My Christmas Image of Comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy)

orogenicman · Feb 20, 2015

I took this on Christmas night since my girlfriend was working. Enjoy:

P.S. Be sure to click on the image to see it full size.

waltky · Oct 26, 2015

Sop-head's dream come true...

Lovejoy Comet Releasing Massive Amounts of Alcohol
October 26, 2015: There is a free cocktail party going on, but the only catch is youll need to get to the comet Lovejoy to partake.

Astronomers revealed that the comet is releasing as much alcohol as in at least 500 bottles of wine every second during its peak activity," according to the Paris Observatory's Nicolas Biver, lead author of a paper on the discovery published Oct. 23 in Science Advances. In addition to ethyl alcohol, the comet is also releasing glycolaldehyde, a simple sugar.

Comet Lovejoy is seen in this February photo released by NASA.

The discovery of the complex organic molecules give further credence to the theory that comets may be responsible for delivering the ingredients necessary for life. "The result definitely promotes the idea the comets carry very complex chemistry," said Stefanie Milam of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, a co-author on the paper. "During the Late Heavy Bombardment about 3.8 billion years ago, when many comets and asteroids were blasting into Earth and we were getting our first oceans, life didn't have to start with just simple molecules like water, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen. Instead, life had something that was much more sophisticated on a molecular level. Comets are remnants from the formation of the solar system, and when their orbit brings them close to the sun they heat up and release gases, creating a dazzling light show.

When Lovejoy, formerly known as as C/2014 Q2, was nearest the sun on January 30 of this year it was releasing water at a rate of 20 tons per second, according to researchers. By analyzing the molecules and how they glow at certain microwave frequencies scientists were able to determine the makeup of the molecules. "The next step is to see if the organic material being found in comets came from the primordial cloud that formed the solar system or if it was created later on, inside the protoplanetary disk that surrounded the young sun," said Dominique Bockelée-Morvan from the Paris Observatory, a co-author of the paper.

http://www.voanews.com/content/lovejoy-comet-releasing-massive-amounts-of-alcohol/3023097.html
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waltky · Apr 30, 2016

Mebbe it got burnt off by the Sun?...

Astronomers Find Tailless Comet, First of its Kind
April 29, 2016 Discovery may offer clues into long-standing questions about solar system's formation and evolution

Astronomers have found a first-of-its-kind tailless comet whose composition may offer clues into long-standing questions about the solar system's formation and evolution, according to research published Friday in the journal Science Advances. The so-called "Manx" comet, named after a breed of cats without tails, was made of rocky materials that are normally found near Earth. Most comets are made of ice and other frozen compounds and were formed in the solar system's frigid far reaches. Researchers believe the newly found comet was formed in the same region as Earth, then booted to the solar system's backyard like a gravitational slingshot as planets jostled for position.

The new comet, known as C/2014 S3, also-called "Manx" comet, which was discovered in 2014 by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, or Pan-STARRS, is shown in this artist rendering

Scientists involved in the discovery now seek to learn how many more Manx comets exist, which could help resolve debate over exactly how and when the solar system settled into its current configuration. "Depending how many we find, we will know whether the giant planets danced across the solar system when they were young, or if they grew up quietly without moving much," the papers co-author Olivier Hainaut, an astronomer with the European Southern Observatory in Germany, said in a statement.

The new comet, known as C/2014 S3, was discovered in 2014 by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, or Pan-STARRS. This network of telescopes scours the nighttime skies for fast-moving comets, asteroids and other celestial bodies. Typically comets coming in from the same region as the Manx grow bright tails as they approach the sun, the result of ice vaporizing off their bodies and gleaming in reflected sunlight. But C/2014 S3 was dark and virtually tailless when it was spotted about twice as far away from the sun as Earth.

The new comet, known as C/2014 S3, also-called "Manx" comet, which was discovered in 2014 by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, or Pan-STARRS, is shown in this artist rendering

Later analysis showed that instead of ices typically found on comets, the Manx comet contained materials similar to the rocky asteroids located in a belt between Mars and Jupiter. And C/2014 S3 appeared pristine, an indication that it had been in the solar system's deep freeze for a long time, said University of Hawaii astronomer Karen Meech, the lead author The discovery of additional Manx comets could help scientists to refine computer models used to simulate the solar system's formation, Meech said.

http://www.voanews.com/content/astronomers-tailless-comet-first-manx/3309548.html
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waltky · May 29, 2016

Key DNA roots in comets halo confirmed...

Space probe confirms key DNA roots in comets halo
Scientists have found further evidence supporting the theory that some of the building blocks for life might have come to Earth from outer space.

Using instruments aboard the European space probe Rosetta, researchers detected glycine and phosphorus in the dusty halo around a comet. Glycine is an amino acid, one of the molecules needed to make proteins, while phosphorus is essential for DNA and cells. Their presence in the coma enveloping comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko supports the idea that comets delivered key molecules for prebiotic chemistry throughout the solar system and, in particular, to the early Earth, according to the study published on Friday online by the journal Science Advances.

Some scientists say that adding a high concentration of those molecules to a body of water could have produced the primordial soup, which some credit with starting life on Earth more than 4 billion years ago. The beauty of it is that the material in the comet was formed before the sun and planets formed, in the cold environment of the star forming region [known as the] molecular cloud, said Kathrin Altwegg, a physicist at the University of Bern, Switzerland, who led the study. That means what has happened a long time ago in the cloud from which our solar system emerged could happen in all clouds, Altwegg told reporters in an e-mail. Then you just need another planetary system forming with a planet at the right position and you could have another go at life. It may not be successful, but as there are billions of stars and as we now know billions of planets, chances are good.

Jonathan Lunine, director of the Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science at Cornell University, said scientists had expected to find glycine in comets. This is because glycine is so simple and easy to make, said Lunine, who was not involved in the study. In fact, glycine has already been detected in meteorites, and NASAs Stardust mission collected samples of dust from comet Wild 2 that were found to contain glycine. However, because those samples were processed on Earth, there was a possibility that the glycine could have resulted from contamination. Scientists used a technique known as isotopic analysis to conclude that the molecules had likely come from a comet. Our detection is a very direct measurement with no human interference directly at the comet, Altwegg said, adding that phosphorus has never previously been confirmed in a comet.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/05/29/2003647408
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My Christmas Image of Comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy)

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