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Comet Catalina To Pass By Earth For the Final Time
StartsWithABang writes: Originating from the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud, comets are generally thought of as periodic objects, with their initial trajectories having been perturbed by either Neptune, another distant object or a passing star or rogue planet. But most comets aren't periodic; they're transient instead, where a trip into the inner Solar System gives them additional gravitational perturbations, causing them to either fly into the Sun or gain enough kinetic energy to escape entirely. This latter fate is the case for Comet Catalina, which reaches perihelion on November 15th and then heads out of the Solar System after putting on one final show for observers on Earth.
its the catalina fucking comet mixer
good riddance!
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
The summary leaves out the most important part of this whole thing, the part that is most critical to answer: what kind of shirt was the spokesman wearing when he made the announcement? We can't possibly evaluate if this is OK unless we know. Is there any word?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
It's a chaotic system. The odds of the gravitational perturbation increasing the speed of the comet (and by extension, pushing it away and increasing its period) aren't much different than the odds of the perturbation decreasing it. And the effect is small, that a given orbit might bring a comet that has near escape velocity over the edge (as apparently is happening here) but Halley's Comet has nowhere near that.
We have been informed that Catalina's Comet is the home of a major warez site. We recommend that you get over to it immediately to sort it out. We'll keep a slot open for you on the comet's return.
Please never put links to sites that require you to be looking at an advertising page or similar before you can go to the content that really interests you.
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
Why doesn't this happen to Halley's Comet? It gets perturbed by the gravity from the gas giants, yet has managed to retain a period of 74-79 years since 240 BC. That's a lot of trips through the solar system. Because it's a short period comet, it spends more time around the gas giants than a long period comet. That should subject it to more gravitational perturbations, but it's still remained very periodic. Why is that?
Luck, mostly. An object will either be expelled or gravitationally (tidally) torn apart by the sun after a few trips around the solar system, with an exponential distribution describing how many trips it makes. As with all exponential distributions, the curve flattens out to the right, and if any particular object has just the right orbital parameters to make i.e. 10 or 20 or 50 passes, then it's pretty much fallen (by luck) into the sweet spot of orbital resonances to keep making more passes. The chances are astronomically low that any particular object will have this luck, but there is a huge number of objects out there, so some do beat the odds.
Halley's comet is simply one of the few that beat the odds.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Slashdot's SJW-article day is tomorrow.
This is really Planet Nibiru coming to invade us with their lizard-men!!!
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Halley's comet is simply one of the few that beat the odds.
. . . so if we could just figure out how Halley's comet would bet on Fantasy Football . . . we'd be all set for life!
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Psh, everyone knows fantasy football is "skill based" ;-)
I'm not any kind of physicist or astro. Can't we use comets like this to send objects out of the solar system? Things like the voyager 2?
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion. -- Spazmania (174582)
So would this be the first time that crocodiles have been used to guard a comet?
As you drift out into the darkness of the unknown, my solitary friend, I will lay here without you - wishing I could undertake your journey through the great void of space towards distant stars. I wonder, dear comet, what would you think?
I love you.
*Sniff*
Just not in NY or NV...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
You know, if office workers paid as much attention to their 401Ks as they do fantasy football, we wouldn't have a retirement crisis...
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
The Ramans do everything in threes.
You forgot to say "SJW".
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
A picture of Trump with the phrase "PC Sucks!"
Table-ized A.I.
That is so sexist, couldn't the spokesman have been a spokeswoman wearing a blouse? /SJW
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Let's launch a mission with an ion thruster, maybe we can save this comet and eventually capture it for ice mining in orbit!
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Using shirt and man while complaining about a sexist witch hunt. You and the SJWs deserve each other. Time for some popcorn!
If you want an informative web site that actually works without Javascript, visit http://www.skyandtelescope.com...
WTF are you posting a link to Forbes, ostensibly a business magazine for a story about a comet?
Since comets are portents of doom, you should link to the article on Astrology Today.
My bet is this signals that the Mahdi is going rise and take control of the Caliphate in Iraq.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Anyone else find this declaration in the article mildly annoying?
Out a little farther, the four gas giants -- themselves failed stars --
At best, one would think that of the four, only Jupiter could even remotely be considered a failed star. I would think the other three don't have nearly enough mass to qualify for such a designation.
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#1. Gamify Investing
#2. Profit
So it's like saving the effort of walking by standing in the road and letting a bus catch up with you, only very much more so?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."