111 lines
6.2 KiB
Plaintext
111 lines
6.2 KiB
Plaintext
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| File Name : HALEBOPP.ASC | Online Date : 10/28/95 |
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| Contributed by : Jerry Decker | Dir Category : UNCLASS |
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| From : KeelyNet BBS | DataLine : (214) 324-3501 |
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| KeelyNet * PO BOX 870716 * Mesquite, Texas * USA * 75187 |
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| A FREE Alternative Sciences BBS sponsored by Vanguard Sciences |
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| InterNet email keelynet@ix.netcom.com (Jerry Decker) |
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| Files also available at Bill Beaty's http://www.eskimo.com/~billb |
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Because of all the curiousity about the mysterious object said to be
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approaching our solar system (some say it is inside the orbit of Pluto, the
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following info might be of interest.
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It is from the October/November 1995 issue of NEXUS magazine. Yearly
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subscriptions of 6 issues are available for $25 from
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NEXUS NEXUS
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PO Box 30 PO Box 177
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Mapleton Qld 4560 Kempton, IL 60946-0177
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Australia USA
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Voice +61 74 42 9280 Voice +1 815 253 6464
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FAX +61 74 42 9381 FAX +1 815 253 6300
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Comet Hale-Bopp, for the Non-Astronomer (pages 6-7)
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The Hale-Bopp comment (C/1995/01) was discovered on 23rd July 1995 by Alan
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Hale, New Mexico, and Thomas Bopp, Arizona.
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The orbit of this comet is of a long period - approximately 3,250 years. It
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has travelled through the inner solar system before - that is, it is not a new
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comet from the Oort Cloud. It's orbit is a very long, stretched-out ellipse,
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and the comet is part of our solar system in orbit around our Sun.
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Comet Hale-Bopp is expected to reach its closest point to the Sun (perihelion)
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at 15.4 hours UTC on 1st April 1997 (no fooling!). At that time it will be
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about 0.913 astronomical units from the Sun (one AU = about 93 million miles
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or 150 million kilometers - the distance between the Sun and the Earth), or
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roughly 85 million miles (137 million kilometers) from the Sun. This is not a
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particularly close approach to the Sun, but any comet that comes within 1 AU
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of the Sun has a chance of putting one a nice show.
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The comet will make its closest approach to the Earth on 23rd March 1997. At
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that time it will be more than 120 million miles (194 million kilometers) from
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Earth - not even a very close approach! Will the comet 'cross' the Earth's
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orbit? Well, yes and no... The comet will come closer to the Sun than the
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Earth, but it will never actually physically cross any point in space that is
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occupied by the Earth - so it can't hit the Earth!
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The comet will be best seen from the southern hemisphere (and lower northern
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latitudes) EXCEPT when it is expected to be at its brightest. In March and
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April 1997 it will only be easily visible from the northern hemisphere.
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There have been reports that this comet is very large. Actually, the heart of
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the comet - the nucleus - is obscured by the dust and gas that forms the head
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of the comet. Nobody knows how large the nucleus is. We can't see it! The
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nuclei of comets range in size from a few miles (kilometers) or smaller, to
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over 100 miles (160 kilometers) in diameter. The brightness of the comet is
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not always directly related to the size of the nucleus. This is because,
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typically, only a fraction of the surface of a comet's nucleus is active. It
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is possible that this comet has a small nucleus with most of its surface
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emitting dust and gas. It is also possible that this comet has a large
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nucleus with only a small active region. We just don't know.
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(Source : Charles S. Morris - email = csm@encke.jpl.nasa.gov
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Stan Deyo's WATT's News, no. 2, September 1995)
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Comet Hale-Bopp, for the NEXUS Reader (page 7)
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Many people have asked the question, "With all that gear out there, how come
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the experts didn't discover Hale-Bopp first?" Or did they?
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What follows is a tidbit emailed to NEXUS. Make of it what you will...
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The Truth about Hale-Bopp
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From the Art Bell Radio Web
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Date : 7 Aug 1995
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From : wmtim@aol.com (WmTim)
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I work at an institution that studies data gathered from a number of 'outward-
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looking' satellites. We first saw Hale-Bopp on July 3rd.
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We have determined that it has made a number of course-corrections since that
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time. Once we confirmed the data that first suggested these corrections,
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government 'spooks' from some unidentified agency seized the data, and our
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satellite links were shut down 'for maintenance'.
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Never before have we lost all our links at once. Our name for the 'comet' was
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"Contact 070795B". Use that name when asking questions and see the result you
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get.
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(Source : Stan Deyo's WATT's News, no. 2, September 1995)
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Vanguard Note
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A friend recently informed me he had seen a photograph and email description
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claiming that any InterNet user could access a web page which would allow the
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user to program a large telescope to take up to 10 minutes of photos of any
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region of space that was visible from the site.
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The story goes that the fellow who wrote the email claimed he had programmed
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the telescope to take a single 10 minute exposure somewhere around 2AM. The
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picture which was sent to him from the telescope showed a very large area
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which blacked out the background stars.
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My friend said he would try to locate that email and the picture which was
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provided so that others could at least see it. This was about two months ago
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and he has not been able to find it again. If anyone else has seen this, we
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would be most interested in seeing the photo and/or the email that describes
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it. Thanks......................................................>>> Jerry
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