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Composition of a Comet Poses a Puzzle for Scientists
NY Times ^ | September 7, 2005 | KENNETH CHANG

Posted on 09/07/2005 12:10:01 PM PDT by neverdem

Although comets form at the frigid edges of the solar system, they appear somehow to contain minerals that form only in the presence of liquid water, and at much warmer temperatures, scientists are reporting today.

On July 4, as planned, part of the Deep Impact spacecraft - essentially an 820-pound, washing machine-size bullet - slammed into the comet Tempel 1 at 23,000 miles an hour. The collision tossed up thousands of tons of ice and dust from the comet that were observed by telescopes on Earth as well as small flotilla of spacecraft.

One of the observers was the Spitzer Space Telescope, a NASA mission that takes pictures in the infrared part of the spectrum. In the burst of light after the collision, Spitzer detected specific colors of infrared light that indicated that Tempel 1 contained clays and carbonates, the minerals of limestone and seashells.

Clays and carbonates both require liquid water to form.

"How do clays and carbonates form in frozen comets where there isn't liquid water?" said Carey M. Lisse, a research scientist at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University who is presenting the Spitzer data today at a meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences in Cambridge, England. "Nobody expected this."

Spitzer also detected minerals known as crystalline silicates. Astronomers had already known that comets contain silicates, but silicates line up in neat crystal structures only when they are warmed to 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit - temperatures reached at around the orbit of Mercury - and then cooled.

"How do you do that and then how do you put that stuff into a comet that forms out by Pluto?" Dr. Lisse said.

Dr. Lisse said that the presence of the clays, carbonates and crystalline silicates indicated that material in the solar system's primordial cloud had somehow...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: astrochemistry; catastrophism; comets; deepimpact; minerals; nasa; science; tempel1; xplanets
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To: CzarNicky

or some WHEN warmer


21 posted on 09/07/2005 12:34:57 PM PDT by King Prout (and the Clinton Legacy continues: like Herpes, it is a gift that keeps on giving.)
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To: neverdem

huh???


22 posted on 09/07/2005 12:35:23 PM PDT by King Prout (and the Clinton Legacy continues: like Herpes, it is a gift that keeps on giving.)
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To: RegulatorCountry

Check with Greta


23 posted on 09/07/2005 12:37:57 PM PDT by Unicorn (Too many wimps around.)
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To: neverdem
but silicates line up in neat crystal structures only when they are warmed to 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit - temperatures reached at around the orbit of Mercury - and then cooled.

Uh huh, and diamonds can only be formed under high pressure.

(Unless you are growing them commercially in a low pressure chemical vapor deposition reactor)...

24 posted on 09/07/2005 12:38:11 PM PDT by null and void (Does my life *really* need a sarcasm tag????)
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To: DBrow

"It also seems a bit rash to me to be generalizing data for all Oort and Kuiper objects using data from just one"

Ditto. You know that a Pluto probe goes out next year, right? It's the fastest space vehicle ever made. It'll reach Pluto in 2015, and go on to the Kuiper Belt from there, giving scientists very important data on the early circumstances of life's evolution in the solar system. NASA & planetary scientists are caqlling this "the most important space science project of the next decade".


25 posted on 09/07/2005 12:39:37 PM PDT by George Oh Well
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To: DBrow

That is exactly what I was thinking! LOL


26 posted on 09/07/2005 12:41:06 PM PDT by mlc9852
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To: thchronic
Tiamat is around?
Someone get Marduk; his job isn't quite finished...
27 posted on 09/07/2005 12:46:22 PM PDT by akorahil (consider this space filled with yet another witty and irreverent tag line instead of this...)
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To: tiamat

They're talkin' 'bout you...


28 posted on 09/07/2005 12:50:38 PM PDT by null and void (Does my life *really* need a sarcasm tag????)
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To: neverdem

Its obviously an Ice Rink, anyone who loves hockey could have explained this!

GAME ON!


29 posted on 09/07/2005 12:51:25 PM PDT by Mikey_1962
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To: King Prout; All
huh???

Consider it health and science potpourri for my health and science ping list.

I had grief from the admin mods. I was told that I was posting too many stories that required excerpting, and that I should post my health and science stories in chat. In the case of stories that require excerpting, folks have to link to them anyway to read the whole story. I can't enthusiastically post a health or science story to chat. Multiple unrelated links also means I am less likely to be a pest, which means I'm less likely to be asked to delist someone from my ping lists, lists that have only a vague chronological order

30 posted on 09/07/2005 12:51:42 PM PDT by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: null and void; tiamat

tiamat quit this site: the racism some displayed on Katrina threads was her "last straw".

I wish she'd reconsider.


31 posted on 09/07/2005 1:05:48 PM PDT by King Prout (and the Clinton Legacy continues: like Herpes, it is a gift that keeps on giving.)
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To: King Prout

Damm! I didn't know! I wish she'd reconsider too!!!

I'm gonna miss that Bronze Age Gal.


32 posted on 09/07/2005 1:07:26 PM PDT by null and void (Does my life *really* need a sarcasm tag????)
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To: CzarNicky
the obvious answer is that it formed somewhere warmer.

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner...

33 posted on 09/07/2005 1:11:17 PM PDT by GOPJ (A person who will lie for you will lie against you.)
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To: neverdem
Nice post.

It has long been known that our star; the sun, is a fourth generation star. In other words, it was created from the dust and debris of an earlier star. Which, the earlier star, was formed from the dust and debris from a yet even earlier star. Thisstar as also formed from the debris of an earlier star which was formed from a star that was created from the debris left over from the big bang.

By all accounts, each star had planets, as we know know that systems with planetary bodies are quite common.

Why would it be too difficult to understand that one of these earlier planets had life on it? Is it really too difficult to understand the life form that might be billions of years old?
34 posted on 09/07/2005 2:04:08 PM PDT by vannrox (The Preamble to the Bill of Rights - without it, our Bill of Rights is meaningless!)
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To: vannrox
Is it really too difficult to understand the life form that might be billions of years old?

Yeah. Nothing is older than 4004 BC...

35 posted on 09/07/2005 2:20:15 PM PDT by null and void (Does my life *really* need a sarcasm tag????)
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To: PatrickHenry
For Comparison
36 posted on 09/07/2005 6:55:52 PM PDT by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch is der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: vannrox

God is Life, He's Everything, including a billion years old, and yes He is Alive! So its not to hard to believe "the life form that may be a billion years old." That said, if what you are saying is so obvious, then why wasn't it mentioned by one of the Scientists studying the issue?


37 posted on 09/07/2005 7:00:13 PM PDT by Right in Wisconsin (Get Off of Stupid!!! (General Honore))
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To: Doctor Stochastic

Thanks.


38 posted on 09/07/2005 7:09:45 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (Discoveries attributable to the scientific method -- 100%; to creation science -- zero.)
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To: null and void
(Unless you are growing them commercially in a low pressure chemical vapor deposition reactor)...

True. Please help me out with the crystal structure of CVD diamonds. Are they single-crystal cubic?

39 posted on 09/07/2005 7:32:13 PM PDT by Bernard Marx (Don't make the mistake of interpreting my Civility as Servility)
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To: Bernard Marx
As far as I know, polycrystalline, grain size in the micron range.

Good for heat spreaders, abrasion resistance, and antistiction coatings.
40 posted on 09/07/2005 8:43:10 PM PDT by null and void (Does my life *really* need a sarcasm tag????)
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