Deep Impact on Comet Theory

AlexGP writes "Proponents of the Electric Universe theory have gone out on a limb ahead of Deep Impact. They're predicting it will show comets are just rocks and not dirty snowballs. Controversially they assert comets are highly negatively-charged asteroids on eccentric orbits. As they travel further into the Sun's radial positive electric field, they discharge into space, expelling material at supersonic speed."

Comments

Shocking!

[Black Parrot]

As someone on Usenet already put it, seeing how the Electric Universe proponents rationalize the failure of their predictions may be more interesting than seeing what the mission discovers.

Re:BS?

[MustardMan]

As a followup to my previous post, I've done some more googling. I found one of the biggest proponents of this wackjob theory happens to be one Jim McCanney, whose other claims include such gems as "weather is being manipulated". For a good thorough debunking of this crackpot, you might want to check out one of my favorite sites, Bad Astronomy.

The best part about the internet is, it's given everyone a voice.

The worst part about the internet is, it's given people like this a voice.

It is interesting actually

[p3d0]

Someone says this any time the term "supersonic" comes up in connection with outer space. This Electric Universe theory might have a lot of things to criticize, but the notion of supersonic speeds in space isn't one of them. See bow shock and termination shock for instance.

Interplanetanetary space (even interstellar space) is nowhere near a "hard vacuum".