features Student Voice By Vail Weller and Nanette Quatchak Feature Editors Jim McDermott Bth semester MIS "I'm sta> ing here to take courses and I'll have an internship. I'll also be drinking a lot." Dave Fletcher 6th semester MIS "I'm going home and framing houses for my brother and getting a tan pn the Cape." replace the missing ones, and in doing so produce tiny bursts of light. This is what causes the bright bluish light. Secondly, as I stated earlier, the sun is reflected off the bits of material in the coma and tail which creates the yellowish color. Where do comets go to? Most comets move in orbits around the sun, just like the planets, so they don’t really go anywhere. As early as 3508. C., Aristotle concluded that comets don’t travel in regular orbits and that they are not in outer space but in the Earth's atmosphere. But, as most theories often are, his was turned over by a German Astronomer, Regiomontanus. In A.D. 1473, he observed a comet for several nights and traced its This edition's question - What are your plans for the summer? Julie Elabarger 6th semester Communication Behrend "I am working with an insurance firm where they arc training me for a job after graduation." Tammy Furyesz 4th semester Communications "I'm going to live in Orlando and I’ll be working at Disney World and gelling a great tan." Jim Byrne Bth semester MIS "I'm going to graduate, go to Hilton Head, SC and then come back to find a job." Photos taken by Michelle Schneider elongated orbit. By making observations, we are able to plot out the orbit or path of a comet, and from these means we know when the comet will pass'Earth again. For example, Edmond Halley traced the arc of the now famous Halley's Comet. He researched previous sightings in 1682 and predicted its next visit in 1758. His prediction came , true, and including its 1986 sighting it was spotted a total of thirty times (sightings occur every seventy-five [six] years). If you're not busy during an evening in the year 2061, look up in the sky; it may be a bird you see, possibly even a plane, but if you see a fuzzy star chances are it's Halley's comet. Science it Mighty Mouse? ./ y'' When a coonSt isn't in range of the sun's light, it looks like a dark, dirty' snowball. The nucleus, or.lhe Look! Up in the sky; it's a bird, solid center, of the comet, is made its a plane, it's a fuzzy star! No, it's mostly of ice mixed with ammonia, not a fuzzy star it's a comet. Have methane, and carbon dioxide. Inside you ever seen a comet? Halley’s this ice ball are bits of rock and perhaps? It's not impossible to see metal; picture a scoop of rocky-road one, but if you're looking for a ice cream. The nuclei of most Mighty Mouse kind of streak in the comets are as large as one-half mile sky, you might be disappointed. to thirty miles across, but the Where do comets come from? In grains of rock and metal in them arc his book, Comets, Meteors and usually no bigger than a walnut. Asteroids, Melvin Berger Around the nucleus is a dust and describes the planets as a group of gas mixture called the coma. Its houses at a building site and comets diameter can reach up to 625,000 as the building materials that are miles. That's twenty-five times left over. These leftovers are the bigger than the Earth's. Considering stone and metal pieces that remained the average diameter of a coma, can after the planets were formed nearly you imagine seeing the Great five billion years ago. The study of Comet of 1811? Its diameter was these bits of material helps us the largest ever recorded, 1.25 realize what Earthy as well as the million miles across at its widest other planets, are made of, much point! like archaeological finds reveal the Together the coma and nucleus cultures of other people. make up the head of the comet by Robert D. Eggleston Collegian Staff Writer WHAT’S A DEGREE GOOD FOR? ( ) PRE-APPROVED CREDIT FROM FORD CREDIT SELIGSON LINCOLN MERCURY At Seligson Lincoln Mercury, your degree is worth a lot. If you've graduated, or will graduate with a bachelor’s or advanced degree between October 1, 1987 and January 31 1989, you may qualify for $4OO from Ford and pre-approved credit from Ford Motor Credit Company. To qualify for pre-approved credit you need: (1) verifiable employment begining within 120 days after your vehicle purchase; (2) a salary sufficient to cover normal living expenses plus a car payment and SELIGSON lincoln-mercury-merkur ) $4OO CASH BONUS FROM FORD ALL OF THE ABOVE AT which is followed by another gaseous mixture. Unlike the coma's spherical shape, it is streamlined. Here in the tail, the gases are much less dense than in the coma. Solar wind (a high speed stream of subatomic particles emitted by the sun) pushes on the gas molecules and dust particles in the coma. It spreads them out to form the long tail, and because the tail is heated by the pressure of the solar wind on the head of the comet it always faces away from the sun. This phenomenon was first observed by Girolamo Fracastoro and Peter Apian, in 1532. The tail extends out behind the comet only when it is going toward the sun. At other times it is either ahead of or to the side of the comet. Surrounding the head and part of the tail is a giant cloud of hydrogen gas which can be millions of miles wide. According to Melvin Berger; "The first hydrogen clouds were discovered around 1970. Other observations since then have helped astronomers realize that the hydrogen cloud is as much a part of a comet as the nucleus,.coma, gas tail, and dust tail.” Because comets cou £Cf > C^4S£ r .. .... •v. ..... .. Ford Motor Credit . ; Company (3) if you have a credit record , it must indicate apayment made as agreed. The $4OO from Ford is yours whether you finance or not. Keep it or apply it to the purchase or lease of an eligible Ford or Mercury vehicle. For all the details, contact us or call Program Headquarters, toll free, at 1- 800-321-1536. But hurry. This limited time offer is only available between March 1 and December 31 1988. Take advantage of the Ford Mercury College Graduate Purchase Program now. Collegian are made mostly of gas they have very little mass or matter. In fact, it is known to scientists that the Earth has passed through the tail of comets at least twice. At the times of passing, though, there was no tangible evidence to show that we were traveling through anything. This is because the matter that makes up the tail is so thinly spread out it cannot be detected. In The Guide to Halley's Comet, a reference is made to just how thinly spread out the material is: "So insubstantial is the material of a comet tail that stars shine through it with no evident loss of brightness. The tail is only visible at all because the tiny dust particles in it are such marvelous reflectors of sunlight. The same kind of phenomenon can be seen in everyday life when motes—the tiniest particles of dust and bits of other things that ought to be invisible—can be-seen adrift in a sunbeam." A comet's light is produced in two ways. As radiant energy from the sun knocks electrons from the gas molecules, other electrons continued on bottom of page Page 9
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