Giant Break-Up

A giant comet may have broken up about 20,000 years ago. And we see the effects of that break-up today.
The main remnant of the object appears to be Comet Encke. It’s about three miles wide, and orbits the Sun once every 3.3 years. It’s the source of several meteor showers. It sheds grains of rock and dirt as it orbits the Sun. They spread out to form wide clouds. When Earth flies through such a cloud, it spawns a meteor shower. The best known is the Taurids, in November.
Astronomers have supposed that Encke was the remnant of a larger body for decades. But a study last year found that it has a lot of company. Researchers found 88 small comets and asteroids that appear to be related. When they traced the orbits of these bodies back in time, they found that all of them appear to meet up about 20,000 years ago.
The original body could have been up to 75 miles wide. It probably was a cosmic “rubble pile” — big chunks of rock held together by ice. That made it easier to pull apart. As it s