Two more photographs of Comet McNaught C2006 P1 just after sunset over Cape Town, South Africa, from my Internet Relay Chat pal who lives by the Atlantic Ocean. Click, maybe they get bigger.
At top, the eccentric ellipse orbit of a comet (Wikipedia image). The more eccentric (elongated) the ellipse is, the farther away from the Sun (and Earth) it travels, and the more time -- centuries or millennia -- it takes to return to our neighborhood again. Comet McNaught's ellipse is so eccentric that, mathematically, it is almost a parabola.
An ellipse and a parabola are members of a family of curves called, since ancient Greek times, the Conic Sections. They can all be produced by slicing a cone with a plane.
Notice the comet's gas tail. The pressure of the Sun's radiation always keeps the tail pointed away from the Sun.
What a nice man! What an interesting answer.
When I was just starting out as a newspaper reporter, my editor told me: The only stupid question is the question you don't ask.
I'm glad I asked.
What a sad reminder of how short the life of even the oldest of us is. Mark Twain was born when Halley's Comet was visible from Earth, and Mark Twain died when Halley's Comet was visible from Earth. None of us will ever see it three times.
Someday the fabulously bright Comet McNaught will fly near Earth again. But none of us will ever see it again.
----- Original Message -----
From: Robert Merkin
To: comet@aerith.net
Sent: 1/28/2007 3:26:59 PM
Subject: amateur asks question: What is Period of Comet McNaught?
Dear Seiichi Yoshida,
Thank you for all your fascinating information about Comet McNaught C2006 P1.
I am the most humble of amateurs. My greatest achievement to date in astronomy was to travel from the USA to Alice Springs, Australia to view Comet Halley 1P (through the borrowed telescopes of the Alice Springs Astronomy Club).
May I bother you with a question?
What is the (computed) Period of Comet McNaught? When is it predicted to return to our Earth neighborhood again?
I thought that 3 observations (as separated as possible) of a comet was enough to compute its orbit ellipse and its period, but in all the websites about Comet McNaught, I have seen no computation/prediction of its Period.
I understand the calculus and a bit of differential equations if your answer requires me to.
Thank you for tolerating the curiosity of an amateur. And thank you for your wonderful charts of Comet McNaught's path through the Zodiac!
Yours,
Bob Merkin
Northampton Massachusetts USA
P.S. A wonderful amateur photo of Comet McNaught above Cape Town, South Africa, sent me by a woman cyber-friend:
http://vleeptronz.blogspot.com/2007/01/here-it-is-comet-mcnaught-above-cape.html
She hadn't heard about the Comet, but one night she saw camera flashes from the beach outside her apartment, and all these people were aiming their digital cameras at the sky.
I don't know why they were using their flash. Well -- that's why you're a professional astronomer and we're amateurs.
==================
> [Original Message]
> From: Seiichi Yoshida
> To:
> Cc:
> Date: 1/29/2007 11:31:47 AM
> Subject: Re: amateur asks question: What is Period of Comet McNaught?
Dear Robert Merkin,
Comet McNaught will never return again in our lifetime. The orbit is almost parabolic.
Best regards,
Seiichi Yoshida
comet@aerith.net
http://www.aerith.net/
==================
----- Original Message -----
From: Robert Merkin
To: Seiichi Yoshida
Sent: 1/29/2007 6:06:05 PM
Subject: Re: amateur asks question: What is Period of Comet McNaught?
Thanks so much!
Bob Merkin
4 comments:
it's a good article and I think you're an excellent redactor, but it should fit snugly in the original rectangle. Unfortunately strings tend to be elastic so if you push harder on the pencil stretching the string more you will get a bigger ellipse, pushing less it will be smaller. 23jj
Amazing, this remembers me once a situation where i said the same to one person and inside wishing happiness for her. Anyway I didn't know anything about this, is really cool to see stars rain on night.
Hiya kamagra!
Who are you, where are you, how'd you stumble into Vleeptron?
The night sky is wonderful, every night of clear weather is a precious gift which we should not throw away by sleeping.
(The evil Count Saknussem never slept, and said: "I hate those little slices of death.")
It is not enough just to carry someone we love in our heart and memory. When she goes away, it rips something out of us, and the wound never heals. Only seeing her again can heal the loss.
Really useful information, thanks for the post.
Post a Comment