«
When other comets have split, their pieces have drifted apart, but something is keeping the pieces of Shoemaker - Levy in line.
Not exact matches
Earth and the
other planets of our solar system suffer occasional impacts
when comets are disturbed from their orbits around the sun by the gravity of nearby stars and gas clouds.
However, unlike
other asteroids, they sometimes have the appearance of
comets,
when dust or gas is ejected from their surfaces to create a sporadic tail effect.
When comet Siding Spring passed Mars, the two bodies came within about 140,000 kilometers (roughly 87,000 miles) of each
other.
Last year, researchers found that in conditions mimicking those sparked by a
comet or meteorite impact, intense heat and pressure converted formamide (which forms
when hydrogen cyanide reacts with water) and
other simple substances into the four information - bearing nucleobases in RNA, a likely genetic precursor to DNA.
LCROSS also supported this theory
when it crashed into the south pole by uncovering, in addition to water,
other elements that are abundant on
comets: carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and methane.
During laboratory tests, Giapis showed that
when these water particles hit the
comet's surface, they attach themselves to the oxygen atoms contained in
other molecules, such as iron oxide (rust) and silicon dioxide (sand).
[116] Such ideas also apply to the close approach of Alpha Centauri or
other stars to the Solar System,
when in the distant future of our Oort Cloud may be disrupted enough to see increased numbers of active
comets.
A flotilla of spacecraft orbiting Mars will be turning their instruments in two directions — one towards
Comet Siding Spring, and the
other towards Mars itself, to find out what happens
when a planetary atmosphere brushes against the fuzzy atmosphere of a
comet.
What's it all about:
When the world learns that a
comet will end life on Earth, it triggers the actions of an unusual group of characters that don't seem to have any connection to each
other.
There are
other extremely specific — and extremely spoiler - y — details from the
other books that make up the spine of film: for instance, that the psychologist Dr. Ventriss (Leigh) is dying of cancer; that she's actually the director of the Southern Reach; that this whole Area X business possibly started
when a
comet hit the lighthouse; and that there are aliens that can create human clones that they send out into the world.