Aliens On Earth.com Resources for those who are stranded here Our Bookstore is OPEN Over 5000 new & used titles, competitively priced! Topics: UFOs - Paranormal - Area 51 - Ghosts - Forteana - Conspiracy - History - Biography - Psychology - Religion - Crime - Health - Geography - Maps - Science - Money - Language - Recreation - Technology - Fiction - Other - New Search... for keyword(s)   in Page Titles in Book Title/Author in Contents of Pages ---other searches--- Metacrawler Yahoo FAST Search Google Altavista Dogpile Inference Find Northern Light IWon.com MSN Search Las Vegas Sun Mothership -> UFO -> Updates -> 1996 -> Dec -> Here

From: John Joseph Mercieca <mufor@maltanet.omnes.net>
Date: Sat, 21 Dec 1996 10:40:49 +0100
Fwd Date: Sat, 21 Dec 1996 11:05:02 -0500
Subject: The Satellites of Comet Hale-Bopp

The Satellites of Comet Hale-Bopp
(from http://www.metaresearch.org/)


               (A Meta Research Press Release)

Comet Hale-Bopp was discovered on July 23, 1995. It has the unusual
distinction of being bright enough to be seen in amateur telescopes
while still farther from the Sun than Jupiter. This may mean that
the comet is bigger than most, perhaps even one of the spectacular
but rare "great comets", the most recent of which appeared in 1882.
But it might just mean that the comet underwent a recent outburst,
and will soon fade back to a more typical brightness. As time goes
by and the comet shows little sign of rapid fading, hope grows that
it is truly a large comet that will become visible to the naked eye
in the spring of 1997, when it reaches the inner solar system. If
its extrapolated brightness is accurate (always a risky assumption
with comets), it might reach about magnitude -2. This is the
brightness of the brightest star Sirius. However, a comet's
brightness is spread over a far larger angular area, since most
reflected light comes from the comet's coma and tail. So the
artificial night sky brightness common in cities will prevent
viewing the comet except from places where the night sky is
reasonably dark.

As readers of the book "Dark Matter, Missing Planets and New Comets"
will be aware, author Tom Van Flandern has predicted that both
asteroids and comets commonly have satellites. This is a natural
consequence of origin of these bodies in the explosive breakup of a
larger former solar system planet or moon. But it is almost impossible
if comets and asteroids condensed from a primeval solar nebula over
4 billion years ago, as the most popular theory today suggests,
because captures are extremely rare events. So when an unusually
large comet such as Comet Hale-Bopp is viewed with powerful modern
telescopes, either satellites will be present, or they will not;
and either way tells us something important about which model of
comet origins is more likely to be correct.

The photograph with this article was taken with the Hubble Space
Telescope on September 26, 1995, showing the region near the nucleus
of the comet in high resolution. The caption supplied with the
photo is partially reproduced in smaller typeface near the picture.
Clearly, that caption presumes the solar-nebula-origin model, in
which orbiting satellites are too improbable to be considered
seriously.

The purpose of this press release is threefold:

   1.to point out that the so-called "blob ejected from the nucleus of
   the comet" is in all likelihood a satellite of the nucleus in a
   long-term stable orbit.

   2.to predict that telescopes will continue to track this same satellite
   in the same orbit around the comet nucleus all the way into the inner
   solar system, by which time additional satellites might be seen.

   3.to call attention to the implications for theories of comet origins
   this discovery implies.

- end -

.-----------------------------------------------------.
*                 ~ MALTA UFO RESEARCH ~              *
*   Researcher & Investigator : John Joseph Mercieca  *
'-----------------------------------------------------'
* MUFOR Web site: http://207.167.67.197/              *
* TLP Database  : http://207.167.67.197/tlp/lunar.html*
* E-mail 1      : mufor@maltanet.omnes.net            *
* E-mail 2      : mufor@waldonet.net.mt               *
* IRC channel   : #cydonia (on Undernet)              *
* Fax           : + 356 456729                       .'--------------.
* Mobile        : 099 0756                           * "Either these *
* Postal Address: P.O. Box 14, Rabat RBT 01, MALTA.  *  features on  *
'-------.-------------------------------------------.'    Mars are   *
        * natural and this investigation is a complete waste of time,*
        *or they are artificial and this is one of the most important*
        *      discoveries of our entire existence on Earth."        *
        *  - RICHARD C.HOAGLAND on the MONUMENTS of CYDONIA, MARS    *
        '------------------------------------------------------------'