[meteorite-list] NASA Announces Comet Encounter News Conference

Mon Nov 22 22:46:48 EST 2010

Images with explanations of what you're seeing.

Carbon dioxide jets carrying water (H20) ice:
http://epoxi.umd.edu/3gallery/20101118_AHearn5.shtml

Water (H20) ice sublimes (from solid to gas):
http://epoxi.umd.edu/3gallery/20101118_AHearn4.shtml

Particles, particles (of water ice) everywhere and
no beer for millions of miles:
http://epoxi.umd.edu/3gallery/20101118_Schultz1.shtml

Fluffy snowbals move with comet in movie (let it load):
http://epoxi.umd.edu/3gallery/vid_20101118_Schultz3.shtml

Carl, here, your spectra. The coma is a match
for micron-sized ice (H20) particles:
http://epoxi.umd.edu/3gallery/20101118_Sunshine2.shtml

Water (H20) ice snowstorm; reminds me of the
north side of Chicago or maybe Milwaukee:
http://epoxi.umd.edu/3gallery/vid_20101118_AHearn2.shtml

Carbon dioxide sublimes (solid to gas) at a much colder
temperature than water ice, therefore it will turn to gas
within the comet at an internal temperature at which
the water ice won't, creating the jets. On the warmer
surface the carbon dioxide has already boiled away by
the time the water ice starts to sublime. This means that
the gas from below (C02) and the gas from the surface
(H20) are coming off at the same time. But the jets of
"hot" C02 (well, hot for C02!) are blowing chunks of ice
off the surface even as they start to "melt."

Sterling K. Webb
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <cdtucson at cox.net>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>; "Bob King" 
<nightsky55 at gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2010 11:44 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] NASA Announces Comet Encounter News 
Conference

> Hi Bob.
> Perhaps you did not read the NASA link I provided in my previous post.
> Here it is in case you missed it;
> http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/19/spacecraft-flies-past-snowstorm-comet/
>
> Again, all do respect here.
>
> To be clear my questions here relate to gaining the knowledge of what 
> rocks to look for that might be of a cometary origin. Not to knock 
> others opinions. I just want logical answers.
> The link  does say they think it is "water ice" as opposed to other 
> substances.
> They go on to say that "jets of carbon dioxide *appear to be* fueled 
> by water vapor. Vapor is the evaporation of boiling liquid water. But 
> later say there are also large hailstone chunks to boot.
> I think it looks like hot dust (smoke) .
>
> They say some of the hailstorm of "Fluffy Ice" that hit the spacecraft 
> may have been between the size of a golf ball and a basketball.  This 
> with NO damage to the spacecraft?
> Dr. A. Hearn  also points out "how different Comets are from one 
> another".
> Aw Ha moment here? They are different!
>
> You ask. How could they stay hot?
> That is the big question.
> I suppose it depends upon what they are made of.  Iron might stay hot 
> longer than mica  for example.
> And or, Perhaps they contain some source of renewable energy source 
> within them? . A source that is yet known to us?
> How do we know whether they are cooling or not?
> That coupled with the fact that all things take time.
> Look no farther than the published cooling rates  of iron meteorites.
> The Tucson iron meteorite is said to not display the widmanstten 
> pattern on an etched surface primarily because in spite of the fact 
> that it contains plenty of nickel, it cooled too fast.
> This cooling rate has been calculated for the Tucson Iron ring 
> meteorite to be in the order of 1 degree C per one thousand years. 
> This again is considered a rapid cooling rate.
> No, nothing makes much sense if you believe what they say that 
> hailstones the size of golf balls to basketballs hit this craft. It 
> had to of been smoke from the intense heat of this comet to have not 
> damaged the craft. ice and even melted ice in the form of water at 27K 
> miles per hour would have damaged the craft.
> Incidentally , I took a piece of coal in the dark and illuminated it. 
> Sorry, but it looks nothing like the close-up pics of Hartley 2 and 
> that is the comet we are talking about here. No antique  distant pics 
> from the past can compare with these new pics. We are in a new age of 
> discovery and should give up these old and possibly obsolete photos 
> and  theories of the past.
> One more thing.
> If these so called  "infrared spectrometers" tell us what this Comet 
> is made of then I would love to hear it? Please spare me the Fluffy 
> ice though. What other minerals are abundant on comet hartley 2? 
> Thanks.
>
> Again.
> IMHO.
> Carl
> --
> Carl or Debbie Esparza
> Meteoritemax
>
>
> ---- Bob King <nightsky55 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi Carl and all,
>> I thought it was clear that the fluffy snow chunks were water ice.
>> They can determine composition of materials on and around the comet
>> with the infrared spectrometer aboard the probe. Water was discovered
>> a while back by ground-based telescopes in quite a number of comets.
>> Also, while some of the stuff spewing out is a few inches across,
>> there's probably a lot more that's tinier - everything from 
>> smoke-like
>> dust particles to tiny bits of snow. Perhaps something on this 
>> smaller
>> end of the scale struck the craft during its flyby.
>> A demonstration I use for my class is to take a piece of black coal,
>> turn off the lights and light it only by the beam from a small lamp 
>> to
>> simulate how a comet appears in space. You'd be surprised by how
>> brightly coal "shines" again the unlit background.
>> Comets were long ago found to not be hot. How could something the
>> interior of something that small (approx 1 mile long) on an orbit 
>> that
>> takes it beyond Jupiter remain warm for very long? Only the outer
>> surface is warmed by sunlight.
>> Regards,
>> Bob
>>
>> On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 3:14 PM, Ron Baalke 
>> <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > Nov. 15, 2010
>> >
>> > Dwayne Brown
>> > Headquarters, Washington
>> > 202-358-1726
>> > dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov
>> >
>> > Jia-Rui Cook
>> > Jet Propulsion Laboratory
>> > 818-354-0850
>> > jccook at jpl.nasa.gov
>> >
>> > Lee Tune
>> > University of Maryland, College Park
>> > 301-405-4679
>> > ltune at umd.edu
>> >
>> >
>> > MEDIA ADVISORY: M10-161
>> >
>> > NASA ANNOUNCES COMET ENCOUNTER NEWS CONFERENCE
>> >
>> > WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. EST on
>> > Thursday, Nov. 18, to discuss new scientific findings from the 
>> > recent
>> > EPOXI mission spacecraft encounter with comet Hartley 2.
>> >
>> > The news conference will originate from the NASA Headquarters
>> > auditorium at 300 E St. SW in Washington. It will be carried live 
>> > on
>> > NASA Television.
>> >
>> > Media representatives may attend the conference, ask questions by
>> > phone or from participating NASA locations. To RSVP or obtain 
>> > dial-in
>> > information, journalists must send their name, affiliation and
>> > telephone number to Steve Cole at stephen.e.cole at nasa.gov or call
>> > 202-358-0918 by 11 a.m. EST on Nov. 18.
>> >
>> > The news conference participants are:
>> > -- Michael A'Hearn, EPOXI principal investigator, University of
>> > Maryland
>> > -- Jessica Sunshine, EPOXI deputy principal investigator, 
>> > University
>> > of Maryland
>> > -- Tim Larson, EPOXI project manager, Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
>> > Pasadena, Calif.
>> > -- Pete Schultz, EPOXI scientist, Brown University
>> >
>> > NASA's EPOXI spacecraft successfully flew past comet Hartley 2 on 
>> > Nov.
>> > 4, providing scientists the most extensive observations of a comet 
>> > in
>> > history.
>> >
>> > For NASA TV streaming video and downlink information, visit:
>> >
>> > http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
>> >
>> > For more information about NASA's EPOXI mission visit:
>> >
>> > http://www.nasa.gov/epoxi
>> >
>> > -end-
>> >
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