Email or username:

Password:

Forgot your password?
Corey S Powell's posts Post Back to profile
Top-level
Corey S Powell

As a kid I learned that comets are just "dirty snowballs." Look at how much richer the reality is!

The Rosetta spacecraft took this amazing close-up of Comet 67/P from a distance of 20 km.

blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/04/ #science #nature #space #astronomy

This stunning scene was created from two NAVCAM frames acquired at 19.9 km from the comet centre on 28 March. The scale is about 1.7 m/pixel and the image measures 3.1 x 1.7 km. The image has been adjusted for intensity and contrast, and the vignetting has been fixed. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM
15 March at 19:56 | Open on mastodon.social
7 comments
DELETED

@coreyspowell I'd love to hitch a ride on that dirty snowball.

15 March at 19:57 | Open on geekdom.social
Rachel Greenham

@coreyspowell they *are* dirty snowballs, the error is that word "just”. because "dirty" might as well be a synonym for “endlessly fascinating complicated stuff that might just help us figure out how life starts”… 😀

15 March at 20:03 | Open on mastodon.social
Corey S Powell

@StrangeNoises

Agreed, presentation is everything!

I recall a lot of failure of imagination -- people presenting a "snowball" as a featureless blob, not thinking about how much complexity there is in nature at every level.

15 March at 20:46 | Open on mastodon.social
CaliCarol

@coreyspowell

Looks like a closeup of a dirty snowball.

15 March at 20:08 | Open on mastodon.online
Corey S Powell

@jawarajabbi

As Rachel Greenham pointed out here, the error wasn't in the description but in the interpretation. Dirty snowballs turn out to be really complex and cool looking.

15 March at 20:47 | Open on mastodon.social
Go Up