Picture: The comet spewing chunks of fluffy ice.
Primordial: Existing from the beginning of time
Aggregate: A whole formed by combining several elements, typically different in essence
Summary:
Two weeks ago, a spacecraft from NASA flew by a comet. However, the comet was doing something extremely irregular: analyzing the photo, experts say that jets of carbon dioxide are pushing out frozen chunks of ice and dust particles into the air as opposed to the norm of water
vapor. The carbon dioxide, they say, must be primordial dry ice because if not, the CO2 would have become part of the atmosphere long ago. Because dry ice has a much lower sublimation point than water's melting point, the water could have remained in frozen chunks whilst the dry ice was converted to gas. Comparing the chunks to dandelion puffs, an NASA worker says that the pieces have a lot of air in them, and are aggregates of small pieces of ice. The CO2 jets were coming from the two ends of the comet, but in the center, water vapor was coming out, and there was no carbon dioxide gas. The analysts say "the middle part of the comet does not contain much carbon dioxide, and thus the water ice in it can warm into vapor." NASA workers have not seen anything like this comet before, and say that it goes to prove how different the space rocks can be.
Discussion:
I was very interested in this article because I am fascinated by astronomy, especially things that are new and different. One detail that caught my attention is that the center of the comet was spewing a different substance, namely water vapor, than the two ends of the comet, something that has not happened before. It was also amazing that gas from the beginning of time was preserved for so long and is only now being released into the atmosphere - obviously, after the gas went into the atmosphere, it would not solidify inside a comet again. Lastly, the fact that the pieces of ice were "fluffy" is odd: why would it collect with large pockets of air in between? Although, it is probably good it did - had the fragments not been mostly hollow, the NASA spaceship, which was flying close to the comet at 27,000 miles per hour, would have been seriously damaged!
Questions:
- Why is there less carbon dioxide in the center of the comet?
- Why is the ice "fluffy" rather than solid?
- How can this comet do two things at once while others cannot?
Resources:
Citation:
Chang, Kenneth. "Surprise at a Comet Visited by NASA: A Snowstorm." New York
Times. New York Times, 18 Nov. 2010. Web. 18 Nov. 2010.
Times. New York Times, 18 Nov. 2010. Web. 18 Nov. 2010.
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Samyu-
ReplyDeleteI really like the choice of your article! Your title really draws the reader in. The pictures also really complete the blog, so nice job! I think you forgot to add your definitions to your labels. I agree that it was really interesting that the comet was spewing out different substances in the middle than the two sides. I would like to add to your questions: How many comets are there like this in the universe? How many others have been spotted, or is it just this one? Great job!
Emma
I agree with Emma; you did an excellent job. You followed all the criteria and you showed how you read the article. Some of the places where you used excellent detail are mostly your summary and in part of the discussion. Adding more info to your discussion on the part about the water versus the carbon dioxide when they were in an atmosphere, where the water was still warm enough to form water vapor, while the carbon dioxide wasn't warm enough, so it formed dry-ice. I have one question for you regarding this article; if everything you have written is true, then wouldn't it be possible for a comet to have different kinds of vaport as well? if so, what other kinds of weird comet vapor (such as hydrogen, helium, etc) or a condensed version of it would be found on other comets?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the awesome comments!
ReplyDeleteEmma, great question! It would be really interesting if there were a bunch of comets like this, and even more exciting if it were the only one. That would mean one of two things: first, that we just haven't seen any others, or second, that it formed under extremely specific conditions, which would of course excite inquiry - which conditions? I picked this article because I like astronomy, and I'm glad you found it interesting!
Hannah, I didn't quite understand your fourth sentence about adding more information, but I can elaborate a little on the temperature of the water versus carbon dioxide: once the CO2 is released into the air, it is rare that it forms into dry ice because there is not enough collected in one area or it is not cold enough to form. However, when there is little dry ice, there is more heat, so the water [which has a higher boiling point] vaporizes. In the middle of the comet, either the temperature was higher than at the ends or there was no CO2 there - both would be odd. Very interesting questions - I don't know what other vapors a comet could contain, but it is definitely possible. However, it is probable that the other gases have very low freezing points or have already vaporized, meaning that we wouldn't see them in comets now.