Comets Form Like Deep Fried Ice Cream Scoops 37
astroengine writes Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, Calif., have added another oddity to the cometary 'weird list': comets are best described as scoops of deep fried ice cream. "The crust is made of crystalline ice, while the interior is colder and more porous," said Murthy Gudipati of JPL, co-author of a recent study appearing in The Journal of Physical Chemistry. "The organics are like a final layer of chocolate on top."
But how do they taste? (Score:2)
I'm just asking for a friend.
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I wouldn't try tasting a comet - your tongue would stick to it
Oh yeah? (Score:2)
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Hmm. They finally caught up to the fictional JPL (Score:1)
The JPL astronomers in the Niven / Pournelle book Lucifer's Hammer use hot fudge sundae as the model for the comet in the book, when they are trying to compute the damage it will do if it hits the earth. See page 85 or so, depending on your edition of the book. https://books.google.com/books?id=mWL5SdJobpcC&pg=PA85&lpg=PA85&dq=lucifer%27s+hammer+hot+fudge+sundae&source=bl&ots=DWaZRJZoGM&sig=_1d6AE4rnz8dzJ4R-aB3RJEnb5A&hl=en&sa=X&ei=FbHbVLGoAYT0oATL0oGgCQ&ved=0CC0Q6
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Not really odd (Score:3, Informative)
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Because most of us have probably never heard of foamed polyphasic materials, and consequently don't know the effects of repeated melting and freezing of their surface?
Just sayin' ... some of us need the ice cream analogy.
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People like you give me hope.
-That is, people listening to their inner voice and rather than shutting it down, acting on it to try to bring themselves into closer alignment with objective reality and sanity.
It's tough, and not everybody has the stones for it, which is why those who make the push deserve a ton of respect. The easy roads all lead to nutsville.
Nice collaborative work (Score:2)
So, hot fudge sundae... (Score:3)
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Dammit! You beat me to it!!!!
Niven and Pournelle got it right!!!!!
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L... [wikipedia.org]
For those who missed some of the better 1970's scifi.
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Dammit! Beat me to it.
Um What? (Score:2)
They're rolled in cinamon and sugar and deep fried?
food in the skies! (Score:1)
Next: the Moon is made of green cheese.
Does this work on a rubber ducky? (Score:2)
Mmmmmmmm....... (Score:2)
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Why would anyone want to deep-fry the scoop?
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