Comet Definition and 151 Threads

Homework Statement A comet is observed in a distance of 100 Earth -radius away from the Earth. It is approaching with a speed of 15000 km/h in a direction only 50 off the line connection the two objects. Earth mass 5.97*1024 kg Earth radius 6.378*106 m Gravity constant 6.6726*10-11 Nm2/kg2 (The...

Homework Statement A comet in a circular orbit around the Sun has speed v0 and radius r0 = aRE , where RE is the radius of the Earth’s orbit and α is a constant > 1. The comet has its velocity reduced by Δv in a collision that does not change its initial direction. Show that the...

Homework Statement On July 4, 2005, the NASA spacecraft Deep Impact fired a projectile onto the surface of Comet Tempel 1. This comet is about 9.0 km across. Observations of surface debris released by the impact showed that dust with a speed as low as 1.0 m/s was able to escape the comet...

Homework Statement (a) A certain comet of mass m at its closest approach to the Sun is observed to be at a distance r1 from the center of the Sun, moving with speed v1. At a later time the comet is observed to be at a distance r2 from the center of the Sun, and the angle between rvec2 and the...

probably a dumb question but could a comet or asteroid impact ever create a mini wormhole or mini black hole or the like? also what's worse in terms of impact damage? - a comet, asteroid or meteor? thanks

Homework Statement A comet passes the sun at a distance of closest approach R = 6 * 10^8 m and speed 8 * 10^5 m/sec. How long will it take to travel 80 degrees around its orbit from the point of closest approach. Homework Equations omega = velocity / radius The Attempt at a...

A comet is in an elliptical orbit around the Sun. Its closest approach to the Sun is a distance of 5e10 m (inside the orbit of Mercury), at which point its speed is 9e4 m/s. Its farthest distance from the Sun is far beyond the orbit of Pluto. What is its speed when it is 6e12 m from the Sun...

Homework Statement A comet is in an elliptical orbit around the Sun. Its closest approach to the Sun is a distance of 4.5e10 m (inside the orbit of Mercury), at which point its speed is 9.6e4 m/s. Its farthest distance from the Sun is far beyond the orbit of Pluto. What is its speed when it...

This new comet is a sun grazer, remember comet neat in 2003? It was is almost 2 times the size of jupiter.. This one may be bigger, but there is no comet tail, why? More about this when it gets closer to the sun, 2 or 3 days?

Homework Statement (a) A certain comet of mass m at its closest approach to the Sun is observed to be at a distance r1 from the center of the Sun, moving with speed v1. At a later time the comet is observed to be at a distance r2 from the center of the Sun, and the angle between rvec2 and...

Homework Statement A comet of the star Sol has an eccentricity of .7. It takes 200 yrs to complete on orbit 1)find the average distance of the comet from Sol. 2) Find the perihelion and aphelion distances from Sol 3)find the velocity of the comet at perihelion Homework Equations...

Comet C/2008 O2 McNaught photos?? Hey guys, I was wondering why there aren't any photos of this comet around. It's quite bright (7.2 mag) and its position is very favorable towards the observers on the northern hemisphere- near the pole, actually... Usually, there would be some galleries on...

Homework Statement I am given Rp=.6AU and need to find the eccentricity. Homework Equations Rp=a(1-e) The Attempt at a Solution I can find what Halley's comet eccentricity is (0.967) but I need to actually calculate it. What is the equation I need? I know I need to know Ra, or a...

Homework Statement "Supposing that at perihelion a comet is 1 Au from the sun and its speed at that point is 200km/s( in a frame of referance in which sun is stationary). Find its mean PE and KE to one sig digit. Does it satisfy the virial theorem? Homework Equations K= .5mv^2 U=-GMm/r...

If a comet kicks the moon, or any celestial object for that matter, out of its orbit and away from the earth, would it alter Earth's rotational axis?

Did you know... ...that a comet's tail doesn't indicate the direction in which the comet is flying? I didn't, but having come across "Deep Impact" on TV yesterday made me wonder how a comet could have a tail formed from its coma when there is no friction to extend the dust to such a tail. And...

Hi all Have been thinking about this for sometime, what is the fundamental difference that makes an asteroid an object orbitting around the star at a lesser speed and not a comet? Hope my question is clear, framing it otherwise why do asteroids not turn into raging comets or comets into...

is it also due to solar wind? if so why is it in a different direction than the gaz tail?

When will the next comet apear for Earth viewers. I know that there is almost always a comet or two visable through a large telescope but when is the next one visable with the naked eye(I want to plan somthing import on that night.) . I wish i was around for comet Hale-Bopp but i was to young.

Can someone take some pictures of Comet Lulin, I will not be able to make it up-North in time ( that’s where my telescope and camera are). I have been reading about it and see it has an anti tail. I never even heard of an anti tail, In some of the pictures I have seen on-line it seems to have...

I am trying to figure out the speed of Halley's Comet in km/sec. at aphelion and perihelion... my answers just don't seem to be practical.. please help thanks... I am using v² = (4Π²a³) / (P²) * ((2/r) - (1/a)) where a = mean distance from the sun (semimajor axis of the ellipse) P=...

Im trying to learn how to calculate orbits. Comet 17P Holmes e: 0.432668 q: 2.053207 Ascending Node: 326.8586 w: 24.2856 Inclination: 19.1134 Epoch: 2454600.5 (2000) Tp: 20070504.5695 I can calculate Semi Major Axis, Semi Minor Axis, semi-latus rectum, Period in years a =...

Homework Statement A comet is 10 times farther from the sun than the Earth. Find the time it take to make its orbit around the sun. Homework Equations T^2/R^3 = K K= 3.36X10^18 The Attempt at a Solution I tried to create a ratio, but I honestly have no idea where to start...

[SOLVED] Mass of a comet problem On July 4, 2005, the NASA spacecraft Deep Impact fired a projectile onto the surface of Comet Tempel 1. This comet is about 9.0 {\rm km} across. Observations of surface debris released by the impact showed that dust with a speed as low as 1.0 {\rm m/s} was...

I'm given the six orbital parameters for a comet and am asked to find how close it comes to earth, but I'm not sure how to go about this... Should I calculate the position of the comet and Earth and the comet's perihelion passage? If so, are there equations for this type of thing? The...

[SOLVED] 3 explanations of comet velocity. OK? Homework Statement This is from Advanced Physics by Adams and Allday, spread 3.31. Explain why comets in very eccentric orbits move very slowly far from the Sun and very fast close to it. Give three explanations, one in terms of energy, one...

Homework Statement There is a system of 3 bodies, consisting of the sun, the Earth and a comet. When the comet is at perihelion it is at a distance half that of the Earth's orbital radius. At this point it has a speed twice that of the earth's. Ignore the gravitational forces between the...

Homework Statement There is a comet that is at a position between the Earth and the sun that has an orbital radius half that of Earth's, this is the perihelion position for the comet. The comet's and Earth's orbits are coplanar. The comet's orbit crosses that of the earth's. When the comet...

I went out and spotted Holmes tonight. Nice little blob next to Mirfak. Tomorrow I'll get out my scope. I want to see its track so I'm looking for a sky map that shows its path. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Comet_Holmes_trajectory_TLR1.gif" but there's something weird about the map...

Hey guys. If it is clear out in your part of the World, look to the left of Delta and Alpha Perseus. There is a naked eye comet there. Look for a fuzz ball (it doesn't have a tail) that makes a point in a equallateral triangle with delta and alpha. It is beautiful in a telescope.

A comet is in an elliptical orbit around the Sun. Its closest approach to the Sun is a distance of 4.5 1010 m (inside the orbit of Mercury), at which point its speed is 8.9 104 m/s. Its farthest distance from the Sun is far beyond the orbit of Pluto. What is its speed when it is 6 1012 m from...

Homework Statement When I plug in all of the parameters for Halley's comet (from Wikipedia) into Kepler's third law a get a semimajor axis of 38.56 AU when it should be about 17? Can someone else try it and see if I am crazy?Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution

Question About "Comet Hunting" So I I was glancing at the Google sky site when I happened upon a little clip about the Messier catalog. It was interesting to see that that was how it got its name, from a man whom was "comet hunting" and happened to catalog these other celestial wonders. (I am...

Hi (I hope I'm posting in the right place) In physics class we are currently working with projectories of comets etc. that reach the orbit of planets, and get pulled in by its gravity. My teacher is currently doing the work in an excel document, but has requested a better solution for...

I know that a comet often has a nuclea and a very long tail. the gravitation force of the core on the tail particles must be very weak and they will not have opportunity to come back to the core. So consequently, the comet will decay over time won't it? Is that right?

There's all sorts of speculations about Earth's distruction. Some say it's going to end as the words in the Bible and Mayan calendar say in 2012. No without majic the only way this cn occer is Science. An asteroid aside from a super volcano i s the only thing I know that could bring about...

This seems a rather ignorant thing to say: http://www.physorg.com/news91889915.html They're talking about originally defining Pluto as a planet, but see bold: "...At the time, there was a debate about what to call this thing. There weren't that many options. Can you call it an asteroid...

Some comets like Comet McNaught glow very brightly in the sky. However, they are not a sun, obviously. They are just large chunks of rock? It can't just be from the sun's reflection? Or is it as the bright ones have an ice coating around them. I know they have large kinetic energy but not enough...

...and we in the northern hemisphere won't see it at its best. Comet McNaught is predicted to reach between mag -4 and -9. At -4 (I think it is already there), it is merely the brightest in 30 years. At -9, it could be the brightest ever recorded. People are taking pictures of it with...

If I have the eccentricity and the perihelion of an orbit given, how can I compute the aphelion?

I saw the comet earlier tonight using 15x70 binoculars in the middle of a small city. It's a brighter than (and not too far from) M13, and should be a fairly easy naked eye object in semi-dark skies. Anyone had any good views?

Is this a video of a small asteroid or comet impacting Earth's atmosphere? Exactly what kind of scientific data is being displayed in this video? [/Color] Reference: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9105627519592040246

Hey everyone, I am not sure if this is the right place to post, but here, it says that a commet will hit Earth on my 25th (in 4 days), and exactly, the atlantic ocean. That means, it will cause a mega tsunami... Everyone is talking about that here in Morocco (since "we are the first ones to be...

Hello what if a big comet(let's say, as big as our moon), made mainly of ice(95%), hit venus, 1) Would this change the orbit of venus, and if it did, would there be any effects on Earth and any other planets. 2) Would the atmosphere of venus changed, if yes, what would be the...

Q.Halley's comet is in an elliptic orbit about the sun. The orbit eccentricity is 0.967 and the period is 76 years. Taking the mass of the sun to be 2 \times 10^30 kg abd the usual value of G, determine the max and min distances of the comet from the sun. Now I've worked out teh answers but...

http://reuters.excite.com//article/20050705/2005-07-05T134242Z_01_L04309275_RTRIDST_0_ODD-RUSSIA-HOROSCOPE-DC.html :rolleyes: :smile: I feel bad for whoever the people are at NASA who have to actually deal with the legal nonsense, but I sure do wish I was there to see the expression on the...

A comet moves in an elliptical orbit around the sun. It's closest approach to the sun is 0.59 AU and its greatest distance form the sun is 35AU. If the comet's speed at its closest approach is 54 km/s what is the speed when it is farthest away? Angular momentum is conserved and the gravitational...

I spotted comet Machholz tonight in my backyard (basically a full moon) with my small scope (3.5" Refractor)...mainly b/c i didn't feel like bringing out the big boy. Is is me or i did not see much of a tail (really not a tail at all)...just the nucleus and the coma around it??...magnification...

Here is a news story about it - get out those trusty old 7x50 binoculars and take a look! http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=96&ncid=753&e=10&u=/space/20041207/sc_space/newcometnowvisibletonakedeye

why does the velocity of the comet increases as it comes near the planets