[meteorite-list] comet holmes

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 23:29:18 -0500
Message-ID: <01ea01c816bf$9c158600$b92ee146_at_ATARIENGINE>

Hi, Jerry,

    I don't know the exact distance to 17P (starts Googling).
Light speed is 18 million kilometers a minute. If I did it right
(don't hold me to it) Mars is 121,422,000 kilometers away
right now (give or take), or a light travel time of 6 minutes,
44.67 seconds -- that's why all those phone calls you've
been making to Mars are so expensive.

Doug says:
> Comet 17P (Holmes) estimated at under 3.5 Km in diameter,
> and being twice as far from the Earth as the planet Mars

    I don't know if he means "at the moment" or that its
perihelion distance is 2.1655 AU (and aphelion at 5.2 AU).
Holmes has passed perihelion (May 4) and is heading out, so
a long way. The Space.com article says it's 243,000,000 km
"away" (twice as far as Mars, like Doug said) and assuming
they mean actual Earth-Comet distance, the light travel time
is 13 minutes, 30 seconds.

    Long distance call...


Sterling K. Webb
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jerry" <grf2 at verizon.net>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 10:50 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] comet holmes


What's the time interval for light transmission from this distance to earth?
Jerry Flaherty
______________________________________________
Meteorite-list mailing list
Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Received on Thu 25 Oct 2007 12:29:18 AM PDT