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Last Update: August 31 1996
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First of all, I must confess that I'm not a prophet. So, I can't guess the impredictible
future. Despite this, it seems that air masses are lowering their pressure (you can see
the forecast for Holy Tuesday in the page Previsiones para las vacaciones
de Semana Santa y abril ).
Generally speaking, Pirinees are a better place to make Astronomy than Barcelona city.
Try avoiding places near from street lights, the farther away you go from civilization,
the best. High places are better, too.
Many people do prefer going late to bed rather than waking up before dawn.
Around midnight is a good time to watch the comet these days: the Moon hasn't rised yet.
At dawn (i.e.: five o'clock), Hyakutake is too low over the horizon.
First quarter Moon will interfere with the observations during the first Easter's days.
But on April 4 we will have dark skies for a while, during the Moon eclipse. Two wonders
on the same night!
We are students at the Public School "La Roca del Vallès", 10 and 11 years old.
Indeed, the Sun, and every planet as well, is constantly bending the trajectory of the comet.
The Sun has the biggest influence. After it, Jupiter is the planet that affects mainly the
orbit of comets, because its huge mass.
Few months ago, it was approaching the Earth about 5 million Km
a day (60 km/s).
The press release More Molecules Detected explains it
very well. James Clark Maxwell measured a temperature of 19º Kelvin (-254º Celsius)
on February 28. On March 16 it was higher: about 60º K (-213º Celius).
More than one will smile while reading this question, but many wonder the same.
Anyhow, we have a precedent this century: Tunguska (1908).
Under the best observing conditions, is possible to see stars of fifth magnitude,
or a bit less. Comet Hyakutake will reach this magnitude the first half of June.
But then, it will be too far south to be visible from our latitude.
When summer comes, only will be possible to see it with a telescope, and from the
southern hemisphere.
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I did it to make you smile.
Sometimes, I can't answer your e-mail, because bad configuration of your web browser:
Example:
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 96 14:20:26 -0800
From: Your name
Subject: cometa
Have clear skies!
Comet Hyakutake is increasing it's distance to Earth and hence we will see it
growing smaller every day.
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Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1996 12:03:36 +0100
X-Sender: bmendoza@pie.xtec.es (Unverified)
From: Benito Mendoza
Subject: Comet Hyakutake
We enjoy your page a lot.
Here are some of our questions:
But, as you know, comet Hyakutake was relativily near from the Earth a few days ago, and
distance has a lot more to do with gravitational forces than masses: This forces are
directly proportional to the product of the masses and inversely to the
square of the distance between them. When astronomers computed a calendar
with the location of comet Hyakutake (ephemeris), they had to take into account in a special
way the effect due to the mass of the Earth.
Where do comets come from?
There is an hypothetical very distant cloud of comets around the Sun, beyond Pluto's orbit.
Astronomers call them Oort's cloud.
The farthest point to the Sun on Hyakutake's orbit lies 34 times farther than Pluto.
It belongs to a inner shell similar to Oort's cloud, known as Kuiper's belt.
Several small planets like the icy satelites orbiting Jupiter and Saturn have
been discovered recently in Kuiper's belt. We could imagine one of them slowing down
a comet. The result of an interaction of this kind would be the comet falling to
the neighbourhood of the Sun.
From this moment on, only Jupiter would be able to stole a comet to the Sun.
Do you remember the fate of comet Shoemaker-Levy? It was captured by this giant planet,
shattered and, finally, swallowed. Is the old story of the big one eating the smallest.
Our planet is so small... but it's protected by our giant neighbours. Anyway, it was born
by accretion of smallest bodies, known as planetesimals. Many astronomers think the Moon
was born when a big one (more or less the size of Mars) crashed against the young Earth
(I'm not kidding!). But it happened long ago, and, thanks to God, impacts of this kind
are less frequent nowadays. We could say "it seems that rain is over"...
but it could start raining again.
Have you read the Apocalypse?
Hyakutake's orbit is very eccentric. That means it's distance to the Sun varies a lot
along its orbit.
As second Kepler's law predict, speed grows higher when a body is near the Sun, and slows
down when is far away from it.
Comet Hyakutake is approaching the Sun. So, it's gaining speed.
It will reach its highest -almost 100 Km/s- at the perihelion (the point in its
orbit nearest to the Sun).
Probably, it's still well below zero.
Certainly, all us must die, but, probably, not because of a falling meteorite.
Your question has an answer, but not an easy one.
Josep Corbella, in the article "Cometas con buena estrella" published in the newspaper
"la Vanguardia" on March 31, interviewed several astrophysicists about this matter:
I promise you a longer explanation about this matter later.
From your answers:
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 96 14:32 EDT
X-Sender: jml@cyberenet.net
To: Antoni Parra
From: Jerry Lodriguss
Subject: Re: copyright
A last question: Why do you show that blurred photo of yourself in your page?
In fact, I can't avoid to smile every time I see anyone's portrait heading a
"personal" page.
Jerry
Astrophotography Techniques and
Digital Enhancement in Photoshop Tips:
http://www.astropix.com
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Your name: Toni Parra
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