The Universe Electric - Comet - Excerpt

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n a v i g a t i o n a n d p r i n t i n g

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3ELECTRIC

UNIVERSE

THE

COMET SA M P L

E - C h a p

t e r O n e O

n l y

SA M P L E - C h

a p t e r O n

e O n l y



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written by

Wallace Thornhill

David Talbott



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collaborators

(the thunderbolts project)

Stephen J. Crothers

David Drew

Michael Goodspeed

Michael Gmirkin

Kevin Merrell

C. J. Ransom

Donald E. Scott

Dave Smith

Steve Smith

Ian Tresman



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editor–in–chief

David Talbott

managing editor, book design, graphics

Ben Ged Low

technical, scientific consultant

Wallace Thornhill

Copyright © by David Talbott & Wallace Thornhill 2008. All rights reserved.

This ebook may not be reprinted or distributed in electronic, print, web, or

other format without express written permission. [email protected]



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table of contents

comets ........................................................................................... 11

the ʻdirty snowballʼ theory .............................................................. 13

problems with the ʻdirty snowballʼ model ....................................... 17

the ʻelectricʼ comet ......................................................................... 31

Deep Impactʼ and the ʻelectric modelʼ predictions ......................... 52

other issues .................................................................................. 74

comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 ............................................................ 77

comet Holmes ............................................................................... 84

collaborators .................................................................................. 96

references ...................................................................................... 97

related web links ............................................................................ 98

related reading materials ............................................................... 99

picture credits ................................................................................ 103



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or more than fifty years most astronomers

have viewed comets as loose aggregates of snow and dust, or "dirty snowballs," that slowly

evaporate in the solar heat as they approach

the sun.

F

COMETS



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sun = hot

sublimating ices

coma

nucleus (composed of ‘dirty ices’)

tail

sublimating (vaporizing) water ices

containing dust becomes the coma and tailof the comet

deep space = cold

solar heat & light



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• Comets are composed of dust and ices left over

from the formation of the solar system billions of

years ago.

• The comet accelerates as it approaches the Sun

on an elliptical orbit. The radiant heat from the

sun sublimates (evaporates) the ices. The gases

expand around the nucleus of the comet to form

the coma and are swept back by the solar wind

to form the tail.

the ‘dirty snowball’ theory

For the purposes of

illustration the comet

‘nucleus’ has been

made large - it would

be virtually invisible in

proper scale to the

coma and tail.



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• With the comet’s repeated passages around the

Sun, solar heat vaporizes surface ice and leaves a

“rind” of dust.

• The solar heat penetrates the surface of a

blackened, shallow crust, and pockets of gasform. Where the pressure breaks through the

surface, energetic jets form.



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sun = hot

energetic jets

nucleus (with ‘rind of dust’)

deep space = cold

(solar heat)



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problems with the ‘dirty snowball’ model

Comet Halley

The discoveries and observations that have

startled and/or confounded cometologists include:

• the presence of high-speed collimated jets

exploding from comet nuclei;

• the inexplicable confinement of these jets intonarrow filaments, defying the behavior of

neutral gases in a vacuum;

• jets occurring on the dark sides of comet nuclei;



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• comet surfaces with sharply carved relief — the

opposite of what astronomers expected under the

"dirty snowball" model;

• a lack of water ice and other volatiles on comet nuclei;

problems with ‘dirty snowball’ model

Comet Wild 1



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• unexpectedly high temperatures and X-ray emissions

from cometary comas;

• evidence for 1 oxygen atom combined with 1

hydrogen atom (OH) in cometary comas (a discovery

that allowed astronomers to think they were seeing

evidence of the ultraviolet breakdown product of water ice (H2O) removed from the comet surface);

• mineral particles from comets that can only be formed

under extremely high temperatures — the last thing

one would expect from a chunk of dirty ice arriving

from the outermost reaches of the solar system;


Comet Hyakutake



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• comets flaring up while in "deep freeze," beyond the

orbit of Saturn;

• comets disintegrating far from the Sun;

•comet dust particles more finely and evenly divided

than is plausible for the accretion of material to form

the comet in the outer solar system;




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Comet Linear fragments,

August 5, 2000



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• the unexplained ability of a relatively minuscule comet

nucleus (only a few kilometers in diameter) to hold in

place a huge coma, sometimes larger than the sun

(up to millions of kilometers in diameter), against theforce of the solar wind.


Comet IZ



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Earth

Comet–coma & tail(nucleus too small to be seen)

This is the relative size of the comet Hale-Bopp to theEarth. Even though thenucleus is miniscule (seecomparison opposite page),the coma and tail is vast



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So many of the observed phenomena of the comet

now contradict the ‘dirty snowball’ model.

But if it isn’t a ‘dirty snowball’ what is it?



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t h e t h u n d e r b o l t s p r o j e c t

Copyright © by David Talbott & Wallace Thornhill 2009. All rights reserved.

This ebook may not be reprinted or distributed in electronic, print, web, or

other format without express written permission. [email protected]

SA M P L E - C h a

p t e r O n e

O n l y

SA M P L E - C h a p

t e r O n e O

n l y



33THE THUNDERBOLTS PROJECT

SA M P L E

- C h a p t e

r O n e O n l y

SA M P L E

- C h a p t e r O n

e O n l y

The Universe Electric - Comet - Excerpt

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