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Re: (meteorobs) Hale-Bopp has a Beard!



At 10:38 AM 3/27/97 -0500, Stop Light Pollution! wrote:
>  Last wekend I saw a nice slow orange 2nd magnitude meteor cross the corner of
>the field in the 12x63 binoculars as I watched the comet. It was interesting to
>see a flare coming off the side of the meteor toward the comet as it crossed
>the field going down to the NNW. This was something I had never seen before, as
>well as a beard on a comet!
>
>GWG

George, this comment interested me. I'd always understood that flares and
sparks  would basically never split off perpendicular to the meteor's trail
- just because the speed of entry of any meteor is so great that it would
take a tremendous amount of energy to redirect even a fraction of its mass
in another direction after atmospheric entry. Is that actually true, and you
just saw a bizarre rarity?

Lew