Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Monday, November 22nd.  The sun will rise at 7:48.  It’ll be up for 9 hours and 20 minutes, setting at 5:08.   The moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 5:46 this evening.

NASA held a news conference last Thursday, two weeks after the Deep Impact spacecraft’s encounter with Comet Hartley 2 on November 4th.  The comet didn’t disappoint.  It was the most active nucleus found by any spacecraft, and its most active jets were powered by dry ice, something not seen before.  The jets also disgorged bits of ice that looked like a snow storm in the spacecraft’s high resolution imagers.  This was another first.  The chicken drumstick shape of the nucleus was expected by  beforehand.  But the difference in the surface between the lobes which was smooth and the lobes themselves which were rough and actively spewing jets of CO2 and snow was a surprise.  Looks like astronomers will be chewing on this drumstick for years to come.

* Times, as always are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.