Mars-Bound Comet Sprouts Multiple Jets

[Waspie_Dwarf]

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Spots Mars-Bound Comet Sprout Multiple Jets

NASA released Thursday an image of a comet that, on Oct. 19, will pass within 84,000 miles of Mars -- less than half the distance between Earth and our moon.

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[Taun]

I wonder if it's common for an object like that to be bi-axially symetrical when it comes to outgassing jets... I mean.. is it common for there to be two jets on opposite sides of the

nucleus...

I think I'll do a bit of looking it up...

Edited March 27, 2014 by Taun

[taniwha]

I wonder if it's common for an object like that to be bi-axially symetrical when it comes to outgassing jets... I mean.. is it common for there to be two jets on opposite sides of the

nucleus...

I think I'll do a bit of looking it up...

Probably they are random features dependant on angles, velocity, rotation and thermo increases.

[Hvashi]

Comet Siding-Spring will be such an exciting event for us stargazers. I wonder if it'll strike Mars. If it does, what will the repercussions of that be for the inner planets? I know that NASA doesn't predict an impact event on Mars, but there have been a few miscalculations in the recent past about other asteroids. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

but there have been a few miscalculations in the recent past about other asteroids.

Really? Name one.

[Hvashi]

Asteroid 2000 EM26 was miscalculated...the projected return date and path were wrong.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Asteroid 2000 EM26 was miscalculated...the projected return date and path were wrong.

How disappointingly predictable. I knew you would pick 2000 EM26, so I knew you would be wrong.

Asteroid 2000 EM26 had a poorly known orbit with a large degree of uncertainty. It's return time was given as ±13 hours.

Since it was not observed on its return it is not possible to deduce that it's orbit WAS miscalculated. Indeed it probably did return within the margin of error predicted but was simply not seen... small, dark, fast moving objects can often be missed and missing such objects for years at a time is not unusual, but is NOT the result of miscalculation, but rather in the inadequacies of observation.

HERE is a full explanation of why 2000 EM26 was not probably observed

Would you like to try again? Would you like to provide one example of an object that had a well defined orbit that turned out to be miscalculated? I'll be amazed if you can manage it. The mathematics behind orbits have been well understood since the times of Kepler and Newton.