Sits in Awe
Thinking about how something so old still has dry ice left in itself in order to create pretty pictures....
Excellent snaps sent back by a NASA probe craft during a rendezvous with the comet Hartley 2 have revealed that the spectacular "jets" of glowing gas which make it so spectacular result from dry ice subliming in its interior. The nucleus of comet Hartley 2 belching dry ice, imaged by the EPOXI spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL- …
Other 'meedja' talked about bowling pins, and the best one, chicken drumstick... Hmmmm.... chicken....
What a load of twaddle! It's stating the bleedin' obvious that those are landing lights coming from a rather dusty spaceship and not a comet at all.
I dunno, blinkin' scientists! What do they know eh?
When I saw the picture I was immediately reminded of the cover to one of the paperback versions of Issac Asimov's Foundation stories. (Specifically: "Second Foundation", and the cover is on the wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_series))
I'm having that sort of day...
you can just make out "WASH ME" written in the dust on the rear window...
//the one with the squegee in the pocket, thanks
Spot on! I thought it was familiar, but my original copy is up in the attic, so I couldn't check.
Professor Jessica Sunshine.
What a fabulous name. Especially for a NASA scientistic. Perhaps she's studying the wrong celestial body though...
Thinking about how something so old still has dry ice left in itself in order to create pretty pictures....
""Kinda beats the crap out of religion"
Why would you think that?
Pretty lame trolling attempt, I'm afraid.
But it would be interesting if you posted it in response to every single article about everything.
Or maybe not.
an Anonymous Coward sez at 13:27gmt on 11.12.10:
"Why would you think that?"
I can answer that. It beats the crap out of religion because it's something that's _real_ that's awesome in a _real_ Universe, not some made-up Invisible Guy In The Sky who millions believe in on "faith", not through any real _proof_.
"Professor Jessica Sunshine"??
You made that up. Admit it.
corestore sez:
"You made that up. Admit it."
Nope, that name's for real. I saw her at the EPOXi press conference on NASA TV. There it was, in the caption, clear as day.
I'm guessing mixed Native American parentage, as some years back, I worked on a project with a guy named Dave Pretty Eagle. My first guess was old hippie parentage, but that's _everybody's_ first guess, so I threw that one out.
Advanced civilization binds unwanted CO2 into rock and hurls it into space to amass many Carbon Credits :)
I think it's very appropriate that Professor Sunshine is studying the effects of solar heating on comets.
The Sky at Night covered Hartley rather well, too. It's available on iPlayer.
Great article...
Jessica Sunshine is a comet-watcher...
"Is this real-life?"
I guess that means that we will have greenpeace and their ilk whinging on about banning comets because of CO2 solar system climate change.
For a moment I thought the MoD were repurposing the Nimrod:)
Wonderfull images! Thanks for alerting us to them.
at the bottom of that NASA page: "ExpectMore.gov".