Comas And Tails Of Comets The Generally Unexpected And Sometimes Spectacular Appearance Of Comets Have

Comas and Tails of Comets The generally unexpected and sometimes spectacular appearance of comets have triggered the interest of many people throughout history. A bright comet can easily be seen with the naked eye. Comets are usually not discovered until after a coma or tail has formed. Depending on the apparent size of the coma or tail, a comet can be very bright. Some comets have a tail extending more than 45˚ on the sky. The earliest records of comet observations date to ~6000BCE in China. The smaller nucleus (rocky body) of a comet, often only a few kilometres in diameter, is usually hidden from view by the large coma, a cloud of gas and dust roughly 10 to the power of 4-10 to the power of 5 km in diameter and not seen with the naked eye, a large hydrogen coma, between 1 and 10 million km in extent, which surrounds the nucleus and visible gas/dust coma. Two tails are often visible, both in the antisolar direction: a curved yellowish dust tail and a straight ion tail, usually of a blue colour. Comets are usually inert at large heliocentric distances and only develop a coma and tails when they get closer to the sun. When the sublimating gas evolves off the surface of a comet’s nucleus, dust is dragged along. The gas and dust form a comet’s coma and hide the nucleus from view. Most comets are discovered after the coma has formed when they are bright enough to be seen with relatively small telescopes. ~ JM Image Credit More Info: Comets, NASA Coma

FUCKING NASA

I’m fucking pissing myself. You know how all of Jupiter’s moons are named after his lovers and affairs? Yeah. NASA is sending a craft to check up on Jupiter. You know what the craft is called?

JUNO.

Who’s Juno?

JUPITER’S WIFE.

NASA IS SENDING JUPITER’S WIFE TO CHECK ON JUPITER AND HIS AFFAIRS AND LOVERS.

FUCKING NASA

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xnzda

5 years ago

A Gallery of ‘Tadpole Galaxies’

These postage-stamp-size images reveal 36 young galaxies caught in the act of merging with other galaxies. These galaxies appear as they existed many billions of years ago. Astronomers have dubbed them “tadpole galaxies” because of their distinct knot-and-tail shapes, which suggest that they are engaging in galactic mergers.

Credit: NASA, A. Straughn, S. Cohen, and R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), and the HUDF team (Space Telescope Science Institute) Source: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0604a/

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xnzda

6 years ago

NASA astronaut films lightning from ISS

Astronaut Reid Wiseman posted a Vine from the International Space Station today showing lightning over Houston. Tornado warnings were issued in the Houston area earlier this afternoon but have since expired.

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lightning earth

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xnzda

6 years ago

Europa Is Even More Earth-Like Than We Suspected

“The cycling of oxygen and hydrogen in Europa’s ocean will be a major driver for Europa’s ocean chemistry and any life there, just as it is on Earth,” lead author Steve Vance of JPL noted in a statement.

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europa

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xnzda

6 years ago

Bright stars of Sagittarius and the center of our Milky Way Galaxy lie just off the wing of a Boeing 747

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stars sagittarius milky way

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xnzda

6 years ago

The original nine. js

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space

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xnzda

5 years ago

THE UNIVERSE SAID TRANS RIGHTS!! 🗣🗣

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xnzda

5 years ago

At the Heart of Orion.

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xnzda

6 years ago

Hubble Finds an Einstein Ring : These graceful arcs are a cosmic phenomenon known as an Einstein ring - created as the light from distant galaxies warps around an extremely large mass, like a galaxy cluster. (via NASA)

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einstein ring

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xnzda

6 years ago