Episode #026: Comets and the Cosmic Biome

I, for one, have LONG yearned to at least be able occasionally to seem normal. I admire "Normal Guy" Mike. Want to learn from him. Yep. Always discovered that the people who seemed normal, once you get to know'em, are just as nutty as everyone else. It's a puzzle. < | | [‹›] | | > Meanwhile, It seems Mighty LIKELY that each and every in-falling Comet of whatever size will be interacting with and > Influenced by < the Sun's VAST and UnAvoidable magnetic influence! < | | ] ‹•› [ | | > When the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft reached Saturn in 2004, the main unit orbited and surveyed the system, while a probe with more modest instrumentation dropped into the atmosphere. The imaging and sensor data gathering were spectacular. < ‹ | | ] ‹•› [ | | › > One image of Saturn's RINGS was especially intriguing: It Showed RADIAL RAYS across the WIDTH of the rings, evidently composed of reflective particles. And they PERSISTED over some appreciable span of time as structures on/in the Rings, despite that the rings have been shown to consist of Trillions of discrete particles --> Each particle had been thought to be orbiting the Planet independently, according to the known characteristics of smaller bodies in gravitational orbits around their primary... Yet the RAYS PERSISTED!!! The explanation offered was that SATURN'S MAGNETIC FIELD was "clamping" the particles in place. Possibly because the particles seen were after all only minute dust or ice. But they had to have some magnetic properties of their own in order to be held in place by Saturn's field. <||] ‹•› [||> Just underscores that the influence of electromagnetic fields play a much more pervasive role in our affairs than we had appreciated... A Growing population of Astrophysicists and astronomers are coming around to a sense that After spending Many BILLIONS of $$$ and €€€s the entire "Dark Matter and Dark Energy" business has been revealed to be a BIG FAT NOTHING, and in fact the interactions of Electromagnetic Fields and Currents might account for all the observed phenomena that fooled them into assuming the existence of some Mysterious Dark stuff... <||] ‹•› [||> solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/mission/spacecraft/cassini-orbiter/ reply

Considering infalling comets from the uttermost remote precincts of the Oort cloud... I wonder if any of you stellar luminaries RUNNING this show are aware of any astronomers, cosmologists, or astrophysicists who have calculated an upper limit on the diameter or accumulated mass of Comets we might expect to visit the Inner System. I recall hearing Comet Enke – reckoned to be the "parent" body of the devastatin' TAURID stream of cometary debris that's provided so much fodder for our study and conjecture and excitement – was supposed to be an Unusually GIANT comet, with a diameter estimated as wide as 62 Miles in its early passes near the Sun. Sixty-two miles actually seems a bit measley... One might think that a comet drifting through the Oort Cloud for the better part of FOUR BILLION EARTH YEARS could end up siphoning up a little more Respectable Mass, especially considering the trillions of OTHER companions that have already spent that SAME amount of time Hoovering up the dust and gas and incipient life-molecules from the original Gas cloud ejected by one or more supernovae. I mean, Show a Little PRIDE in yourself, you LAGGARDS! Seriously, you might think a comet, with just a little ambition and diligence, could come Hurtling into the Inner system with the Mass of AT LEAST, for instance, Pluto or Mercury... Now, THAT might command a little respect and deference. 62 miles -- that's scarcely the distance from Boston Commons to Quincy! •• •• •• •• •• •• •• So... The whole stinking Planet needs to have a Damn Great CONDOM as protection against contamination by passing germs. **** I've read in several sources that the Magnetic Field of the SUN extends out far beyond the orbits of the planets. This means that all the planets as they circle the Sun, are plowing through the Sun's Magnetic FIELD. Seems obvious. The only question is how the Sun's magnetic field interacts with the planets, some of which seem to have no substantial magnetic field of their own, because they lack molten Iron cores. (There may be other ways to generate a field...) The point is that the planets and their atmospheres and crustal layers, must certainly be influenced by the variations and fluctuations of the Sun's magnetic field. reply