...I find it oddly interesting scientists are puzzled about this. I can't help but wonder if it was hype or simply a sincere desire for comets to go away. One less comet to worry about crashing into Earth.
See, the sun we call Sol has no atmosphere so no matter how close a space object gets; it isn't going to burn through an atmosphere, as Earth's, to disappear. That is just to begin with.
Sol is a hot sphere of largely hydrogen gas, over 73 percent to be exact. It's function in the solar system isn't really to heat things up, so much as emit particle waves (radiation) that serves many different functions. But, Earth is not heated by any direct heat as we think of it from Sol. Quite the contrary, space is absolute zero or lower in temperature. It is freezing.
It is the radiation entering Earth's atmosphere and then is reflected off Earth's surface and trapped by greenhouse gases that heats Earth. Earth heats itself, but, uses the radiation from Sol in order to achieve that, but, no direct heat comes from Sol.
As a matter of fact, except for hydrogen, Sol is very absent of volatile elements. The rest of the elements found in Sol are all organic elements which is interesting. Except for one. Helium. Helium is a Royal Gas which means it tends not to react, but, remain stable. The Royal Gases along with Nitrogen (N2) are all very stable gases. To prove that 78 percent of Earth's atmosphere is N2. The blue sky is caused by the Earth gas N2.
The point is there is no sincere heat radiating into space from Sol. So, it has no atmosphere, it does have gravity and thus gravitational pull, emits radiation called "The Solar Wind" and it has latitudes like it's equator no different than any other celestial planet in the solar system.
So, along comes Comet Ison screaming at high velocity in dead cold space passing near Sol and it enters into a tug of war with Sol's gravitational pull and it's course changes. It might have lost some ice and changed it's mass, but, it's velocity was so high it simply reacted by changing it's trajectory. Makes sense to me. As a matter of fact the centrifugal force somewhat remained the one primary vector acting on it's trajectory. So, the mass may have changed enabling it to maintain it's velocity through centrifugal force with only a change in direction as it passed Sol.
Even when examining Mercury for it's atmosphere, it is the high temperture of salt that causes about 400K on the planet's surface. The salt atmosphere of Mercury actually has a trail as it travels through space which reaches some of the highest temperatures observed for that element. But, it is not Sol itself causing high temperatures on Mercury or Earth.
The solar radiation from Sol excites molecules, atoms, quarks or whatever one wants to refer to. It is that reaction with radiation that causes heat. Chemical reactions either emit or use heat produced within that reaction.
I would not necessarily expect an ice comet to melt near Sol unless it's radiation excites the molecules to create enough heat to melt the comet entirely. It is slightly unrealistic to believe that would happen. At least that is my opinion. Maybe I am just too used to think about how Earth receives radiation and utilizes it. Now, if the comet flew directly into a large solar flair it's molecular structure would react with the hydrogen and might disintegrate through the heat it would generate with the temperature of that hydrogen. But, objects in space passing near Sol? Not so much.
See, the sun we call Sol has no atmosphere so no matter how close a space object gets; it isn't going to burn through an atmosphere, as Earth's, to disappear. That is just to begin with.
Sol is a hot sphere of largely hydrogen gas, over 73 percent to be exact. It's function in the solar system isn't really to heat things up, so much as emit particle waves (radiation) that serves many different functions. But, Earth is not heated by any direct heat as we think of it from Sol. Quite the contrary, space is absolute zero or lower in temperature. It is freezing.
It is the radiation entering Earth's atmosphere and then is reflected off Earth's surface and trapped by greenhouse gases that heats Earth. Earth heats itself, but, uses the radiation from Sol in order to achieve that, but, no direct heat comes from Sol.
As a matter of fact, except for hydrogen, Sol is very absent of volatile elements. The rest of the elements found in Sol are all organic elements which is interesting. Except for one. Helium. Helium is a Royal Gas which means it tends not to react, but, remain stable. The Royal Gases along with Nitrogen (N2) are all very stable gases. To prove that 78 percent of Earth's atmosphere is N2. The blue sky is caused by the Earth gas N2.
The point is there is no sincere heat radiating into space from Sol. So, it has no atmosphere, it does have gravity and thus gravitational pull, emits radiation called "The Solar Wind" and it has latitudes like it's equator no different than any other celestial planet in the solar system.
So, along comes Comet Ison screaming at high velocity in dead cold space passing near Sol and it enters into a tug of war with Sol's gravitational pull and it's course changes. It might have lost some ice and changed it's mass, but, it's velocity was so high it simply reacted by changing it's trajectory. Makes sense to me. As a matter of fact the centrifugal force somewhat remained the one primary vector acting on it's trajectory. So, the mass may have changed enabling it to maintain it's velocity through centrifugal force with only a change in direction as it passed Sol.
Even when examining Mercury for it's atmosphere, it is the high temperture of salt that causes about 400K on the planet's surface. The salt atmosphere of Mercury actually has a trail as it travels through space which reaches some of the highest temperatures observed for that element. But, it is not Sol itself causing high temperatures on Mercury or Earth.
The solar radiation from Sol excites molecules, atoms, quarks or whatever one wants to refer to. It is that reaction with radiation that causes heat. Chemical reactions either emit or use heat produced within that reaction.
I would not necessarily expect an ice comet to melt near Sol unless it's radiation excites the molecules to create enough heat to melt the comet entirely. It is slightly unrealistic to believe that would happen. At least that is my opinion. Maybe I am just too used to think about how Earth receives radiation and utilizes it. Now, if the comet flew directly into a large solar flair it's molecular structure would react with the hydrogen and might disintegrate through the heat it would generate with the temperature of that hydrogen. But, objects in space passing near Sol? Not so much.
...Astronomers (click here) admit to being surprised and delighted, but now caution that anything could happen in the coming hours and days.
This remnant of Ison could continue to brighten, or it could simply fizzle out altogether....
