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Originally posted by ngchunter
Originally posted by favouriteslave
Originally posted by OnWhiteMars
Please somebody with more knowledge, guide me through my dilemma. I'm not ashamed to admit that I have been intrigued by this hype that a long-distance visitor named Elenin has triggered. It's been a nice ride and by filtering out the most outrageous, over the top claims, I've even learned a lot regarding mythology, history, astronomy and so on... There's a certain void in me that has been filled with excitement because of a possible major class event. At the end of the day, a plain 'only facts' -day is far more duller than one with imagination in it.
My dilemma is: I understand that the comet (nucleus) itself may not have survived perihelion, and has faded enough to not be visible in SOHO. But however, please explain to me what happened with the tail, full of debris. Shouldn't it be visible to some degree? Or was it blown away by a CME?
I'm wondering the same thing. Also why does JPL small body data still show it on track? Is it there or not? If it's gone, why not say it's gone. I've been to JPL and NASA site and cannot find anywhere saying that it's gone. Has there been an official announcement or is it the comet that just "disappeared"
C/2009 O1 started disintegrating on or before March 12, 2010, as observed by amateurs who were watching it. JPL still shows its orbit, which includes astrometric observations as late as March 31st. They don't delete the orbital data just because it disintegrated, it will remain up there indefinitely regardless. When a comet disintegrates the material it was composed of disperses along the original orbit over time, and as it disperses it becomes more diffuse and more difficult to observe until finally nothing can be seen.
ssd.jpl.nasa.gov...
If you want to know if a comet has disintegrated or not, amateur astronomers are generally the best source to go to since we keep close tabs on every comet currently visible, much moreso than even professional astronomers do. Amateurs are generally the first to report on a comet's demise.edit on 26-9-2011 by ngchunter because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by ThePerfectMinds
Comet Elenin is already past the Sun and moving away. I will personally be manning a Global Rent a Scope telescope every morning from that date on to catch Comet Elenin rising before the Sun in the East.
Originally posted by LightAssassin
reply to post by this_is_who_we_are
Take your pick.
Hit by a CME.
Too close to the Sun.
US Navy Space Command shot it to pieces.
It's merely cloaked now.
It never existed.
Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by this_is_who_we_are
Any comet (or other object) which was ever in the database remains in the database. Even Shoemaker-Levy 9 which clobbered Jupiter in 1994.