Comet from another star?

Sounds like a great beginning for a 1950's Sci-Fi movie plot:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28023860/
Seriously, if it is from another star system, this would be worth
getting a sample return mission to.
So we sent out a probe to do a flyby of it... and as the probe
approached, we first saw written on the surface of the comet those words
of terror that could spell the doom of mankind: "Space Battleship Yamato
is destroyed...all your anime are belong to us." :-D

Pat Flannery wrote:
Sounds like a great beginning for a 1950's Sci-Fi movie plot:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28023860/
Seriously, if it is from another star system, this would be worth
getting a sample return mission to.
So we sent out a probe to do a flyby of it... and as the probe
approached,....

Hmm. This has all the makings of a "Star Trek" episode. Oh, wait.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masks_(TNG_episode)

--
Dave Michelson

Dave Michelson wrote:

Sounds like a great beginning for a 1950's Sci-Fi movie plot:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28023860/
Seriously, if it is from another star system, this would be worth
getting a sample return mission to.
So we sent out a probe to do a flyby of it... and as the probe
approached,....

Hmm. This has all the makings of a "Star Trek" episode. Oh, wait.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masks_(TNG_episode)

Oh, I remember that one now...they hardly ever re-run it...with good
reason. :-)

Pat

On Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:53:47 -0800, Dave Michelson
wrote:

Hmm. This has all the makings of a "Star Trek" episode. Oh, wait.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masks_(TNG_episode)

....Or it could have a suicidal Q locked in it, or Balok could be
waiting there, surroounded by his insanity paintings, or a spaceship
full of vampires could be in orbit around it.

OM
--
]=====================================[
] OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [
] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [
] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [
]=====================================[

OM wrote:
On Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:53:47 -0800, Dave Michelson
wrote:

Hmm. This has all the makings of a "Star Trek" episode. Oh, wait.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masks_(TNG_episode)

...Or it could have a suicidal Q locked in it, or Balok could be
waiting there, surrounded by his insanity paintings, or a spaceship
full of vampires could be in orbit around it.

So you *were* a member of Rick Berman's inner circle. I should have
guessed!

Hmmm. How many ST episodes featured a comet? The first season TOS
episode "Balance of Terror" did.

Wait. Someone has already researched this:

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Comet

--
Dave Michelson

Dave Michelson wrote:

Hmmm. How many ST episodes featured a comet? The first season TOS
episode "Balance of Terror" did.

Wait. Someone has already researched this:

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Comet

Don't forget the one in the opening credits for DS9's sixth season.

Pat

On Dec 5, 4:35*am, OM wrote:

...Or it could have a suicidal Q locked in it

Yeah, or Terence Stamp :-)

On Dec 4, 1:12*pm, Pat Flannery wrote:
Sounds like a great beginning for a 1950's Sci-Fi movie plot:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28023860/
Seriously, if it is from another star system, this would be worth
getting a sample return mission to.
So we sent out a probe to do a flyby of it... and as the probe
approached, we first saw written on the surface of the comet those words
of terror that could spell the doom of mankind: "Space Battleship Yamato
is destroyed...all your anime are belong to us." :-D

On a more serious note, devoid of any anime nonsense, it seems to me
that the energy requirements to intercept an extrasolar comet on a
hyperbolic trajectory would be too great.
Too much fuel would be needed to even catch up to it.

wrote:
On a more serious note, devoid of any anime nonsense, it seems to me
that the energy requirements to intercept an extrasolar comet on a
hyperbolic trajectory would be too great.
Too much fuel would be needed to even catch up to it.


This one has entered a short period solar orbit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/96P/Machholz

Pat

" wrote in message
...
On Dec 4, 1:12 pm, Pat Flannery wrote:
Sounds like a great beginning for a 1950's Sci-Fi movie
plot:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28023860/
Seriously, if it is from another star system, this would be worth
getting a sample return mission to.
So we sent out a probe to do a flyby of it... and as the probe
approached, we first saw written on the surface of the comet those
words
of terror that could spell the doom of mankind: "Space Battleship
Yamato
is destroyed...all your anime are belong to us." :-D

On a more serious note, devoid of any anime nonsense, it seems to me
that the energy requirements to intercept an extrasolar comet on a
hyperbolic trajectory would be too great.
Too much fuel would be needed to even catch up to it.

=======================

And twice over! You joined an object in a hyperbolic
orbit and it's going *out*. So now you must kill your
hyperbolic velocity and develop an appropriate return
orbit, this is going to be a pretty wild mission.

Actually, re that object from another star, how do you
know that's what it is? I'd expect such an object at
first approximation, to be practically indistinguishable
from something local.

Unless, of course, it turned out to be a *made* object,
like a spacecraft or an aldrin cycler kind of thing.

Titeotwawki -- mha [sci.space.policy 2008 Dec 15]