I routinely get emails from friends who are passing on misinformation yet with the best of intentions. In the future, I may even get this piece of info from a friend, and Had I not seen it both in my local news web page and on the NASA web site (check out the link on this blog), I may not have believed it.
There is a comet going around our solar system in reverse. That may sound odd to you, like it did to me, but it is true. at first I wondered, "How can a comet go in reverse?" I had images of a comet chasing its tail, then couldn't imagine how a God of order would let that happen. But then again, I am only human with a very finite limit on the imagination of an infinite
God.
The way this thing works is like this: everything that we see in our solar system revolves around the sun in a counter clockwise direction. This comet, on the other hand, is going around in a clockwise direction.
The article from the news website is here in full.
Backward green comet named Lulin makes one-time only visit toward the sun
CP
Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press
Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:41:00 CST
E-mail this to a friend
WASHINGTON - An odd, greenish backward-flying comet is zipping by Earth this month, as it takes its only trip toward the sun from the farthest edges of the solar system.
The comet is called Lulin, and there's a chance it can be seen with the naked eye - far from city lights, astronomers say. But you'll most likely need a telescope, or at least binoculars, to spot it. The best opportunity is just before dawn one-third of the way up the southern sky. It should be near Saturn and two bright stars, Spica and Regula.
On Monday at 10:43 p.m. EST, it will be 61 million kilometres from Earth, the closest it will ever get, according to Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near Earth Object program.
The story behind the comet is more intriguing than its appearance - the greenish tinge may be hard for many to discern. The colour comes from a type of carbon and cyanogen, a poisonous gas.
Lulin was discovered by a Chinese teenager two years ago. It still has many of its original gases - gases that are usually stripped away as comets near the sun. Unlike most comets viewable from Earth, this one hasn't been this close to the sun before, Yeomans said.
While all the planets and most of the other objects in the solar system circle the sun counterclockwise, Lulin circles clockwise, said NASA astronomer Stephen Edberg. And thanks to an optical illusion, from Earth it appears as if the comet's tail is in the front as the comet approaches Earth and the sun.
"It essentially is going backwards through the solar system," he said.
It came from the outskirts of the solar system, 29 trillion kilometres away. Once it's made the journey around the sun, Lulin will gain enough speed to escape the solar system, Edberg said.
"If you are interested in comets, make sure you see it," he said. "If you are interested in comets, make sure you see it," he said. "But it's not going to be a real great blast for the general public."
I guess that my statement here is more of a question. Does it make sense (is it rational) that this one comet opposes every scientific mind and flies in reverse direction around our solar system? The spinning of 2 planets in differing directions than the others has been explained here http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/qa_plan.html#spinning but there is no explianation explination for reverse orbit! God is completely creative, unexplainable and unpredictable.
I've moved.
14 years ago
No comments:
Post a Comment