Astronomers have long known that comets are cosmic snowballs with a soft interior and hard surface. But the exact composition of that surface — and how it forms — has been somewhat of a mystery, until now.
In a new study, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory mixed together ice and organic dust to simulate how a comet forms. And they found that the crunchy comet crust is much like something very decadent and delicious…
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“What we saw in the lab — a crystalline comet crust with organics on top — matches what has been suggested from observations in space,” Gudipati said in the statement. “Deep fried ice cream is really the perfect analogy, because the interior of the comets should still be very cold and contain the more porous, amorphous ice.”
The study was published online in The Journal of Physical Chemistry on Oct. 10, 2014.
