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Article: <5hglc9$3t6@dfw-ixnews10.ix.netcom.com>
From: saquo@ix.netcom.com(Nancy )
Subject: Re: LONG ELLIPSE ORBITS
Date: 28 Mar 1997 14:42:17 GMT
In article <3331E257.4D88@sc.hp.com> Chris Franks wrote:
> Nancy, it may be news to you, but most of us know that if a
> comet comes close to another body, it can "slingshot" by
> gravity assist to greatly increase its speed, and maybe even
> attain escape velocity. .. It happened with the "mythical"
> Hale Bopp. It looked like it was in a 4000-year orbit, but
> then it came close to Jupiter and the orbit decreased to a
> mere 2300 years. What is so difficult about understanding
> that?
> Chris Franks <cfranks@sc.hp.com>
(Begin ZetaTalk[TM])
A slingshot requires a body coming CLOSE to another, not leaping away! That's the
difference!
The orbit manipulation occurred as they had a paper orbit tracking across the sky from the 1995 nova to the REAL comet the Hubble had spied and the NEAT program was tracking. Connect the dots, and their assumptions on the REAL comet's orbit were a bit off! Oops, it had a tighter eccentricity, so they needed to adjust the paper orbit for what the public was being told was a comet, Hale-Bopp. The angle had to alter slightly too, in order for the nova and REAL comet to meet, so they doubled up on the changes for the June 27, 1996 Orbital Element change! When we called them on it, they went underground, refusing to post the Orbital Elements publicly and forcing the public to download what became almost daily changes during that period of time when these manipulations were taking place.
A slingshot occurs when a body comes close due to gravity attraction and bends TOWARD
the gravity attraction. In the Hale-Bopp case, where it was passing Jupiter in May and
June, 1996, it would have had to come close due to a gravity attraction and then LEAP
AWAY rather than bend towards.
(End ZetaTalk[TM])