Posted on 09/13/2003 5:17:25 PM PDT by bondserv
Not Enough Comets in the Cupboard 09/03/2003
There’s a shortage of comets. The Hubble Space Telescope peered into the Kuiper Belt cupboard, and found it nearly empty – only 4% of the predicted supply was found.
Astronomers needed a bigger storehouse to explain the number of short-period comets now inhabiting the solar system. The Kuiper Belt, a region of small icy bodies beyond Neptune, has been the favored source of comets with orbital periods 200 years or less, but the new measurements, soon to be published in the Astrophysical Journal, are “wildly inconsistent” with the observed number of comets. Astronomers expected to find 85 trans-Neptunian objects in the cupboard, and found only three.
Science News1 calls this a riddle. For this region to be a viable source, there should be hundred or even thousands of times as many objects as were actually found. Perhaps the objects expected had been dashed into dust by collisions. The measurements indicate that another hoped-for source at the outer edge of the Kuiper Belt “might not be sufficiently massive to spawn the short-period comets.”
As quoted in the report in Science Now, how does one researcher describe the finding? “This is very exciting work.”
1Science News Week of Sept. 6, 2003 (164:10): Ron Cowen, “Hubble Highlights a Riddle: What's the source of quick-return comets?”
A true scientist should be excited that a hypothesis proves false, as much as when it proves true; what is undesirable in science is ambiguity. Unfortunately, no amount of evidence seems to ever cause naturalistic planetary scientists to falsify the idea that the solar system formed out of undirected, purposeless natural forces billions of years ago. “Exciting” becomes their euphemism for baffled, disappointed, and clueless. What would really be exciting would be to see a planetary scientist follow the data where it leads, and question the assumption that the solar system is so old.
This empirical measurement leaves planetary scientists in a quandary. Why do we still have comets after the assumed 4.5 billion years the solar system has existed, when we know they are burning out within just thousands of years? Several recent comet stories reported here are leaving them with diminishing options:There aren’t enough sources, and they are burning out too fast to last 4.5 billion years. This is very exciting work.
- Comets are not pristine objects (Aug. 12).
- Comets fizzle fast (March 27).
- Nanodiamond counts too low (Jul 12, 2002).
- Comet deficit puzzling (June 21, 2002).
- Comets commit suicide (Feb. 26, 2001).
- Oort cloud only 10% of theory (Jan 31, 2001).
Another great thing about "The Day the Earth Stood Still" is that it's *real math* on the blackboard! The three-body problem, no less
Oooh, excellent analogy!The central point of C-E Headlines is that every little stumble and bump proves mainstream [geology, astronomy, cosmology, biology, paleontology, physics, whatever] to be all a house of cards.
LOL! Yep -- these guys remind me of the kooks who say that because the paperwork wasn't quite in order back in 1803, Ohio was not properly admitted to the Union, therefore the 16th Amendment was not properly ratified, therefore the income tax is unconstitutional, and therefore the whole dadgum guvmint is illegal. (I swear I am not making this up -- people really argue this.)
It's about 35 light years out. I think it's the 4th brightest star, from earth anyway.
I understand it's about 10 billion years old, about twice the age of Earth, and is one of the oldest objects most of us have ever seen, It's about the oldest object easily visible to the unaided eye.
In age comparison, it makes the construction of the pyramids seem like a current event.
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