*Chicken Leg Comet*

[chesswarsnow]

Sorry bout that,


1. Hey anyone see that comet we have been tracking?
2. I dub it the, *Chicken Leg Comet*!!!
3. If you haven't seen it yet, it does look like a deep fried chicken leg from Churchs Chicken.
4. Whats your thoughts?
5. Link and sample:Spacecraft snaps close-up images of comet - CNN.com


"CNN) -- A spacecraft survived the closest encounter ever with a comet on Thursday, tracking it just 435 miles from the comet's nucleus.

Mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, broadcast live coverage of the event on NASA Television's Media Channel. Controllers broke into applause after hearing of the success.

The agency's EPOXI Deep Impact spacecraft was expected to use two imagers and an infrared instrument to acquire data about a tiny comet named Hartley 2 as it traveled at speeds of more than 27,000 miles per hour.

Scientists are still working to determine whether there was any damage to the spacecraft as the peanut-shaped comet passed by. "




6. They see a peanut, but no, its a *Chicken Leg Comet*!!!


Regards,
SirJamesofTexas

 

[waltky]

Building blocks of life may come from comets...

Comet crashes can create the building blocks of life: study
Tue, Sep 17, 2013 - Violent impacts from comets and other hurtling bodies can pepper planets and their moons with the molecular building blocks of life, new research suggests.

The high-speed collisions unleash intense shock waves that can turn simple organic compounds found in comets and on icy worlds into amino acids, which make proteins, cells and ultimately all living organisms. The findings suggest that rather than being a purely destructive force, the impacts increase the chances of life originating and being widespread across our solar system. “We know that impacts are very common in the solar system, because we can see the craters left behind on different planetary bodies,” Imperial College London astrobiologist Zita Martins said. “If impacts occur, then more complex molecules can be made, so these building blocks of life could be widespread throughout our solar system.”

Scientists have previously used computer models to demonstrate that shock waves could turn simple molecules found in icy comets, such as ammonia, carbon dioxide and methanol, into complex amino acids. That work prompted researchers to test the idea by reconstructing celestial impacts in the laboratory. Researchers at Imperial College and the University of Kent teamed up with Nir Goldman, a researcher at the US Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, whose models showed amino acids might be made in comet strikes. They made batches of ice mixture laced with ammonia, methanol and carbon dioxide to represent different compositions of comets.

Writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, the researchers show that an impact at about 7km per second produced scores of amino acids in one ice mixture. The impact creates an intense shock wave that fragments the simple compounds, which then recombine into amino acids, such as alanine and glycine. Among the roles they play in life, glycine is a neurotransmitter, which is active in the brain stem and retina, while alanine is found in bacterial cell walls.

“Although there are other chemical paths that can generate amino acids, the one we describe can occur during an impact, where no special conditions, such as UV radiation, are required, if the initial ingredients are present,” said Mark Price, co-author of the study at the University of Kent. “The important implication is that the complex precursors to life, such as amino acids, are widespread, thus increasing the chances of life evolving elsewhere.”

Comet crashes can create the building blocks of life: study - Taipei Times

 

[waltky]

Mebbe it got burnt off by the Sun?...

Astronomers Find Tailless Comet, First of its Kind
April 29, 2016 — Discovery may offer clues into long-standing questions about solar system's formation and evolution

Astronomers have found a first-of-its-kind tailless comet whose composition may offer clues into long-standing questions about the solar system's formation and evolution, according to research published Friday in the journal Science Advances. The so-called "Manx" comet, named after a breed of cats without tails, was made of rocky materials that are normally found near Earth. Most comets are made of ice and other frozen compounds and were formed in the solar system's frigid far reaches. Researchers believe the newly found comet was formed in the same region as Earth, then booted to the solar system's backyard like a gravitational slingshot as planets jostled for position.

The new comet, known as C/2014 S3, also-called "Manx" comet, which was discovered in 2014 by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, or Pan-STARRS, is shown in this artist rendering​

Scientists involved in the discovery now seek to learn how many more Manx comets exist, which could help resolve debate over exactly how and when the solar system settled into its current configuration. "Depending how many we find, we will know whether the giant planets danced across the solar system when they were young, or if they grew up quietly without moving much," the paper’s co-author Olivier Hainaut, an astronomer with the European Southern Observatory in Germany, said in a statement.

The new comet, known as C/2014 S3, was discovered in 2014 by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, or Pan-STARRS. This network of telescopes scours the nighttime skies for fast-moving comets, asteroids and other celestial bodies. Typically comets coming in from the same region as the Manx grow bright tails as they approach the sun, the result of ice vaporizing off their bodies and gleaming in reflected sunlight. But C/2014 S3 was dark and virtually tailless when it was spotted about twice as far away from the sun as Earth.

The new comet, known as C/2014 S3, also-called "Manx" comet, which was discovered in 2014 by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, or Pan-STARRS, is shown in this artist rendering​

Later analysis showed that instead of ices typically found on comets, the Manx comet contained materials similar to the rocky asteroids located in a belt between Mars and Jupiter. And C/2014 S3 appeared pristine, an indication that it had been in the solar system's deep freeze for a long time, said University of Hawaii astronomer Karen Meech, the lead author The discovery of additional Manx comets could help scientists to refine computer models used to simulate the solar system's formation, Meech said.

Astronomers Find Tailless Comet, First of its Kind