The Electric Comet theory

Reality Check said:

First asked 6 August 2009
You are still ignoring:

other than your derail into solar activity cutting comet tails in two.
Solar activity may cut tails in two but there have been no observations of comets tuunring off during low solar activity.
Sol88: I may be wrong - if so please provide the citations to these marvelous events.
Obviously the EC idea is just that (an idea) since you cannot provide any "standard EC" source.

Can we agree between ourselves that MBC provide a minimum eccentricity for EC comets?

This is a really obvious consequence of the EC idea.

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Sol88 said:

Unfortunately not with out knowing the charged particle flux at that location, so no, MBC will not give you a minimum eccentricity for a rock to electrically discharge.

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Reality Check said:

MBC will give you amd me a minimum eccentricity for a rock to electrically discharge because the "charged particle flux at that location" has nothing to do with EC.

ETA
This assumes that what you by "charged particle flux at that location" you mean a local charged particle flux from something.

If you mean the solar wind then it is fairly constant in the time scales that we are concerned with.
But if you want then give a number for the minimum solar wind "charged particle flux" to make a rocky body into a comet (remember that the solar wind is actually neutral)

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Sol88 said:

Yeah? Where? Ohhh I forgot it's under your "rind" of insulating "dust" and hidden from view!!!

I've got an idea, how about we smash a copper projectile into a comet nucleus and that will PROVE the water (ice and other "volatiles") is under the rind of dust!!

Or how about we send a dust sample collection to a comet and return the pristine unaltered dust from the formation of the solar system to Earth to prove that they are primordial leftovers!

That will prove beyond all doubt that comets are iceydirtballs left over from the formation of the solar system!

Yeah lets do that, 'cos that will show how correct our theory is and how pathetic those electric/plasma crackpots are!

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Sol88 said:

Do you conceade, Reality Check, that a rocky body can "charge/discharge" in the solar wind?

As found on our Moon(and others)?

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Sol88 said:

Do you conceade that, even if comets are dirtyiceballs, this same process would happen on thier insulating "dusty rind"?

Do you conceade this would have to do with the space weather condition at its locale?

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Sol88 said:

Would it also no be wrong to say it would depend on the comet/asteroids electrical conductivity. e.g. how fast charges would try and equilize, from the surface to the core, as well as how big it is?
Then why does it happen on our moon, which is more or less rock as say, any asteroid orbiting in the sloar electric field?

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1. Comets have meaured densities that are much less than that of rocks (asteroids).
2. Comets may not have the composition of asteriods
3. Deep Impact confirmed that comet nuclei are made of dust and ice not rock. There were a couple of surprises in that the dust was talcum powder rather than sand and the amount of ice was smaller than expected.
   "Analysis of data from the Swift X-ray telescope showed that the comet continued outgassing from the impact for 13 days, with a peak five days after impact. A total of 5 million kilograms (11 million pounds) of water[35] and between 10 and 25 million kilograms (22 and 55 million pounds) of dust were lost from the impact."^WP

• Electric Comets I
• Electric Comets II: References
• Electric Comets III: No EU X-rays (actually no EU X-ray bursts).

Reality Check said:

The Moon can gain change voltage from the interaction between the solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere as is well known. Your links explain this clearly (Strange Things Happen at Full Moon and New Research into Mysterious Moon Storms).


No I do not conceded this. I suspect that it may happen but there is no evidence for it.


It probably happens on dusty asteroids.

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Sol88 said:

Thank you, Reality check!

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Reality Check said:

You are welcome for this opinion from me .

It is a pity that it has absolutely nothing to do with the EC idea.

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Reality Check said:

EC universe: Only give qualitative predictions.
Real universe: Scientific theories model the data mathematically and produce both qualitative and quantitative predictions.

Sol88 posted a list of EC "predictions" for Tempel 1 and Deep Impact. The closes it gets to an actual quantitative predictions is "The most obvious would be a flash (lightning-like discharge) shortly before impact." (emphasis added).

What actually happened was a flash on or after impact followed by a bigger one from deeper in the nucleus.

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Originally Posted by Sol88 View Post
Do you conceade that, even if comets are dirtyiceballs, this same process would happen on thier insulating "dusty rind"?

Do you conceade this would have to do with the space weather condition at its locale?

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No I do not conceded this. I suspect that it may happen but there is no evidence for it.

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Sol88 said:

Suspect it may happen? what? Ummmm......der!

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Sol88 said:

Reality check plays no fair, I call uncle!

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Sol88 said:

please show me mainstreams qualitative and quantitative predictions wrt dirtyiceballs?

and please do not ignore this question if your faith in the snowball model is so unshakeable! Must pages full of numbers and maths somewhere that proves comets are just dirtballs with some ice.

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1. Whipple, Fred L. (1950). "A Comet Model. I. The acceleration of Comet Encke". Astrophys. J. 111: 375–394. doi:10.1086/145272. http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/ApJ../0111//0000375.000.html.
2. Whipple, Fred L. (1951). "A Comet Model. II. Physical Relations for Comets and Meteors". Astrophys. J. 113: 464. doi:10.1086/145416. http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/ApJ../0113//0000464.000.html.
3. Whipple, Fred L. (1955). "A Comet Model. III. The Zodiacal Light". Astrophys. J. 121: 750. doi:10.1086/146040. http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/ApJ../0121//0000750.000.html.

Sol88 said:

How so?

It's very EC my fuddeling friend!

Whats he difference between our moon an asteroid and a comets wrt your agreement on "moon charging"?

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1. Comets have meaured densities that are much less than that of rocks (asteroids).
2. Comets may not have the composition of asteriods
3. Deep Impact confirmed that comet nuclei are made of dust and ice not rock. There were a couple of surprises in that the dust was talcum powder rather than sand and the amount of ice was smaller than expected.
   "Analysis of data from the Swift X-ray telescope showed that the comet continued outgassing from the impact for 13 days, with a peak five days after impact. A total of 5 million kilograms (11 million pounds) of water[35] and between 10 and 25 million kilograms (22 and 55 million pounds) of dust were lost from the impact."^WP

• Electric Comets I
• Electric Comets II: References
• Electric Comets III: No EU X-rays (actually no EU X-ray bursts).

1. Whipple, Fred L. (1950). "A Comet Model. I. The acceleration of Comet Encke". Astrophys. J. 111: 375–394. doi:10.1086/145272. http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/ApJ../0111//0000375.000.html.
2. Whipple, Fred L. (1951). "A Comet Model. II. Physical Relations for Comets and Meteors". Astrophys. J. 113: 464. doi:10.1086/145416. http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/ApJ../0113//0000464.000.html.
3. Whipple, Fred L. (1955). "A Comet Model. III. The Zodiacal Light". Astrophys. J. 121: 750. doi:10.1086/146040. http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/ApJ../0121//0000750.000.html.

Sol88 said:

How so?

It's very EC my fuddeling friend!

Whats he difference between our moon an asteroid and a comets wrt your agreement on "moon charging"?

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Reality Check said:

EC universe: Rocky bodies that have an orbit with an eccentricity above a minimum value will be comets.

N.B. Solar activity may cut tails in two but there have been no observations of comets turning off during low solar activity.
(Sol88: I may be wrong - if so please provide the citations to these marvelous events.)
However this assertion has the fatal flaw of EC predictions - no mathematics or numbers.
But we can do their work for them can't we Sol88?

There are 4 observed main-belt comets with a minimum eccentricity of 0.1644 (133P/Elst-Pizarro). So the EC minimim must be this (or lower!).

Real universe: There are rocky bodies that have an orbit with an eccentricity above a minimum value that are not comets.
In fact there are asteroids in orbits that are get close to cometary orbits, e.g. 2005 VX3 with an eccentricity of 0.9955142)

The JPL Small-Body Database Browser has a search engine. This shows that there are 173,583 cataloged asteroids with an eccentricity > 0.17.

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• Juno (e=0.2553, observed over a span of 67,610 days).
• Pallas (e=0.2309, observed over a span of 64,291 days)
• Astraea (e=0.1917, observed over a span of 59,759 days)
• ...More than 46 other named asteroids observed 1000's of times over decades.
• Vera (e=0.1939, observed over a span of 45,191 days)

Reality Check said:

This is not electric discarge machining.
The Moon/solar wind/Earth's magnetosphere interaction leads to electrostatic discharges not EDM.

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Types of ESD

The most spectacular form of ESD is the spark, which occurs when a strong electric field creates an ionized conductive channel in air. This can cause minor discomfort to people, severe damage to electronic equipment, and fires and explosions if the air contains combustible gases or particles.

However, many ESD events occur without a visible or audible spark. A person carrying a relatively small electric charge may not feel a discharge that is sufficient to damage sensitive electronic components. Some devices may be damaged by discharges as small as 12 volts. These invisible forms of ESD can cause device outright failures, or less obvious forms of degradation that may affect the long term reliability and performance of electronic devices. The degradation in some devices may not become evident until well into their service life.

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The new device, a reactor developed by Derek Fray and his colleagues, was created from a modified electrochemical process the team invented in 2000 to get metals and alloys from metal oxides. The process uses the oxides — also found in Moon rocks — as a cathode, together with an anode made of carbon. To get the current flowing through the system, the electrodes sit in an electrolyte solution of molten calcium chloride (CaCl2), a common salt with a melting point of almost 800 °C.

The current strips the metal oxide pellets of oxygen atoms, which are ionized and dissolve in the molten salt. The negatively charged oxygen ions move through the molten salt to the anode where they give up their extra electrons and react with the carbon to produce carbon dioxide — a process that erodes the anode. Meanwhile, pure metal is formed over at the cathode.

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To heat the reactor on the Moon would need just a small amount of power, Fray said, and the reactor itself can be thermally insulated to lock heat in. The three reactors would need about 4.5 kilowatts of power, which could be supplied by solar panels or even a small nuclear reactor placed on the Moon.

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Sol88 said:

those asteroids you listed would be a good place to start!

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1. Comets have meaured densities that are much less than that of rocks (asteroids).
2. Comets may not have the composition of asteriods
3. Deep Impact confirmed that comet nuclei are made of dust and ice not rock. There were a couple of surprises in that the dust was talcum powder rather than sand and the amount of ice was smaller than expected.
   "Analysis of data from the Swift X-ray telescope showed that the comet continued outgassing from the impact for 13 days, with a peak five days after impact. A total of 5 million kilograms (11 million pounds) of water[35] and between 10 and 25 million kilograms (22 and 55 million pounds) of dust were lost from the impact."^WP

• Electric Comets I
• Electric Comets II: References
• Electric Comets III: No EU X-rays (actually no EU X-ray bursts).

1. Whipple, Fred L. (1950). "A Comet Model. I. The acceleration of Comet Encke". Astrophys. J. 111: 375–394. doi:10.1086/145272. http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/ApJ../0111//0000375.000.html.
2. Whipple, Fred L. (1951). "A Comet Model. II. Physical Relations for Comets and Meteors". Astrophys. J. 113: 464. doi:10.1086/145416. http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/ApJ../0113//0000464.000.html.
3. Whipple, Fred L. (1955). "A Comet Model. III. The Zodiacal Light". Astrophys. J. 121: 750. doi:10.1086/146040. http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/ApJ../0121//0000750.000.html.

I will start collecting the evidence against the electric comet idea in one post. This will be updated as we discuss the many problems with the EC idea.

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Real universeReality Checks):

Sol88 said:

Ok, I'll start collecting the evidence for the electric comet idea in one post. This will be updated as we discuss the many problems mysteries involved with the dirtysnowball idea.

EC universe:Spark machining can and does occur on rocky bodies immersed in the solar wind stream,

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Sol88 said:

charge separation happens on a scale only recently discovered in the near Earth magnetosphere region down "wind" from the Sun(analogous to a comets tail).
Mercury "doesit" so does the Moon, Venus and Mars "do it"! we can see it in the moons of the gas giants, Io and Enceladeus are typical.

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Sol88 said:

EC universe: Spark machining would involve ELECTRICITY with a gradient sufficient enough to cause OBSERVED effect, extremely fine dust sparked of the nucleus with high temp minerals made during the spark and "free" electrons and Ions in highly collimated "jets"/beams.

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Sol88 said:

Real universe, well the jets are chambers of pressurized gas that sublimates somewhere below the dusty rind, this should disperse and be blown away by the solar wind. We not to sure why it's very fine dust and that there is more of it than volatiles.

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Sol88 said:

EC: These arcs "eat" the surface of these asteroid/comets/moons/planets displaying the type relief we OBSERVE on these bodies.

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Sol88 said:

Because these "jets" do not do anything significant to it's orbit via reaction force, it would not matter who's equation you plug the numbers into, it would be wrong, so density estimates are at best estimates!

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Sol88 said:

EC: The fact that X-Rays are observed at all should suggest highly energetic electrical/plasma events are taking place, most likely involving virtual cathodes, double layers, particle acceleration and a whole host of other OBSERVED plasma/electrical effects, including OH production.

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Sol88 said:

You said Reality check, Rocky Bodies DO have ESD's, did you not? The rest is academic.

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1. Predicts the wrong density for comets.
2. No observation of narrow band X-ray bursts from the EC electrical discharge machining.
3. There are at least 173,583 asteroids that should be comets according to EC.

Reality Check said:

The Electric Comet idea has three established failures so far:

1. Predicts the wrong density for comets.
2. No observation of narrow band X-ray bursts from the EC electrical discharge machining.
3. There are at least 173,583 asteroids that should be comets according to EC.

So lets go onto the next topic: The jets that are observed from comet nuclei, e.g. the jets observed by Deep Impact from Tempel 1.

What is the EC idea's explanation for these?

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So lets go onto the next topic: The jets that are observed from comet nuclei, e.g. the jets observed by Deep Impact from Tempel 1

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This is an ideal opportunity to examine the picture of Wild 2 from the perspective of the electric universe model of comets. Briefly, in that model a comet is a highly negatively charged body with respect to the Sun. Like all charged bodies in plasma, a comet will be enveloped in a plasma sheath (the coma) that limits the reach of the comet's electric field. A forbidden oxygen line was discovered in Comet Austin's coma. "Forbidden lines" are spectral signatures that are not expected in space because here on Earth they are found only within strong electric fields. To astronomers' surprise, forbidden lines are common in space, not only in comets, but in nebulae and galaxies. A cometary display is produced when the nucleus discharges at a rate sufficient to generate a visible tail. The dust and gases that form the comet''s tail are not evaporated by the heat of the sun, but instead are electrically 'machined' from the nucleus by cathode arcs. Laboratory examination of cathode arcs shows that they jump around on the cathode surface, removing surface material in jets to form small circular craters. The industrial process of Electric Discharge Machining (EDM) uses this feature to erode a surface to accurate depth. To the naked eye, the EDM surface looks remarkably smooth. However, when viewed at high magnification, the peculiarities of the machined surface become clear. The tendency for the cathode arc to erode one high point then move to the next high point tends to generate chains of flat-floored craters. The finished surface appears as if someone used a circular cookie cutter to produce extended depressions and channels with scalloped edges. Variations in arc current will produce a layered or terraced effect both within craters and between adjacent craters. Below is an example of EDM scarring.

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Sol88 said:

That would be those pesky ESD's and the associated electrostatic noise as it's machined "off".

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Sol88 said:

1 If the "jets" are not "little rockets" (pockets of sublimating ice) then how does the equation go figuring the density, if it's more like the surface eroding away?

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Sol88 said:

2. I suggest next comet bound mission we look more closely, all conditions are satisfied for X-ray production, but it would be more likely to be observed remotely on the cometosphere boundry (double layer) these are know to be rather good at accelerating charged particles. Though we did see it in ultraviolet light.

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Sol88 said:

3. 173,583 asteroids that should be comets according to Reality check! Citation/s please.

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Reality Check said:

EC universe: Rocky bodies that have an orbit with an eccentricity above a minimum value will be comets.

N.B. Solar activity may cut tails in two but there have been no observations of comets turning off during low solar activity.
However this assertion has the fatal flaw of EC predictions - no mathematics or numbers.
But we can do their work for them can't we Sol88?

There are 4 observed main-belt comets with a minimum eccentricity of 0.1644 (133P/Elst-Pizarro). So the EC minimim must be this (or lower!).

Real universe: There are rocky bodies that have an orbit with an eccentricity above a minimum value that are not comets.
In fact there are asteroids in orbits that are get close to cometary orbits, e.g. 2005 VX3 with an eccentricity of 0.9955142)

The JPL Small-Body Database Browser has a search engine. This shows that there are 173,583 cataloged asteroids with an eccentricity > 0.17.

The EC excuse (according to Sol88) is that low solar activity is the reason that these 173,583 cataloged asteroids are not comets. What Sol88 has not realized is that each asteroid is observed a number of times over a period of days to years. These 173,583 cataloged asteroids were not clse to the the Sun at the same instant of time. These asteroids were observed during a range of solar activity. That range included times that comets were visible.

So how many of these should be comets?

EC has no actual physical model and so never gives numbers so we do not expect help there. Sol88 has not been able to cite any observations of comets turining off during low solar activity (or low "charged particle flux at that location"). Also just where is the citation to the EC analysis of the correlation of comet brightness with solar activity at set distances from the Sun?

Conclusion: EC predicts that 100% of the 173,583 asteroids should be comets.
We could be generous and assume that average solar activity is needed and so there are 86,791 asteroids that should be comets according to the EC idea. But that can wait until Sol88 comes up with actual observations related to EC !


Good examples of the asteriods that should be comets according to the EC idea are many of the named asteroids:

• Juno (e=0.2553, observed over a span of 67,610 days).
• Pallas (e=0.2309, observed over a span of 64,291 days)
• Astraea (e=0.1917, observed over a span of 59,759 days)
• ...More than 46 other named asteroids observed 1000's of times over decades.
• Vera (e=0.1939, observed over a span of 45,191 days)

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Sol88 said:

Yes lets, Wal Thornhill says:

This is an ideal opportunity to examine the picture of Wild 2 from the perspective of the electric universe model of comets. Briefly, in that model a comet is a highly negatively charged body with respect to the Sun. Like all charged bodies in plasma, a comet will be enveloped in a plasma sheath (the coma) that limits the reach of the comet's electric field. A forbidden oxygen line was discovered in Comet Austin's coma. "Forbidden lines" are spectral signatures that are not expected in space because here on Earth they are found only within strong electric fields. To astronomers' surprise, forbidden lines are common in space, not only in comets, but in nebulae and galaxies. A cometary display is produced when the nucleus discharges at a rate sufficient to generate a visible tail. The dust and gases that form the comet''s tail are not evaporated by the heat of the sun, but instead are electrically 'machined' from the nucleus by cathode arcs. Laboratory examination of cathode arcs shows that they jump around on the cathode surface, removing surface material in jets to form small circular craters. The industrial process of Electric Discharge Machining (EDM) uses this feature to erode a surface to accurate depth. To the naked eye, the EDM surface looks remarkably smooth. However, when viewed at high magnification, the peculiarities of the machined surface become clear. The tendency for the cathode arc to erode one high point then move to the next high point tends to generate chains of flat-floored craters. The finished surface appears as if someone used a circular cookie cutter to produce extended depressions and channels with scalloped edges. Variations in arc current will produce a layered or terraced effect both within craters and between adjacent craters. Below is an example of EDM scarring.

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1. The EDM surface was created artificially and is probably of a flat surface.
2. The EDM surface image is a microscopic picture. If it were less magnified it would be flat! If it was more magnified it would be mountainous!
3. They do not even look alike!

Reality Check said:

The Electric Comet idea has three established failures so far:

1. Predicts the wrong density for comets.
2. No observation of narrow band X-ray bursts from the EC electrical discharge machining.
3. There are at least 173,583 asteroids that should be comets according to EC.

So lets go onto the next topic: The jets that are observed from comet nuclei, e.g. the jets observed by Deep Impact from Tempel 1.

What is the EC idea's explanation for these?

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Reality Check said:

You did not really answer the question so I will make a guess:
EC universe: Jets happen while the EDM "cathode arc" erodes a high point. They stop when the EDM "cathode arc" removes the high point and then moves to a new high point (and a new jet).

Does that mean that every jet must have an associated EDM "cathode arc"?

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Scientific explanation

Although referred to as "fire", St. Elmo's fire is, in fact, plasma. The electric field around the object in question causes ionization of the air molecules, producing a faint glow easily visible in low-light conditions. Approximately 1,000 - 30,000 volts per centimeter is required to induce St. Elmo's fire; however, this number is greatly dependent on the geometry of the object in question. Sharp points tend to require lower voltage levels to produce the same result because electric fields are more concentrated in areas of high curvature, thus discharges are more intense at the end of pointed objects

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(the plasma wave instrument detected broadband electrostatic noise and a changing pattern of weak electron plasma oscillations that yielded a density profile for the outer layers of the cold plasma tail. Near the tail axis the plasma wave instrument also detected a nonuniform flux of dust impacts)

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Corona also generates radio frequency noise that can also be heard as 'static' or buzzing on radio receivers. Corona can also occur naturally at high points (such as church spires, treetops, or ship masts) during thunderstorms as St. Elmo's Fire.

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Dust devils, even small ones (on Earth), can produce radio noise and electrical fields greater than 10,000 volts per meter.[10] A dust devil picks up small dirt and dust particles. As the particles whirl around, they bump and scrape into each other and become electrically charged. The whirling charged particles also create a magnetic field that fluctuates between 3 and 30 times each second.[11]
These electrical fields assist the vortices in lifting materials off the ground and into the atmosphere. Field experiments indicate that a dust devil can lift 1 gram of dust per second from each square meter (10 lb/s from each acre) of ground it passes over. A large dust devil measuring about 100 meters (330 ft) across at its base can lift about 15 metric tonnes (17 short tons) of dust into the air in 30 minutes. Giant dust storms that sweep across the world's deserts contribute 8% of the mineral dust in the atmosphere each year during the handful of storms that occur. In comparison, the significantly smaller dust devils that twist across the deserts during the summer lift about three times as much dust, thus having a greater combined impact on the dust content of the atmosphere. When this occurs, they are often called sand pillars.

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Sol88 said:

It's interesting to note that coronal discharges, also called St Elmo's fire, has the same properties as the observed "bright" surface patches and preferentially "eating" the high points on Temple 1 and Wild 2!

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This is a region of particular interest. The lack of any features on the smooth region (lower left) implies a young surface. But is it advancing towards the right and covering up rougher, older surface regions? Or is it retreating to the left, eroding and uncovering those regions? The scarp edge marked by arrows is about 10-20 m above the lower and older terrain. It appears bright since it is catching direct sunlight.

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Sol88 said:

So that may explain that electrostatic noise they heard on comet Giacobini-Zinner
Corona breakdown

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1. Predicts the wrong density for comets.
2. No observation of narrow band X-ray bursts from the EC electrical discharge machining.
3. There are at least 173,583 asteroids that should be comets according to EC.

Reality Check said:

Deep Impact: Gallery: Images: Scarp Edge



So does standard plasma physics.

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Dancing David said:

You still have yet to do more than irrelevant fact attrition, sorry, your work hasn't even begun. Plasma exists, yes, but electric comets, uh huh sure, whatever.

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Sol88 said:

I see my work here is done!

Comets are an electrical phenomena or standard plasma physics according to Reality check.

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This is a region of particular interest. The lack of any features on the smooth region (lower left) implies a young surface. But is it advancing towards the right and covering up rougher, older surface regions? Or is it retreating to the left, eroding and uncovering those regions? The scarp edge marked by arrows is about 10-20 m above the lower and older terrain. It appears bright since it is catching direct sunlight.

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Sol88 said:

That's ok DD, you just call me when you have found your volatiles "somewhere" under to dirtysnowwballs dusty "rind"
You have a mathamatical equation somewhere that proves it!

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In the post-impact briefing at 0100 Pacific Daylight Time (08:00 UTC) on July 4, 2005, the first processed images revealed existing craters on the comet. NASA scientists stated they could not see the new crater that had formed from the impactor, but it was later discovered to be about 100 meters (328 ft) wide and up to 30 meters (98 ft) deep.[33] Lucy McFadden, one of the co-investigators of the impact, stated "We didn't expect the success of one part of the mission [bright dust cloud] to affect a second part [seeing the resultant crater]. But that is part of the fun of science, to meet with the unexpected."[34] Analysis of data from the Swift X-ray telescope showed that the comet continued outgassing from the impact for 13 days, with a peak five days after impact. A total of 5 million kilograms (11 million pounds) of water[35] and between 10 and 25 million kilograms (22 and 55 million pounds) of dust were lost from the impact.[33]

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Comet 9P/Tempel 1 was observed by the Swift X-Ray Telescope (XRT) for a total of 250,024 s. Soft X-ray emission, 0.2-1.0 keV, was seen as a diffuse extended halo with an FWHM of 1.03×105 km centered on the comet's nucleus. The X-ray light curve indicates that the comet exhibited a prolonged soft X-ray outburst just after impact of the NASA Deep Impact (DI) spacecraft and enhanced X-ray activity lasted for 12 days. The radial brightness distribution and X-ray spectrum are in excellent agreement with a model of X-ray production in which highly charged minor heavy ion species in the solar wind undergo charge exchange reactions with water group or carbon dioxide group molecules in the neutral coma of the comet. Using this model, we derive a simple expression for the X-ray emission and show that the X-ray flare is, in part, due to an increase in solar wind flux at the comet but is largely due to an enhanced molecule production rate. Assuming that the main outgassing constituent was water, the comet produced (2.9+/-0.4)×108 kg over the 12 day period postimpact. The quiescent water production was expected to inject ~1.0×108 kg into the coma over the same period so the observed X-ray flux indicates that an additional (1.9+/-0.4)×108 kg of water or, alternatively, (3.9+/-0.5)×108 kg of carbon dioxide were liberated by the DI impact.

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Sol88 said:

That's ok DD, you just call me when you have found your volatiles "somewhere" under to dirtysnowwballs dusty "rind"

You have a mathamatical equation somewhere that proves it!

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Dancing David said:

You still have some big holes in your theory, density and other mechanisms, like how the atypical comet/asteroid gets a charge or how a comet has a higher charge after it passes the sun. The equation I make reference to are your problem, you have no data.

You obviously know as much about frozen things as you do comets, or you wouldn't be so silly. I wonder how you can have a frozen surface on a moon and something not as frozen underneath.

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Sol88 said:

DD make sure you read and understand what Reality check wrote in this POST this will stop a lot of going round in circles!

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This is not electric discarge machining.
The Moon/solar wind/Earth's magnetosphere interaction leads to electrostatic discharges not EDM.

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The heliospheric current sheet (HCS) is the surface within the Solar System where the polarity of the Sun's magnetic field changes from north to south. This field extends throughout the Sun's equatorial plane in the heliosphere.[1][2] The shape of the current sheet results from the influence of the Sun's rotating magnetic field on the plasma in the interplanetary medium (Solar Wind).[3] A small electrical current flows within the sheet, about 10−10 A/m². The thickness of the current sheet is about 10,000 km.

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