[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Re: (meteorobs) Hale/Bopp Observation Jan 29 ZAYGE



At 01:03 PM 1/29/97 EST, wayne.t.hally@bangate1.tek.com wrote:
>The flareups early on (about 6-12 months ago) as...what was it, CO? reached
sublimation temperature out by Jove seem to have calmed down, as have the
jets that were visible late last year. Has H2O temp been reached yet? I
don't know...hopefully some of these features will reoccur shortly.
>WWWayne

I've been wallowing in relative ignorance about Hale-Bopp (and I'll probably
continue to do so until the light from it starts keeping me up at night :>),
but what's its current distance from the sun? H2O should start to vaporize
not too far inside the orbit of Mars, I think, and well before the comet is
1 AU out. (Remember the daytime suface temp on the moon is something like
212oF!)

About the comet's newness, has anyone managed to measure the albedo of the
nucleus yet, to see how much dark schmutz (that's the technical term, I
believe) it's coated with? Fresh Oort cloud nuclei are supposed to have
extremely high albedoes (or so I'm told - I always believe what I'm told. :>)

Lew