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Re: (meteorobs) Excerpts from "CCNet 123/2001 - 22 November 2001"



In a message dated 12/5/01 11:36:31 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
rmn@aaocbn.aaodot gov.AU writes:

<< Also remember than many comets are seen to split off large chunks that
 persist for a revolution or two as independent comets.  These appear to
 dissipate complete (and would cause a localised enhancement within a dust
 trail). >>

    An excellent example of what Rob is alluding to is 
73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, which split into four fragments in 1995.  
Recently, Hartwig Luthen, Rainer Arlt and Michael Jager wrote a fascinating 
paper for WGN (February-April 2001 29:1) in which they note that the dust 
trail produced by the 1995 fragmentation may encounter the Earth in 2022.  

    Since the miss distance rD-rE is equal to 0.0004 AU, they express hope 
that some activity will be noted, since there is a chance that " . . . the 
trail is more populated due to the massive expulsion of dust observed in 
1995."

-- joe rao
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