Do all comets have a Tail?

Tempel 1 looks so dry,and with all those sandy craters begs the question
"does it have a tail?" Some comets tails are millions of miles long,and
that could tell us something about its composition. Tempel 1 when hit
by that 600lb projectile caused a man made crater and the explosion
blaster fine dust 100 of miles into space(mostly fine dust.) Tempel 1
seen close up has proven it is not a dirty snow ball. I think when more
and more comets are probed we will have to change are way of describing
them. Comets 3.8 billion years ago were very wet. Now they are very
dry. The Sun has destroyed water molecules. into their two atoms. Its
the dense atmosphere of the Earth that has saved water from breaking
apart. Bert

"G=EMC^2 Glazier" wrote in message...
...

Tempel 1 looks so dry,and with all those sandy craters begs the question
"does it have a tail?" Some comets tails are millions of miles long,and
that could tell us something about its composition. Tempel 1 when hit
by that 600lb projectile caused a man made crater and the explosion
blaster fine dust 100 of miles into space(mostly fine dust.) Tempel 1
seen close up has proven it is not a dirty snow ball. I think when more
and more comets are probed we will have to change are way of describing
them. Comets 3.8 billion years ago were very wet. Now they are very
dry. The Sun has destroyed water molecules. into their two atoms. Its
the dense atmosphere of the Earth that has saved water from breaking
apart. Bert

Pretty much yup, Bert. And some tails get even
longer. Longest on record, i think, was the tail
of comet Hyakutake. Ulysses, the joint ESA/NASA
spacecraft, was on a mission to map the Sun's
poles when it chanced upon Hyakutake's tail back
in 2000. The nucleus was more than 325 million
miles back toward the Sun from Ulysses! Some
scientists think that comet tails stretch all the
way out to the edge of the heliosphere, about
100AU from the Sun!

happy days and...
starry starry nights!

--
I'm a fool upon a hill,
See my planet spinning still?
Sun goes down and stars arise,
Warm and pleasing to mine eyes.

See my little telescope?
People say I'm such a dope;
I don't mind because I nurse
Secrets of the Universe!

http://www.geocities.com/odetobobbie...yric/lfool.htm

Indelibly yours,
Paine
http://www.savethechildren.org/
http://www.painellsworth.net

On Oct 3, 5:20 am, (G=EMC^2 Glazier) wrote:
Tempel 1 looks so dry,and with all those sandy craters begs the question
"does it have a tail?" Some comets tails are millions of miles long,and
that could tell us something about its composition. Tempel 1 when hit
by that 600lb projectile caused a man made crater and the explosion
blaster fine dust 100 of miles into space(mostly fine dust.) Tempel 1
seen close up has proven it is not a dirty snow ball. I think when more
and more comets are probed we will have to change are way of describing
them. Comets 3.8 billion years ago were very wet. Now they are very
dry. The Sun has destroyed water molecules. into their two atoms. Its
the dense atmosphere of the Earth that has saved water from breaking
apart. Bert


Tempel One was analyzed to be composed of about 50% ice crystals. But
it also had other stuff in it like carbonates that they usually find
in seashells. This surprised scientists. Not dry, Bert. In fact,
with that seashell material, you might think it was blasted off a
water world, perhaps when the collision happened that formed its moon!

Double-A

"Double-A" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Oct 3, 5:20 am, (G=EMC^2 Glazier) wrote:

Tempel 1 looks so dry,and with all those sandy craters begs the question
"does it have a tail?" Some comets tails are millions of miles long,and
that could tell us something about its composition. Tempel 1 when hit
by that 600lb projectile caused a man made crater and the explosion
blaster fine dust 100 of miles into space(mostly fine dust.) Tempel 1
seen close up has proven it is not a dirty snow ball. I think when more
and more comets are probed we will have to change are way of describing
them. Comets 3.8 billion years ago were very wet. Now they are very
dry. The Sun has destroyed water molecules. into their two atoms. Its
the dense atmosphere of the Earth that has saved water from breaking
apart. Bert

Tempel One was analyzed to be composed of about 50% ice crystals. But
it also had other stuff in it like carbonates that they usually find
in seashells. This surprised scientists. Not dry, Bert. In fact,
with that seashell material, you might think it was blasted off a
water world, perhaps when the collision happened that formed its moon!

Double-A

Now see, this is another problem that i have
with the present moon-creation theory that
a Mars-sized rock collided with Earth to form
the Earth/Selene binary planet system...

A rock that size would have to have been a
protoplanet forming in a stable orbit around
the Sun. If it were as large as Mars, then it
would have taken a good deal of time in a
stable orbit to get that size. Then that rock
was somehow knocked out of stable orbit to
a new orbit on an eventual collision path
with Earth. The chances against this have to
be staggering.

Comets, on the other hand, are known to
lose mass on each pass toward the Sun and
back out again. Back several billion years
ago, some of them may have been quite a
bit larger than any we've seen or heard
about in this age. And unlike a protoplanet
that must somehow be knocked out of a
stable solar orbit, a comet is already on a
path that might get in the way of a planet.

Could it have been a large comet rather
than a Mars-sized rock that collided with
Earth to form our mysterious sister planet,
Selene?

happy days and...
starry starry nights!

--
Tender is my love for thee
Oh star so close at hand,
Warming those so dear to me
As we play on the sand...

It's so easy to believe
In all this beachin' fun,
That some day you and we will be--
Altogether one.

http://sec.noaa.gov/primer/primer.html

As it "sinks" into the sea,
You can almost hear the sssssss...
http://tinyurl.com/2tjr2b

Indelibly yours,
Paine
http://www.savethechildren.org/
http://www.painellsworth.net

In article ,
"Painius" wrote:

snip

Now see, this is another problem that i have
with the present moon-creation theory that
a Mars-sized rock collided with Earth to form
the Earth/Selene binary planet system...

A rock that size would have to have been a
protoplanet forming in a stable orbit around
the Sun. If it were as large as Mars, then it
would have taken a good deal of time in a
stable orbit to get that size. Then that rock
was somehow knocked out of stable orbit to
a new orbit on an eventual collision path
with Earth. The chances against this have to
be staggering.

On the contrary, that the object collided with Earth implies that it was
*not* in a stable orbit; it may have been 'dumped' into the inner solar
system by interaction with a gas giant. Early in the solar system's
history the orbits of even the largest planets were undergoing very
significant secular changes, and in the process of clearing their paths
Jupiter and Saturn flung a great number of smaller worlds about. This
continued for quite some time after the formation of the Moon, as
evidenced by the many ancient scars on its surface.

It's true that the densest bodies must have formed in the inner parts of
the solar system, but why assume the hypothetical impactor was one such?
The greater the relative velocities involved in a collision, the more
destructive it is (in proportion to v^2); a planet formed in a similar
orbit to Earth's would be unlikely to close very fast. OTOH an icy,
comet- or KBO-like 'rock' coming from the outer regions on an eccentric
trajectory would impart much more energy in proportion to its mass --
and if composed of light, volatile materials, could have boiled away in
the collision and over the following billion years or so.

--
Odysseus

Painius Right you are. Collision(explosion) theory creates more
questions . Once a theory needs lots of explaining(lots of words)
Bohr,and Einstein will tell you its a bad theory. Capture theory is
simple,and even a bar maid can understand it(Bohr) Bert

Not having a tail begs the question. Are they out there but unseen? If
Pluto had a elongated orbit that got it as close to the Sun as Mercury
would it have a tail,and would we call it a comet? Would it be to big
to call it a comet? Its two small to be called a planet. When comets
came into the solar system could some of them been as large as Pluto,and
melted away? Bert

On Oct 5, 7:04 am, (G=EMC^2 Glazier) wrote:

Not having a tail begs the question. Are they out there but unseen? If
Pluto had a elongated orbit that got it as close to the Sun as Mercury
would it have a tail,and would we call it a comet? Would it be to big
to call it a comet? Its two small to be called a planet. When comets
came into the solar system could some of them been as large as Pluto,and
melted away?

Seems like having a tail is what defines a comet AS a comet. Would a
*tailless* object of the same mass and on the same trajectory as it
rounds the sun still be defined as a comet?
And would a 'real' comet, when it's out furthest
from the sun and sporting no tail, still be technically a comet? Deep
questions for inquiring minds. :-) oc

Comets lose their tails and become asteroids, BEERTbrain. Wow, you
sure are behind in astronomical knowledge!

Saul Levy


On Wed, 3 Oct 2007 08:20:15 -0400, (G=EMC^2
Glazier) wrote:

Tempel 1 looks so dry,and with all those sandy craters begs the question
"does it have a tail?" Some comets tails are millions of miles long,and
that could tell us something about its composition. Tempel 1 when hit
by that 600lb projectile caused a man made crater and the explosion
blaster fine dust 100 of miles into space(mostly fine dust.) Tempel 1
seen close up has proven it is not a dirty snow ball. I think when more
and more comets are probed we will have to change are way of describing
them. Comets 3.8 billion years ago were very wet. Now they are very
dry. The Sun has destroyed water molecules. into their two atoms. Its
the dense atmosphere of the Earth that has saved water from breaking
apart. Bert

Cactus Saul So smarty one "answer this". Name me a comet that lost its
tail and is now called an asteroid? Double-A telling us Venus has a
tail means its the Sun's energy that creates the tail. It is their
elongated orbits bring it close to the Sun that changes it from an
asteroid to a comet. Best to keep in mind its the tail that makes them
so spectacular. That gives me this thought. There are comets far from
the Sun that have no tail. No heat to melt their surface ice. they have
no coma. They must be larger too. Well Cactus Saul I'm looking at the
Halley comet(picture in my universe scrape book) it was taken by the
European space probe "Giotto"1986 It got to a few 100s miles and I'm
sure you will find it in Google Its a great image,and will make you
smarter than you now think you are. Bert