February 24, 2009

Watch the skies for Comet Lulin

It’s a hazy, cloudy day here today, so I don’t hold out much hope, but in some places tonight will be the best night to see the comet Lulin:

Green Comet Approaches Earth

Comet Lulin making nearest approach toward earth, one-time only

Comments (4)

— Barbara @ 2:56 pm PST, 02/24/09

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4 Comments

violetismycolor says:

February 24, 2009 at 9:34 pm

I wish it hadn’t been so cloudy here. We had no chance to see the comet.
Ken says:

February 25, 2009 at 8:23 am

Remember comet Temple 1?

The projectile is coated in copper because copper, unlike aluminum, won’t react with water and it’s cheaper than gold or silver, said Michael A’Hearn

Wikipedia has further information: “The crater that formed was up to 200 meters in diameter and 30-50 meters deep. The probe’s spectrometer instrument detected dust particles finer than human hair, and discovered the presence of silicates, carbonates, smectite, metal sulfides (like fool’s gold), amorphous carbon and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.”

The reason I recalled Temple 1 was because of the color. On Gaia, copper often develops a shade of green, and I have a far back memory from mineralogy that copper ore is green in color. I know that copper pipe, at areas where flux is applied before soldering or brazing, over time, sometimes develops a fine greenish deposit.

It appears that Temple 1 isn’t due to return until 2011 (”return” is a reference to its predicted orbital path) and according to the Wikipedia link the comet will be revisited (presumably during the comets “return” window), and this comet Lulin is said in the headline above a “one-time only” event, so besides the different names, it appears from timing that they’re two different comets.

I wonder why Lulin is being called “one-time only”, if it is a comet in some kind of orbit. Do some comets not follow an orbital path? Another mystery to explore, I suppose.
Sarah says:

February 25, 2009 at 8:24 am

You and I share a common cloud cover, I think, and there was / has been no chance of seeing the comet. In earlier centuries, the appearance of a comet would have been taken as a portent of momentous / supernatural event(s). There’s still the feeling of mystery, of something out of the ordinary, something in the works…or maybe it’s fleas.
NiteSkyGirl Blog says:

February 26, 2009 at 10:12 am

I have all the up to date info you’ll ever need for Comet Lulin, Scroll down on my blog and look to the roght for ‘ comets tonight ‘

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