Composition of a Comet Poses a Puzzle for Scientists

NY Times ^ | September 7, 2005 | KENNETH CHANG

[King Prout]

or some WHEN warmer

[King Prout]

huh???

[Unicorn]

Check with Greta

[null and void]

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)...

[George Oh Well]

"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".

[mlc9852]

That is exactly what I was thinking! LOL

[akorahil]

Tiamat is around?
Someone get Marduk; his job isn't quite finished...

[null and void]

They're talkin' 'bout you...

[Mikey_1962]

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

GAME ON!

[neverdem]

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

[King Prout]

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

I wish she'd reconsider.

[null and void]

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

I'm gonna miss that Bronze Age Gal.

[GOPJ]

the obvious answer is that it formed somewhere warmer.

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

[vannrox]

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?

[null and void]

Is it really too difficult to understand the life form that might be billions of years old?

Yeah. Nothing is older than 4004 BC...

[Doctor Stochastic]

For Comparison

[Right in Wisconsin]

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?

[PatrickHenry]

Thanks.

[Bernard Marx]

(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?

[null and void]

As far as I know, polycrystalline, grain size in the micron range.

Good for heat spreaders, abrasion resistance, and antistiction coatings.