AMHERST, Mass. - University of Massachusetts astronomer Matthew Senay is part of a research team reporting that Comet Hale-Bopp, which passed by the Earth last year, provides evidence that comet ices are created inside huge interstellar clouds of gas, dust, and ice. The findings, detailed in the current issue of Science, suggest that comet ices are not, as previously thought, created in the outer regions of the solar system, where comets themselves are formed. The study also offers new evidence which implies that the temperature of the interstellar cloud that formed our solar system could not have been colder than 30 degrees Kelvin; a temperature considerably higher than scientists previously believed. The research team includes astronomers from the University of Hawaii, the National Research Council of Canada, and the Observatoire de Paris-Meudon.
