Astrophysicists suggest carbon found in comet ATLAS help reveal age of other comets

Astrophysicists from Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU, Russia), South Korea, and the U.S. appear in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, suggesting carbon indicates time comets have spent in the Solar System—the less carbon, the longer they have been in the proximity of the Sun. The proof is their study of the comet ATLAS (C/2019 Y4) approaching the Earth in May 2020 and disintegrated with displaying a major outbreak of the carbonaceous particles.

Source:
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-astrophysicists-carbon-comet-atlas-reveal.html