While surveying the surface of Comet 67/P-G, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta satellite discovered the icy space rock develops sinkholes.
According to BBC News, authors of a study published in the journal Nature detailed subsurface vaporizations that result in collapses on the comet's crust. Some of the holes Rosetta spotted were as deep at 100 meters.
"We see jets arising from the fractured areas of the walls inside the pits. These fractures mean that volatiles trapped under the surface can be warmed more easily and subsequently escape into space," study lead author Jean-Baptiste Vincent, of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, said in a press release.
The researchers likened the sinkholes on Comet 67/P-G to Earth's, pointing out similarities in how the develop and manifest. So far, Rosetta has noticed 18 sinkholes in the comet's Northern Hemisphere.
"They are almost as deep as they are wide," Vincent told BBC News. "The largest one is about 200m wide and 200m deep.
"It's amazing because it gives us the possibility to look inside the comet for the first time."
The scientists gained a unique view of the comet, essentially peering into its core thanks to the numerous holes.
"We think that we might be able to use the pits to characterize the relative ages of the comet's surface: the more pits there are in a region, the younger and less processed the surface there is," Vincent said in the release. "This is confirmed by recent observations of the southern hemisphere: this is more highly processed because it receives significantly more energy than the northern hemisphere, and does not seem to display similar pit structures."
