______________________________________________________________________________ | File Name : HALEBOPP.ASC | Online Date : 10/28/95 | | Contributed by : Jerry Decker | Dir Category : UNCLASS | | From : KeelyNet BBS | DataLine : (214) 324-3501 | | KeelyNet * PO BOX 870716 * Mesquite, Texas * USA * 75187 | | A FREE Alternative Sciences BBS sponsored by Vanguard Sciences | | InterNet email keelynet@ix.netcom.com (Jerry Decker) | | Files also available at Bill Beaty's http://www.eskimo.com/~billb | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Because of all the curiousity about the mysterious object said to be approaching our solar system (some say it is inside the orbit of Pluto, the following info might be of interest. It is from the October/November 1995 issue of NEXUS magazine. Yearly subscriptions of 6 issues are available for $25 from NEXUS NEXUS PO Box 30 PO Box 177 Mapleton Qld 4560 Kempton, IL 60946-0177 Australia USA Voice +61 74 42 9280 Voice +1 815 253 6464 FAX +61 74 42 9381 FAX +1 815 253 6300 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Comet Hale-Bopp, for the Non-Astronomer (pages 6-7) The Hale-Bopp comment (C/1995/01) was discovered on 23rd July 1995 by Alan Hale, New Mexico, and Thomas Bopp, Arizona. The orbit of this comet is of a long period - approximately 3,250 years. It has travelled through the inner solar system before - that is, it is not a new comet from the Oort Cloud. It's orbit is a very long, stretched-out ellipse, and the comet is part of our solar system in orbit around our Sun. Comet Hale-Bopp is expected to reach its closest point to the Sun (perihelion) at 15.4 hours UTC on 1st April 1997 (no fooling!). At that time it will be about 0.913 astronomical units from the Sun (one AU = about 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers - the distance between the Sun and the Earth), or roughly 85 million miles (137 million kilometers) from the Sun. This is not a particularly close approach to the Sun, but any comet that comes within 1 AU of the Sun has a chance of putting one a nice show. The comet will make its closest approach to the Earth on 23rd March 1997. At that time it will be more than 120 million miles (194 million kilometers) from Earth - not even a very close approach! Will the comet 'cross' the Earth's orbit? Well, yes and no... The comet will come closer to the Sun than the Earth, but it will never actually physically cross any point in space that is occupied by the Earth - so it can't hit the Earth! The comet will be best seen from the southern hemisphere (and lower northern latitudes) EXCEPT when it is expected to be at its brightest. In March and April 1997 it will only be easily visible from the northern hemisphere. There have been reports that this comet is very large. Actually, the heart of the comet - the nucleus - is obscured by the dust and gas that forms the head of the comet. Nobody knows how large the nucleus is. We can't see it! The nuclei of comets range in size from a few miles (kilometers) or smaller, to over 100 miles (160 kilometers) in diameter. The brightness of the comet is not always directly related to the size of the nucleus. This is because, typically, only a fraction of the surface of a comet's nucleus is active. It is possible that this comet has a small nucleus with most of its surface emitting dust and gas. It is also possible that this comet has a large nucleus with only a small active region. We just don't know. (Source : Charles S. Morris - email = csm@encke.jpl.nasa.gov Stan Deyo's WATT's News, no. 2, September 1995) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Comet Hale-Bopp, for the NEXUS Reader (page 7) Many people have asked the question, "With all that gear out there, how come the experts didn't discover Hale-Bopp first?" Or did they? What follows is a tidbit emailed to NEXUS. Make of it what you will... The Truth about Hale-Bopp From the Art Bell Radio Web Date : 7 Aug 1995 From : wmtim@aol.com (WmTim) I work at an institution that studies data gathered from a number of 'outward- looking' satellites. We first saw Hale-Bopp on July 3rd. We have determined that it has made a number of course-corrections since that time. Once we confirmed the data that first suggested these corrections, government 'spooks' from some unidentified agency seized the data, and our satellite links were shut down 'for maintenance'. Never before have we lost all our links at once. Our name for the 'comet' was "Contact 070795B". Use that name when asking questions and see the result you get. (Source : Stan Deyo's WATT's News, no. 2, September 1995) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Vanguard Note A friend recently informed me he had seen a photograph and email description claiming that any InterNet user could access a web page which would allow the user to program a large telescope to take up to 10 minutes of photos of any region of space that was visible from the site. The story goes that the fellow who wrote the email claimed he had programmed the telescope to take a single 10 minute exposure somewhere around 2AM. The picture which was sent to him from the telescope showed a very large area which blacked out the background stars. My friend said he would try to locate that email and the picture which was provided so that others could at least see it. This was about two months ago and he has not been able to find it again. If anyone else has seen this, we would be most interested in seeing the photo and/or the email that describes it. Thanks......................................................>>> Jerry ------------------------------------------------------------------------------