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Anonymous
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Hi all,
Not sure if this is the place for this post but here goes you can allways delete it  .
Stardust flew within 149 miles of Comet Wild 2 and captured particles from the comet.
Well done to Nasa and the Stardust probe team for giving us the closest view of a comet(Comet wild2) Stardust .
The comet reminds me of them cabbage patch doll's from years ago lol...... Looking forward to the sample return on the 15th of jan 2006 and seeing what's in this time capsule from 4.5 billion year's ago.
Regards
James
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desertstars
Deja moo
Reged: 11/05/03
Posts: 30057
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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Just seeing that sort of image of a comet is worth the price of admission! And they captured dust as well? Fantastic!
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Tom W.
SVP8 'She turned me into a 3-legged Newt' EQ
Ralph, the All-Purpose 102mm Refractor
Under the Desert Stars
Alcohol and calculus do not mix. Please don't drink and derive.
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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I've been following Stardust and the other rovers ever since there launches. After the Beagle, Stardust was a great reminder that something can actually go incredibly right.
Lets just hope Spirit and Opportunity can land, or not get caught and taken as POW's by little green men.
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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P.S. It's to bad CONTOUR didn't survive...I think it was supposed to take detailed pictures of a comets nucleus...
Rumor has it, during one of it's burns, the engine disintegrated the craft...whoops 
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matt
Vendor (Scopemania)
Reged: 07/28/03
Posts: 10022
Loc: Chaville, France
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Quote:
Hi all,
Not sure if this is the place for this post but here goes you can allways delete it .
Stardust flew within 149 miles of Comet Wild 2 and captured particles from the comet.
Well done to Nasa and the Stardust probe team for giving us the closest view of a comet(Comet wild2) Stardust .
The comet reminds me of them cabbage patch doll's from years ago lol...... Looking forward to the sample return on the 15th of jan 2006 and seeing what's in this time capsule from 4.5 billion year's ago.
Regards
James
It IS the right place!  Before to discuss space exploration you would open a thread on planetary observing or something like that.
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Matt
CI700 mount with various scopes on top.
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matt
Vendor (Scopemania)
Reged: 07/28/03
Posts: 10022
Loc: Chaville, France
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Quote:
P.S. It's to bad CONTOUR didn't survive...I think it was supposed to take detailed pictures of a comets nucleus...
Rumor has it, during one of it's burns, the engine disintegrated the craft...whoops
Contour was bound to explore Comet Encke.
The official report on the loss of Contour is at:
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2003/oct/HQ_03324_contour.html
and yes, it's pretty likely the probe burnt itself up.
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Matt
CI700 mount with various scopes on top.
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Special Ed
Post Laureate
Reged: 05/18/03
Posts: 3545
Loc: Greenbrier Co., WV 38N, 80W
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<<< "I guess now the question is, are these impact craters or vents through which the comets "exhales"?
I guess that as Wild II is a periodic comet, it has been in the inner solar system enough times to get this kind of battering." >>>
Matt, continuing the conversation begun in the planetary observing forum about the pockmarked surface of Wild 2--that's a good guess on the possible origin of those craters.
My question is: With that kind of battering (or venting), how do those comets stay in the same orbit?
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Michael Rosolina
8" f/10 Orange Tube SCT
4.25" f/4.2 Astroscan Reflector
SVP 3.6" f/13.6 CA Reflector
40mm PST f/10
APM Germany HD 15x70 binoculars
Canon 12x36 IS II binoculars
Mark I Eyeball
My CN Gallery
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matt
Vendor (Scopemania)
Reged: 07/28/03
Posts: 10022
Loc: Chaville, France
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Aha! great question, multiple answers.
First, I would say that even impacts that pack a wallop contain little energy compared to the kinetic energy induced by the orbit. No quantitative insights there, just an hypothesis.
Second, comets have slightly irregular orbits as their water vapor exhaust acts as rockets, thereby changing their trajectories. You will notice when looking at comet bulletin boards that they now and then update. Less so with old, short period comets which are less active. So trajectory is modified at least as much by this than by impacts.
Third, we don't have a clue how old these craters are, they might be billions of years old. You will notice that our Moon has a few craters to show for, and its trajectory is quite stabke  .
Fourth, we don't know the consistency of the comet. I remember an exercise of high school physics, were you had to work on the effect of firing a bullet at a frying pan (very rigid object) hanging from a clothesline and at a sand bag (perfectly soft object in the exercise). On the frying pan most of the bullet's energy was converted in heat and deforming the pan, on the sandbag most was converted in moving the sandbag.
There is a mission called Deep Impact aimed at dropping a projectile on a comet and seeing what happens. Currently the leading model of comets is that comets are loose aggregates (case made by 'shreaded' comets like Shoemaker-Levy 9 and Linear Umpteenth), but then we'll have a clue. There was even a NASA website to give your name to be burned on a CD-ROM placed on the impactor (I signed up of course!)!
Maybe that some of the craters we see on Wild 2 (if they are indeed impact craters) have been created by objects big enough to blow up the comet, had it been a solid object.
I just checked on NASA's site, the comet is Tempel 1
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Matt
CI700 mount with various scopes on top.
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Special Ed
Post Laureate
Reged: 05/18/03
Posts: 3545
Loc: Greenbrier Co., WV 38N, 80W
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<< "we don't have a clue how old these craters are, they might be billions of years old." >>
I wondered about that. I know they say there's a lot less stuff whizzing around now then there used to be.
<< "I would say that even impacts that pack a wallop contain little energy compared to the kinetic energy induced by the orbit. No quantitative insights there, just an hypothesis." >>
If that's true, then how much of a wallop would we have to give to a comet or Near Earth Asteroid to alter a collision course with Earth? I've heard talk about using fusion bombs but what is the equivalent to something that could make one of those craters on Wild 2? Given that W 2 was a sandbag and not a frying pan.
Nice response with more new questions to go with the answers.
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Michael Rosolina
8" f/10 Orange Tube SCT
4.25" f/4.2 Astroscan Reflector
SVP 3.6" f/13.6 CA Reflector
40mm PST f/10
APM Germany HD 15x70 binoculars
Canon 12x36 IS II binoculars
Mark I Eyeball
My CN Gallery
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