Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Track Comet ISON’s Journey Around the Sun with this Paper Model

Track Comet ISON’s Journey Around the Sun with this Paper Model:
Comet ISON is making its way through the inner solar system. Visualize its unusual orbit and track its journey  around the sun with this paper model. The background image shows comet  C/2001 Q4 (NEAT). Credit: NASA and T. A. Rector (Univ. of Alaska Anchorage), Z. Levay and L. Frattare (STScI) and WIYN/NOAO/AURA/NSF
Track Comet ISON’s Journey Around the Sun with this Paper Model
As Comet ISON loops around the sun and back, you can visualize its unusual orbit and track its progress with this paper model. The background image shows comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT). Credit: NASA and T. A. Rector, Z. Levay and L. Frattare and WIYN/NOAO/AURA/NSF
Planet orbits are so easy to picture – eight nearly concentric hula hoops centered on the sun. Comets are weirder. Their orbits vary from tapered ellipses shaped like cigars to completely open-ended parabolas and even hyperbolas. Comet ISON’s highly-elongated (stretched out) orbit is best described as hyperbolic, although that’s subject to change if Jupiter gets into the act and gives the comet a gravitational nudge during its outbound journey. As the largest planet, it has a special knack for this kind of trick, having tamed many a wayward comet’s orbit into a neat ellipse.
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Read the rest of Track Comet ISON’s Journey Around the Sun with this Paper Model (331 words)

© Bob King for Universe Today, 2013. |Permalink |No comment |
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