Life Imitates Bad Art

POSTED BY: Phaedra
UPDATED: Sunday, July 10, 2005 06:39
VIEWED: 3820
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PERFESSERGEE

Friday, July 8, 2005 8:53 PM

They used a nearly-pure copper impactor because there's never been any sign of copper on a comet (lots of spectroscopy data). Therefore, they can just ignore the copper in the plume and assume that anything else came from the comet.

And you're right, it is getting a lot of hype. But it is the first time we've ever made physical contact with an orbiting comet (and only once before with an orbiting asteroid, though we have plenty of those on the earth's surface). Understanding the origin and formation of the solar system may seem pretty esoteric to some (especially those convinced that they already know its supernatural origin), but IMHO it's not at all trivial.

perfessergee

RUE

Saturday, July 9, 2005 1:07 AM

THANKS ! to you both. It's great !! having those niggling questions answered.
I do think that kind of research is a wonderful adventure, and I'm hoping to read lots of information about what they are finding.

AURAPTOR

Sunday, July 10, 2005 3:42 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by HaniTrader:
Nah,

While I'm not up-to-date as to the exact numbers, the impact will only cause (here is where the memory gets fuzzy) the comet to deviate a small fraction from it's current trajectory.

But hey, the money is not so bad... after all, we folk are the most horrific infestation of life this world has seen- it's about time we take a good look at potentially exploitable resources in our neighborhood- we don't have to many left to exploit here after all.

HHHmmmmmmmmm,

I'm feeling a bit tired and cynical tonight...

1st, we didn't 'bomb' Tempel 1, we merely impacted it so as to get a true idea of what comet's are made of, how old they are....
2nd..HaniTrader..horrific infestation? Dude, I wanna party w/ you... NOT! We'll be 'exploiting resources' for centuries to come, long before we have to reach out and touch the rest of our neighborhood.

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

THEGREYJEDI

Sunday, July 10, 2005 6:39 AM

I'm with Geezer, Hero.

HI-larious.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Chief Engineer - USS SereniTREE
http://tomeofgrey.blogspot.com
Real Fans Wait - 09/30/05

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