Earth Sciences 1086F/G Lecture Notes - Edmond Halley, Deep Space 1, List Of Nearest Stars And Brown Dwarfs
22 Apr 2014
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What is it: small icy object, frozen gases vaporize as it falls, leaving a trail. Why study: oldest bodies in solar system, they probably brought amino acids, for life to exist, liquid water must exist. Anatomy: nucleus hard to measure. Solid ice turns to vapor and makes atmosphere. Part of coma goes into elongated tail. This determines nucleus composition: mostly water, refractory shit made of chon. Coma and nucleus make head: tail. Two of them: dust tail small dust reflects light. Ion tail blue, glowing gas, long, pushed away from sun: dust tail pushed away from orbit, ion tail pushed away from sun. Orbits: long-period comets millions of years to orbit sun. Prograde, retrograde, all inclinations and orientations: short-period comets 200 years or less. Nuclei loses mass fast (will kill halley) Gravitational control of planets (lexell and jupiter: dynamical lifetime of million years, 2 choices. Comets made outside solar system and put into ours.
