Lovejoy Turns Into Killjoy - Comet Survives Close Encounter With Sun .... But, page 3

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reply posted on 19-12-2011 @ 03:43 PM by Illustronic

reply to post by voyger2

The tail of a comet is ionized particles from sublimation, and will always point directly away from the sun. When a comet has also a debris tail it could be offset a bit from the ionized tail forming two tails. The glowing coma of a comet in the inner solar system is much the same as the ion tail, and very light reflective though very sparse, sparser than the best manmade vacuums on earth, gives one a relationship of the density of particles in space.

reply posted on 19-12-2011 @ 04:10 PM by voyger2

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by voyger2

The tail of a comet always points away from the Sun.
www.pd.astro.it...

thank's

didnt know.
so let me think a lilte here. So comtes aren't made of planet's stuff, maybe they are made of star stuff (like our sun). because when a comet aproxes the sun it appear's a tail that act's in oposition to the sun (like magnetic poles with same polarity) besides the gavity force the pull's him to the sun. now the planets that orbit the sun (and the asteroid belt) doesn't have nay tail (or sungraize, like comet's do but still they orbit the sun at known velocity..and it seems the velocity isn't the factor rises the tail, but proximity...so why doesn't mercury do that... is a lot close to the sun... and no sungraize .. nothing....

just a loud thougt, thank's phage

reply posted on 19-12-2011 @ 04:20 PM by Phage

reply to post by voyger2

Comets are composed of rocks, dust and ice. As the comet gets closer to the Sun the ice is warmed and turns into gas. As the gas escapes from inside the comet it forces dust into space. The gas and dust are forced away from the comet by the solar wind.

Mercury does have a tail, it is very difficult to see because it is not as dense as that of a comet.
dsc.discovery.com...

reply posted on 19-12-2011 @ 04:21 PM by voyger2

reply to post by Illustronic

thank's.
one more question, whta does it mean "ionized particles from sublimation"n physical terms?

reply posted on 19-12-2011 @ 04:24 PM by Phage

reply to post by voyger2

Sublimation is the process of a solid (like ice) turning directly to a gas (water vapor) without going through a liquid phase. The free molecules are then ionized by solar radiation.

reply posted on 19-12-2011 @ 04:34 PM by voyger2

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by voyger2

Comets are composed of rocks, dust and ice. As the comet gets closer to the Sun the ice is warmed and turns into gas. As the gas escapes from inside the comet it forces dust into space. The gas and dust are forced away from the comet by the solar wind.

Mercury does have a tail, it is very difficult to see because it is not as dense as that of a comet.
dsc.discovery.com...

very nice phage..you know a lot.
so help me here... if is the gas that is coming out with the dust particles, it intrigues me also, that this gas that is heaten up with the proximity to the sun starts make a long tail od dust the stays behind the comet, but when the comet comes around from the sun, the most strnge thing happens, ...this is... the dust of the comet upcomes the velocity of the comet...how is that possible? are the solar winds faster than the velocity of the comet?

Another thing the made me think about this comet, is that the taill seems to shrink when it comes closer to the sun because when e comes around after some time is tail gets longer agains (maybe is the point of view...dont know)
thanks anyway Phage

reply posted on 19-12-2011 @ 04:37 PM by voyger2

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by voyger2

Sublimation is the process of a solid (like ice) turning directly to a gas (water vapor) without going through a liquid phase. The free molecules are then ionized by solar radiation.

wow...and these moleculs can travel faster then comet... fascinaiting.. altought

reply posted on 19-12-2011 @ 04:44 PM by Phage

reply to post by voyger2

Yes, the solar wind is faster than the comet, 400 km/s or more. But if you look at the diagram, the tail never really is in the same path that the comet follows, it is pushed sideways. So, even if the solar wind was not so fast there would still be a tail.

Yes, the "shrinking" of the tail is because of the point of view.

reply posted on 19-12-2011 @ 04:55 PM by voyger2

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by voyger2

Yes, the solar wind is faster than the comet, 400 km/s or more. But if you look at the diagram, the tail never really is in the same path that the comet follows, it is pushed sideways. So, even if the solar wind was not so fast there would still be a tail.

Yes, the "shrinking" of the tail is because of the point of view.

thank's again phage

you have an answer for everything...
this was the video that raised me this lots of quetions jhelioviewer.org...

edit on 19-12-2011 by voyger2 because: (no reason given)

reply posted on 19-12-2011 @ 05:43 PM by C.H.U.D.

Originally posted by voyger2
So comtes aren't made of planet's stuff, maybe they are made of star stuff (like our sun)

Just to add a little to phage's reply...

Comets are thought to be the left over material from the formation of our solar system - the building blocks from which the planets in our solar system are made from.

Since most comets spend most of their time away from the sun at the outer edges of our solar system, they have effectively been kept in a state of "deep-freeze" since the formation of the solar system, and are considered to be in relatively pristine condition. This is one of the main reasons scientists are so interested in them - they can give us clues as to how our solar system formed.

reply posted on 20-12-2011 @ 03:29 AM by kobewan69

reply to post by ngchunter

Thanks for the info and the time to explain, makes sense to me now

reply posted on 20-12-2011 @ 08:31 AM by Illustronic

Sublimation is also the process of mineral/rock turning to a gaseous state bypassing the liquid state as what apparently is continuing at the planet Mercury, its 'tail' explained as being mostly sodium, though explained from micrometer strikes, I believe its more of the process of Mercury's body being dissolved into space. The planet Venus however retains most of its mineral sublimation in its thick mostly CO2 atmosphere which is drawn out of its mineral rock from the heat. Discoveries of methane signatures some like to relate to carbon based life signatures while it is also a natural sublimation process from a hotter interior that can produce methane signatures on the surface of planets with no life.

Sublimation is a technique used by chemists to purify compounds. A solid is typically placed in a sublimation apparatus and heated in a vacuum. Under this reduced pressure, the solid volatilizes and condenses as a purified compound on a cooled surface, leaving a non-volatile residue of impurities behind. Once heating ceases and the vacuum is removed, the purified compound may be collected from the cooling surface.

reply posted on 20-12-2011 @ 09:03 AM by voyger2

reply to post by Illustronic
[more:

How can we explain that mercury, being so near to the sun can still have ice water...
www.nrao.edu...

edit on 20-12-2011 by voyger2 because: (no reason given)

reply posted on 20-12-2011 @ 09:30 AM by Ophiuchus 13

What is interesting to me is the fact that there was another object in front of LOVEJOY that was moving in the same direction as the comet in lasco c3 you see it between dates 121311-121511, some interesting fragment movement and I wonder if it made it thru as well?

reply posted on 20-12-2011 @ 09:30 AM by Illustronic

reply to post by voyger2

Mercury rotates very slowly, for 59 days one side faces the sun so the shade side can reach temperatures as low as 100K, and as the link you provided furnished, some polar craters in perpetual shade can reach 90K. For comparison the shade side of Pluto can reach 40K, that's 40ºC above Absolute Zero.

So parts of the 1st rock from the sun can reach a surface temperature of -298ºF, colder than anything on earth or Mars. 3 days on Mercury equals two Mercury years, some consider that a tidal lock.

reply posted on 20-12-2011 @ 09:32 AM by Ophiuchus 13

seen here