APOD: Rosetta's Target Comet (2014 May 23)
Re: APOD: Rosetta's Target Comet (2014 May 23)
as far as landing on an object of low gravity ? Remember EROS ? I just hope they remember the units they use to measure with
Wolf Kotenberg
Re: APOD: Rosetta's Target Comet (2014 May 23)
"Globular." Fixed it. Sorry. - RJNGruyere wrote:Mmmmmmmmm ,,, gob-ular
Re: APOD: Rosetta's Target Comet (2014 May 23)
The landing part just sounds difficult. It's the orbiting part I can't understand.geckzilla wrote:Landing on something with such low surface gravity has its own challenges.
- Chris Peterson
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Re: APOD: Rosetta's Target Comet (2014 May 23)
Why? Any two massive bodies will orbit each other given the proper velocity.Jim Leff wrote:The landing part just sounds difficult. It's the orbiting part I can't understand.
Chris
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Chris L Peterson
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Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
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Re: APOD: Rosetta's Target Comet (2014 May 23)
The orbiter has the mass of a pickup truck. The comet has the mass of a small asteroid - much less mass than Everest.Chris Peterson wrote:Any two massive bodies will orbit each other given the proper velocity.
Or by "massive" do you mean "containing any mass at all"?
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Re: APOD: Rosetta's Target Comet (2014 May 23)
Yes.Jim Leff wrote:The orbiter has the mass of a pickup truck. The comet has the mass of a small asteroid - much less mass than Everest.
Or by "massive" do you mean "containing any mass at all"?
By my quick calculation, the orbital speed works out to around 3 cm/s for a 200 km radius orbit.
Chris
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Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
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Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
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Re: APOD: Rosetta's Target Comet (2014 May 23)
Chris Peterson wrote:Yes.Jim Leff wrote:The orbiter has the mass of a pickup truck. The comet has the mass of a small asteroid - much less mass than Everest.
Or by "massive" do you mean "containing any mass at all"?
By my quick calculation, the orbital speed works out to around 3 cm/s for a 200 km radius orbit.
Just doesn't seem intuitive to me. But nobody ever said physics had to be intuitive!