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Article: <5f72c7$era@dfw-ixnews9.ix.netcom.com>
From: saquo@ix.netcom.com(Nancy )
Subject: Re: IN SYMPATHY to the Hale-Bopp Cooperative
Date: 28 Feb 1997 16:50:15 GMT
In article <5f3086$lsn@news.Hawaii.Edu> David Tholen
writes:
> Incorrect; when Chiron was discovered in 1977, it had no
> obvious coma, so it received an asteroidal designation of
> 1977 UB, ... a permanent number in the asteroid catalog,
> (2060), and named Chiron. ... a cometary outburst had
> occurred, ... It now also has a comet catalog number: 95 ...
> It doesn't really matter whether you want to call it a comet
> or an asteroid. The fact of the matter is that it was
> outgassing at a distance of 14 AU prior to perihelion
> tholen@galileo.ifa.hawaii.edu
Is there some SIZE differences between an asteroid and a comet? I think it DOES matter what you call Chiron, as where it might have volatiles, it got into the category of asteroid for some reason! Chiron the asteroid was discovered when it had no coma from volatiles, so it was BIG ENOUGH TO BE REFLECTING SUNLIGHT, right? Thus the asteroid designation. How big is Chiron estimated to be, and how does this compare to the dirty snowball that Hale-Bopp is being called?