Comment: Comets are NOT "dirty snowballs". Perhaps the reason this comet (and all others) still "baffle" space scientists is because they have no clue about the true nature of comets.
Deep Impact visited Hartley 2 in November, revealing what one scientist described as "our favorite little hyperactive small comet."
Hartley 2 rotates around a central axis much as Earth does, scientists have revealed. But the comet also rolls around its long axis like a spinning bowling pin. Make that a spiky bowling pin: The rough edges of Hartley 2's surface are dotted with rocky spires that can reach 230 feet (70 meters) high.
The new details about comet Hartley 2 were unveiled last week at the 42nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas. [Photos of Comet Hartley 2 Up Close]
Hartley 2 spews out more water than other comets its size, said Michael A'Hearn, a University of Maryland astronomer and the principal investigator on the flyby mission. Frozen carbon dioxide deep in the comet's body turns to gas, jetting off the comet and dragging water with it.
Comment: Comets do not "spew out" water. The negatively charged comet nucleus (which is actually dry and hot) draws in positively charged ions from the material in the solar disc. The reason space scientists hypothesize the source for these gases is "deep within" the comet is because they can't find the source of it. They're looking in the wrong direction.
"There are at least a dozen other comets for which we know that they're relatively high in activity for nucleus size, and they're probably driven either by carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide," A'Hearn told SPACE.com. "What we don't know yet it whether these are a separate class or whether they're just a continuum extending from these more 'normal' comets."
Spiky bowling pin
Deep Impact flew to within 435 miles (700 kilometers) of Hartley 2 on Nov. 4, 2010, just a few weeks after the comet had passed within 11 million miles (17.7 million km) of Earth. Within hours, the craft, which is equipped with two cameras and a near-infrared spectrometer, began beaming back about 125,000 images of the comet, which has two rough, knobby ends and a smooth "waist."
Researchers aren't sure whether the two rough sides of Hartley 2 are connected by solid rock. At least the outer layer - which is several tens of meters thick - is a sort of loose aggregate of material that sloughed off the comet and gathered there, A'Hearn said. [Video: Comet Hartley 2 Visit by Deep Impact]
Comment: The "loose aggregate", if it really is loose, is the dust cloud attracted to the charged nucleus.
The rough ends of Hartley 2 are dotted with spires and rocky blocks, said Cornell University geomorphologist Peter Thomas, who analyzed the terrain of the comet.
And although the comet is constantly throwing off particles as it nears the sun, it lacks the pits and holes seen in other comets. In fact, some parts of Hartley 2, including the spires, seem to get built up before collapsing.
Comment: They don't just "seem" to get built-up. All comets attract material and build up in size.
"We've got an environment of material being moved around on the surface, a sedimentary environment in an object that is losing mass," Thomas said.
Rough edges
Hartley 2 throws off pure, fine-grained ice crystals, aggregated in fluffy chunks as big as basketballs. But what you see coming off the comet depends on where you look, said Lori Feaga, an assistant research scientist at the University of Maryland. The smooth waist puts out more water than the knobby ends, which seem to specialize in outgassing carbon dioxide.
"For the first time, we are able to show that sublimation of subsurface CO2 is actually driving the outgassing activity on a cometary nucleus," Feaga said, "and that the emission is directly linked to the [type of] surface."
Because comets are leftovers from the formation of the solar system, the differences in gas composition between regions of Hartley 2 have led to speculation that the two nodes of the comet formed in separate areas of the solar system.
"We would love to conclude that," A'Hearn said. But the team will need to analyze more data before it can make any claims about the comet's formation, he said
"We hope to be able to do that within six months or so," A'Hearn said.
How much longer can NASA keep this up before the whole world cracks up with mirth and derision? Oh, I forgot, the world’s watching reality TV and thinks anything NASA says is gospel. And hey, what does it matter anyway!
Comet Hartley is all of 2.25km long and NASA will tell you that is was made out of the remnants of the formation of the solar system which NASA will tell you took place all of 4.5 billion years ago (give or take).
So let’s get this straight NASA… this tiny little rock has been chugging around for at least 4 billion years and it’s still giving off ice and water vapour! That’s some gas tank it’s got there!
I suppose like all systemic lies it must be protected at all costs, even in the face of palpable absurdity, and like the emperor with no clothes, no one dares point out the obvious flaw because then everyone in the scientific community who has staked their career on BELONGING (employment, remuneration, kudos, identity, etc, etc) finds their whole world has collapsed!
Please can someone tell me how it is that comets can pass by the sun, streaming trails for millions of miles behind them and not leave the solar system running on empty (I thought the sun was reckoned to be rather hot?) Please NASA do pray explain to us all how and why comets can be spotted beyond Pluto (estimated temperature -220c) giving off the self same display? I’ve yet to come across ice that vaporises at -220c.
Comets are not dirty ice balls. The outbursts are not ice or water. They are electrical discharges caused by the comets interaction with another charged body such as the sun or a planet or an alignment of such.
But of course, you mustn’t say that… because then you would have to admit that electricity is a primal force in the cosmos, and then you might have to admit that the planets and the sun electrically interact, and then you might have to admit that our solar system is not constant and uniform, but super charged and enormously violent, and then you might have to explore how it is that Mars is scared with huge electrical wounds which dwarf comprehension, or that the planet Venus was once a comet and that the earth is covered with Martian rocks, that Saturn is really a brown dwarf star and then hell, then, hell … the emperor might start have to start getting really cross with you!