Halley's Comet Imaged As Transneptunian Object

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Halley's Comet Imaged As Transneptunian Object

Posted by timothy on Tuesday September 2, 2003 @06:58PM from the speck-among-speckles dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The European Space Observatory has imaged Halley's Comet at the farthest point (past Neptune) in which such a 10-kilometer diameter iceball has ever been observed. To image a comet as a raven-black object, without its bright dust tail (coma), is equivalent to seeing a lump of coal at the distance between the Earth's poles and to do so in the evening twilight. The last gasp seen from Halley's Comet was 1991, when a gigantic explosion happened, providing it with an expanding, extensive cloud of dust for several months. It is not known whether this event was caused by a collision with an unknown piece of rock or by internal processes (a last 'sigh' on the way out). Halley has an orbital period just over 76 years and will return in 2062."

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In case of slashdotting... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-09-02 19:10 · Score: 5, Funny

Here's the image, in case it gets /.'ed: . . . . . . . , . . . . (the 2nd one) . . . . . .
1. Re:In case of slashdotting... by EvilTwinSkippy · 2003-09-02 20:51 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  It's morse code for "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  
  --
  "Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
  --Dr.W.Edwards Deming
I'll take it up with Mark Twain... by toxic666 · 2003-09-02 19:21 · Score: 2, Funny

and see if he is any more impressed than me. Perhaps he'll be more concerned about a 1 in 909,000 chance of an impact than he was about his odds of winning a frog jumping contest.
The real reason for the telescope by KingRob · 2003-09-02 19:31 · Score: 3, Funny

ESA's sekret plan is to point that baby at the Apollo landing site and prove once and for all, those lying Amerikanischer Schweinhund never made it to the moon!
1. Re:The real reason for the telescope by Anonymous Coward · 2003-09-02 19:42 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  The Chinese have already built a take away over the site so they will be wasting their time
2. Re:The real reason for the telescope by EvilTwinSkippy · 2003-09-02 21:00 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  Indeed. The American flag on the site was actually planted by the Illuminati.
  
  --
  "Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
  --Dr.W.Edwards Deming
Media Implications by EvilTwinSkippy · 2003-09-02 20:46 · Score: 1, Funny

I've been complaining about the signal to noise ratio in the media for a while. Can you picture what this technology could do to CNN coverage, or (gasp) Slashdot?
No wait, it requires a long exposure to the signal. No improvement for all of the "All the news in the blink of a hyperactive ferret on vivarin's eye" culture.

--
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
OK... by advocate_one · 2003-09-02 21:15 · Score: 1, Funny

If they can image a piece of coal some 20,500km away... can they please try and find those black socks I lost on the beach at Scunthorpe last year???

--
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
I knew it!! a dancing mouse by snooo53 · 2003-09-02 21:16 · Score: 1, Funny

Anyone else see the dancing mouse in the lower left hand corner? I swear, those darn magic eye pictures take me *FOREVER* to see....

--
The sending of this message pretty much inconveniences everyone involved.
Knock before entering. by Anonymous Coward · 2003-09-02 21:18 · Score: 1, Funny

"Halley has an orbital period just over 76 years and will return in 2062."

I plan on being out of town that year.
Sigh.... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-09-03 02:51 · Score: 2, Funny

Not even the editors RTFA.
Re:Wrong by pork_spies · 2003-09-03 04:10 · Score: 2, Funny

Yes, I realised after I'd posted that I'd just made a fool of myself. I did see Hailey's comet though - must have been winter 86? I remember showing to the gf, who was distinctly unimpressed.
Re:I saw it last time by RobertB-DC · 2003-09-03 04:59 · Score: 3, Funny

In the end, I got a look at Mars, it looked like this:

.

except it was pink.

I'm happy to report that I was able to run your image through a high-tech image-enhancement system. To further aid in visualization, the edge definition has been increased as well.

Here is the new image:

o

Hope this helps!

--
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.