[meteorite-list] 17P Holmes

[Chris Peterson]

It requires only a tiny percent of the mass to be ejected in order to 
produce an immense coma. Furthermore, the mass almost certainly was 
ejected at low velocity, and seems to be fairly isotropic.

The apparent motion of the comet is quite low now, so it will take some 
time to get enough measurements to accurately calculate the orbital 
elements. But I rather expect that the effect of the outgassing on the 
orbit is very small.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "E.P. Grondine" <epgrondine at yahoo.com>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2007 3:06 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] 17P Holmes


> Hi all -
>
> (My earlier post on this appears not to have made it
> to the list.)
>
> Does anyone know yet how the outgassing (and whatever
> caused it) has affected 17P's orbit?
>
> E.P. Grondine