COMET HYAKUTAKE MAY OFFER CLUES TO SOLAR SYSTEM'S ORIGINS

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From:NewsProfiles@aol.net
Title:COMET HYAKUTAKE MAY OFFER CLUES TO SOLAR SYSTEM'S ORIGINS
Source:Reuter
Date:March 23, 1996


By Adam Tanner

SOCORRO, New Mexico, March 23 (Reuter) - Astronomers and

amateur stargazers are keeping watch worldwide this weekend for

Comet Hyakutake, which is due to pass unusually close to Earth

on Sunday and may offer clues about the origins of the solar

system.

Not far from where the first atomic bomb was tested half a

century ago, scientists in Socorro are using a new generation of

radio telescope technology to gain what they hope will be

Earth's most detailed look at a comet ever.

``This is a unique kind of opportunity that the global

astronomical community has to try to get a little bit of

information about a world that in many ways is a Rosetta Stone

for answering fundamental questions about our origins and the

universe we live in,'' said Steve Ostro, a senior research

scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasedena,

California.

Comets -- ``dirty snowballs'' of rock and ice usually a mile

or less to six miles (one to 10 km) long -- may provide clues on

the universe's origins. They have changed very little since the

solar system's birth 4.5 billion years ago, whereas planets,

stars and other larger bodies have constantly evolved.

Thus comets such as Hyakutake could contain some of the very

building blocks of life, ``and provide part of the information

we need to conjecture about the likelihood that there are other

solar systems like ours ... or other intelligent life in the

universe,'' Ostro said.

``They're probably a lot closer to the material the solar

system formed from than anything else we have ever gotten access

to or are likely to get access to,'' he added.

Hyakutake -- officially Comet C/1996 B2 -- was discovered in

late January and quickly excited astronomers because of its

close rendezvous with Earth.

It will be the fifth closest comet to pass by this century

and the comet's radio emissions may enable scientists to detect

some of the chemicals that make up its core.

``Its emission activity plus its close approach to Earth

make it incredibly interesting,'' said Lewis Snyder, a professor

of astronomy at the University of Illinois who is using radio

telescopes to determine Hyakutake's composition.

Many of the comet observations will take place at the Very

Large Array (VLA), a unique complex of 27 closely positioned

radio telescopes managed from Socorro about 50 miles (80 km) to

the east.

In the countdown to the start of experiments here on Sunday,

experts were still reworking calculations to ensure instruments

are pointed to the core comet, which is typically hidden behind

a gaseous atmosphere that can extend up to a million miles as it

approaches the heat of the sun.

``The problem is that the comet is so diffuse, we may not be

hitting the right point,'' said Pat Palmer, a University of

Chicago astrophysicist helping calculate where to point the VLA

telescopes.

The proximity of Hyakutake 9.3 million miles (15 million km)

away on Sunday also helps astronomers to solve other riddles

such as why a comet appears to travel surrounded by pebbles and

rocks.

Berkeley astronomy professor Imke de Pater hopes to answer

the question by bouncing microwave signals from California to

the speeding comet and back to the VLA 100 seconds later, a

process that may offer a detailed view of Hyakutake and its

surrounding objects.

Astronomers hope to gain a wealth of data from Hyakutake,

but they say earth-based observations pale with the possibility

of sending a spacecraft to mine samples directly from a comet, a

project under consideration by the European Space Agency.

``It would be like being able to step back into a time

machine,'' Ostro said.

Added John Harmon, assistant director of the Arecibo

Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico: ``It's definitely feasible

and if you really want to understand what the surface is like,

you really need to send a spacecraft there and take a look at

it.''