Academic

SNOW GLOBE IN SPACE: Surprise at a Comet Visited by NASA: A Snowstorm. ?The Deep Impact spacecraft?

By Glenn Reynolds

SNOW GLOBE IN SPACE: Surprise at a Comet Visited by NASA: A Snowstorm. “The Deep Impact spacecraft passed within 435 miles of Comet Hartley 2 two weeks ago, producing a series of photographs that showed bright jets coming off a rough surface. What fascinated the mission scientists most was that the chunks of water ice in the jets were not being lifted off the surface by the force of water vapor heated by the sun, but rather by jets of carbon dioxide. This was the first time that such carbon dioxide jets had been observed at a comet.”

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on November 19, 2010 (boomark / email).