Time to break out all of your old Slim Whitman yodeling records.
Posted on 02/06/2023 7:58:53 AM PST by BenLurkin
The origins of Comet 96P/Machholz (96P) have puzzled scientists for decades since its discovery. It is a four-mile-wide “sungrazer” object with a host of weird properties that suggest it may be an interloper from another star system. For instance, 96P’s composition is extremely unique and its orbit is highly tilted, causing it to pass closer to the Sun than almost any other comet.
These features, among others, suggest that 96P may have been rerouted into our solar system by a chance encounter with Jupiter after its voyage across interstellar space. In an ironic twist, however, the comet's interactions with Jupiter have obscured its backstory and raised the possibility that its oddities could simply point to an origin in an unusual part of our own solar system, or as part of a local celestial body that broke apart.
96P was first discovered by the amateur astronomer Donald Machholz, who spotted it with binoculars from California in 1986. More recent observations have revealed that the object is bizarrely depleted in common materials, like carbon and cyanogen, and does not appear to possess the dusty atmosphere, or “coma,” seen around other comets in the solar system.
These features hint that the comet might be a completely stripped down nucleus with a “primordial and possibly…interstellar origin,” according to a 2019 study in Astrophysical Journal, co-authored by Knight, that was based on observations of 96P’s 2017 perihelion.
Those observations also revealed that the comet’s colors appear similar to those of ‘Oumuamua, which was the first unambiguous interstellar object ever seen in the solar system. ‘Oumuamua hurtled through our system in late 2017, and also displayed weird features and motions that led to some speculation that it was a piece of alien technology, though most scientists think it had a natural origin
(Excerpt) Read more at vice.com ...
Idiots who are trying to explain something that they don’t know anything about to get clicks on their internet links.
Someone watched tooooo much Dr Who ,LOL
Idiots who are trying to explain something that they don’t know anything about to get clicks on their internet links.
Close enough.
Can they at least blow up Congress?
Easy to see that you didn’t learn anything from reading the article.
Have that.
Wish it was in that good a shape.
Slim Whitman actually was very talented and I still enjoy his music.
Here is his version of Indian Love Call that was featured in the 1996 movie, Mars Attacks!
It is a classic. Sorry for hijacking the thread.
Careful with that axe, Eugene...
Donald Machholz, comet hunter and co-inventor of Messier marathon, dies at age 69
Soft-spoken with an encyclopedic knowledge of the solar system’s small bodies, Machholz regularly scoured the heavens for most of his life.
By Jake Parks
Published: Wednesday, August 10, 2022
https://astronomy.com/news/2022/08/donald-machholz-prolific-comet-hunter-dies-at-age-69
But call them angels or demons or God or Jesus and watch what happens.
“the object is bizarrely depleted in common materials, like carbon”
See? Carbon taxes work!
I used to have that album on vinyl.
The rest of the Oumuamua keyword, sorted, with editing and two external links:
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