did you guys see that comet getting blowed up?

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http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/html/heic0509.html

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 16:36 (twenty years ago)

We don't really have a thread cache for "outer space", do we?

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 16:37 (twenty years ago)

So, um, does this mean we're at war with SPACE?

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 16:40 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I was kinda surprised they weren't worried that this massive collision might screw with the comet's normal orbit. I guess space is just bigger than us like that.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 16:42 (twenty years ago)

something that weighs 350 kilograms is not going to affect the orbit of a comet that is NINE MILES WIDE. I don't understand how anyone could think this is "dangerous" or "crazy" (or some sort of expression of American militarism) - its just boring old science.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 16:45 (twenty years ago)

You don't think aliens might see this as an act of aggression?

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 16:46 (twenty years ago)

what if the comet is made of lint?

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 16:47 (twenty years ago)

omething that weighs 350 kilograms is not going to affect the orbit of a comet that is NINE MILES WIDE. I don't understand how anyone could think this is "dangerous" or "crazy" (or some sort of expression of American militarism) - its just boring old science.

Well, we know the relative speed. If someone gives me the mass of the comet, we should be able to figure this out. This is not hard.

― get to thA CHOPPA / A++++++ SELLER (ex machina), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 16:48 (twenty years ago)

density of ice = 0.92 g/mL
volume of comet = 4/3 x pi x (4.5)^3

assuming comet spherical/not made of lint etc

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 16:55 (twenty years ago)

The real problem the comet probe caused:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4649987.stm

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 16:56 (twenty years ago)

Do we know that space ice is just as dense?

The comet is banana shaped.

― get to thA CHOPPA / A++++++ SELLER (ex machina), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 16:57 (twenty years ago)

my calculation = it will land on swansea

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 16:57 (twenty years ago)

we have no idea how dense space ice is
which bit of the banana is nine miles wide

my recalculation: baffin island

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 16:59 (twenty years ago)

"The impact changed the magnetic properties of the comet, and this could have affected mobile telephony here on Earth. If your phone went down this morning, ask yourself Why? and then get in touch with us," says Mr Molokhov.

How can I get in touch with you when my phone is down?

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 17:00 (twenty years ago)

morse code.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 17:04 (twenty years ago)

Homing pigeons.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 17:04 (twenty years ago)

The Batsignal.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 17:05 (twenty years ago)

Clamz

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 17:05 (twenty years ago)

Homing pigeons use the Earth's magnetic field, Ned

― get to thA CHOPPA / A++++++ SELLER (ex machina), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 17:07 (twenty years ago)

HOW DARE YOU RUIN MY DREAMS WITH SCIENCE

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 17:08 (twenty years ago)

Why didn't they try to land it gently? They landed on an asteroid a couple years back.

― andy --, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 17:21 (twenty years ago)

That was Armageddon, Andy. This is Deep Impact.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 17:26 (twenty years ago)

I think they wanted to see what kind of balls it had.

― get to thA CHOPPA / A++++++ SELLER (ex machina), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 17:32 (twenty years ago)

Well if the probe is so insignificant in relation to the comet's size, then NASA should quit trying to make news by bragging about how hard it hit! You look in the papers this morning and it's all "23,000 miles per hour" and "plume of ice scattering across the cosmos" and "DEEP IMPACT" and shit, like they really nailed that thing -- then some Russians backtalk and they're all "whatever, it was like a mosquito on a truck windshield."

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 19:13 (twenty years ago)

NASA in clumsy PR SHOCKAH

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 19:14 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, you can't talk up big collisions you've created in outer space, it kinda worries people.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 19:15 (twenty years ago)

C'mon, guys, these are socially awkward scientists, they were probably blushing and kicking the ground while giving their press conference. They're so cute, give them a break!

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 19:17 (twenty years ago)

we now have the technology to blow up the moon.

WE CAN AND WILL BLOW UP THE MOON.

― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 19:24 (twenty years ago)

"Now that we have succeeded at hitting a rock the size of Manhattan with a computer-guided probe, maybe we'll be left alone long enough to return to the research that really matters to us: pointing our space telescopes at Lindsay Lohan's tittays."

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

Well if the probe is so insignificant in relation to the comet's size, then NASA should quit trying to make news by bragging about how hard it hit!

No, I think one of the purposes of this mission was to slam into the comet and expel plumes of comet-material and analyze those emissions (by observing the impact with a telescope).

Still, the explosion is large enough to tell us something about the composition of the comet, but not nearly large enough to affect its orbit.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)

So, like, we're just pulling our punches to see what we're up against.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 19:31 (twenty years ago)

Yes. Bruce Willis will be along any minute to help analyze the data and decide on the next course of action.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 19:36 (twenty years ago)

That comet could have been populated by ice people!

― andy --, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)

they broadcast the impact live at Chabot Science Center's MegaDome, we tried to go but they sold out the room

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2005/07/04/MNGDKDISKQ1.DTL&o=1

― milton parker (Jon L), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)

a chunk will fall off and land either side of my house meaning i am in a detached property! yeah!

― battlingspacemonkey (battlingspacemonkey), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 11:15 (twenty years ago)

WAR ON DUST PARTICLES

― Ian Riese-Moraine has been xeroxed into a conduit! (Eastern Mantra), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 11:23 (twenty years ago)

nineteen years pass...

It's baaaaaackkk....

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/oct/01/comet-last-seen-in-stone-age-to-make-closest-approach-to-earth

― Andy the Grasshopper, Tuesday, 1 October 2024 17:01 (one year ago)

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