as a result of gentle collisions and mergers. The study has now been published online in the journal «Science Express». In a video sequence based on a computer simulation two icy spheres with a diameter of about one kilometer are moving towards each other. They collide at bicycle speed, start to mutually rotate and separate again after the smaller body has left traces of material on the larger one. The time sequence shows that the smaller object is slowed down by mutual gravity. After about 14 hours it turns back and impacts again a day after the first collision.
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