Posted on 08/11/2015 12:34:27 PM PDT by BenLurkin
In a sequence of images taken by Rosetta’s scientific camera OSIRIS, the brilliant, well-defined jet erupts from the side of the comet’s neck in the Anuket region. It was first seen in a photo taken at 8:24 a.m. CDT, but not in one taken 18 minutes earlier, and had faded significantly in an image captured 18 minutes later. The camera team estimates the material in the jet was traveling at a minimum of 22 mph (10 meters/sec), but possibly much faster.
It’s the brightest jet ever seen by Rosetta. Normally, the camera has to be set to overexpose 67P/C-G’s nucleus to reveal the typically faint, wispy jets. Not this one. You can truly appreciate its brilliance because a single exposure captures both nucleus and plume with equal detail. We all expected fireworks as the comet approached perihelion in its 6.5 year orbit around the Sun. Comets are brightest at and shortly after perihelion, when they literally “feel the heat”. Solar radiation vaporizes both exposed surface ices and ice locked beneath the comet’s coal-black crust. Vaporizing subsurface ice can created pressurized pockets of gas that seek a way out either through an existing vent or hole or by breaking through the porous crust and erupting geyser-like into space.
Jets carry along dust that helps create a comet’s fuzzy coma or temporary atmosphere, which are further modified into tails by the solar wind and the pressure of sunlight.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
One more such outburst and I’ll clear the entire solar system inside the orbit of Venus.
Course correction.
I usually prefer that when Rosetta starts outgassing she do it when he’s as far away from me as possible.
excuse me..
Fortunately we aren’t in an elevator.
I didn’t know comets could...pass gas!
do these jets affect the trajectory of the comet at all...
Perhaps it’s an anesthesiologist????
lol!
lol!
I don’t know but this thing is moving real fast and it’s a pretty good size. Would maybe take a bigger push?
It’s getting away! We need to blast it NOW! Unfortunately, Spacecraft Rosetta doesn’t have the latest quantum pulse blasters onboard. But she IS equipped with a whole lot of sensors:
ALICE Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer
CONSERT Comet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radio wave Transmission
COSIMA Cometary Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer
GIADA Grain Impact Analyser and Dust Accumulator
MIDAS Micro-Imaging Dust Analysis System
MIRO Microwave Spectrometer for the Rosetta Orbiter
OSIRIS Optical, Spectroscopic, and InfraRed Remote Imaging System
ROSINA Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis
RPC Rosetta Plasma Consortium
RSI Radio Science Investigation
VIRTIS Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer
every little bit can make big changes way down the line though
That Rosetta. She always did seem to give an outburst when one least expected it.
They fired thrusters. Fixing a navigational error, no doubt.
Yes.
F=ma
BUT ... not much mass in those jets, so not much force.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, so yes, they do.
Not only will the comet be pushed in the opposite direction of the outgassing (slightly), but the comet is losing a small amount of mass, which must also affect its orbit, as the orbit is a function of gravity, based on mass.
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