This is a layman's answer: A comet only looses substantial matter when close(r) to the sun. So yes, after some time he disintegrates, but this can take a long time, especially when he's big. Some comets' orbits are even disturbed in a way that they drop into the sun - they are gone then, naturally.
_____ Best regards, Bernhard "Rendelius" Rems CEO RPGDot Network This outgoing mail has been virus-checked. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2004 9:25 AM To: Sterling K. Webb Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Stardust Flyby Images of Comet Wild 2 Hi all, I know I should research this myself but I hope I can get a relatively brief answer upon which I can look further into this question if deemed worthwhile. How does a small object like a comet, especially, travel for billions of years constantly venting and releasing matter continue to exist? Why doesn't it dissipate into virtual nothingness? Bill Kieskowski > Hi, > > I was fascinated by the first flyby image that was > released (the one featured on APOD). Despite its generally > fuzzy appearance, there is a lot of detail buried in there > that I hope we'll get to see when the wizards are through > massaging the images for detail and content. > I took a copy of that image and squeezed it as hard as I > could. I doubled the spacing of all the pixels and filled in > the intermediate spaces with eight-way median values, twiddled > with its histogram to re-distribute the greyscale values to a > more normal distribution, then stomped all over it with a > square sharpness filter. > I found that is LOTS of detail there, although my > ham-handed efforts left some messy artifacts. For example, the > "crater-like" circular features do not have uniformly shaded > bottoms. They're not smooth (nor flat I would guess), but > usually show a single deep dark conoid pit that's probably a > large primary vent for outgassing. > The walls of these "crater-like" features show some linear > features, as if the depressions had formed by a slump-like > collapse, perhaps from the rapid removal of material from > beneath the "slump" by outgassing. Lots of tantalizing > features not quite sharp enough to interpret. I'm left with > the impression of a surface with lots of varying contours. > Many of the smaller high contrast features seem to be > albedo-related, as if between light and dark materials, > perhaps at smaller "un-slumped" vents. > If anyone's interested, you can view this roughly enhanced > image at: > <http://www.bhil.com/~kelly/wild2.html>. > > > Sterling K. Webb > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --- > > Ron Baalke wrote: > > I've added an animation of the Comet Wild 2 flyby > images taken by > Stardust to the Stardust website. > Included is a chart from the Dust Flux Instrument > showing > the particle impacts on the spacecraft during the > flyby, and > another chart showing the spacecraft thruster > activity: > > http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/status/040106.html > > You can view the animation directly from here: > > http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/images/w2_flyby1.gif > > Ron Baalke > > > > ______________________________________________ > Meteorite-list mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
