SOME INFO ON COMET 73P

by lightbulb, Saturday, May 06, 2006, 12:25

Hello Everyone,

No, this is not one of those a comet is going to hit the earth and we're all going to die posts. I am just passing some information along---you can come to your own conclusions.

About a year and a half ago, there was a news article talking about the Spitzer infared telescope. One of the objects talked about in the article which caught my interest was that the telescope saw a comet through a dust cloud surrounding it--which was twenty times the size of Jupiter. Being Curious about it, I wrote to an individual who works for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. I will not mention his name, but I will tell you he is fairly well known and has been quoted in the news for Nasa and JPL.

I asked him what the name of the Comet with the huge cloud around it that the Spitzer telescope saw? He replied that it was SW comet 73/p--(the same comet passing by earth now and disintergrating) There was zero mention of any splitting or outgassing of the comet. He told me the nucleus of the comet was 18 miles in diameter. I also asked him what it was made of, to have a tail and cloud surrounding it of such size. There was no reply. (the correspondence took place in Dec 2004/Jan 2005)

This information may be something, or it may be nothing. Take it as you will. Was the cloud 20x the size of Jupiter caused by the comet outgassing, or was it (the cloud) something just in the same location in space? What material is the nucleus made of? Why no mention of the nature of the comet disintergration. Honestly, I have heard nothing of the initial split in 1995, until people on the net started talking about it's close approach. I find this fact odd, considering the comet collision with a space craft last July 3/4 of 2005--with little information coming out after the initial collision of the craft. (I know they are two different comets) I can't help but think that there could be something potentially funny about comet sw 73/P. (not to mention an almost total media blackout on it)

I honestly don't know what to think--I am not worried about an impact. But is there more to this story?

Your Thoughts,

Lightbulb