1

Index
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2
Links
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UNIVERSE
THE

eO
nly
eO
nly

COMET
te r On r On
ap apte
LE - Ch - Ch
P PLE
SAM SAM

ELECTRIC
Index
3
4
 written by

Wallace Thornhill
David Talbott

Index
 collaborators
(the thunderbolts project)

Stephen J. Crothers
David Drew
Michael Goodspeed
Michael Gmirkin
Kevin Merrell
C. J. Ransom
Donald E. Scott
Dave Smith
Steve Smith
Ian Tresman

6
 editor–in–chief

David Talbott

managing editor, book design, graphics

Ben Ged Low

technical, scientific consultant

Wallace Thornhill

Copyright © by David Talbott & Wallace Thornhill 2008. All rights reserved.
This ebook may not be reprinted or distributed in electronic, print, web, or
other format without express written permission. dtalbott@teleport.com 7

Index
8
 table of contents
comets ........................................................................................... 11

the ʻdirty snowballʼ theory .............................................................. 13

problems with the ʻdirty snowballʼ model ....................................... 17

the ʻelectricʼ comet ......................................................................... 31

Deep Impactʼ and the ʻelectric modelʼ predictions ......................... 52

other issues .................................................................................. 74

comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 ............................................................ 77

comet Holmes ............................................................................... 84

collaborators .................................................................................. 96

references ...................................................................................... 97

related web links ............................................................................ 98

related reading materials ............................................................... 99

picture credits ................................................................................ 103

9

Index
10
 COMETS

F or more than fifty years most astronomers

have viewed comets as loose aggregates of
snow and dust, or "dirty snowballs," that slowly
evaporate in the solar heat as they approach
the sun.

11

Index
sun = hot nucleus (composed of ‘dirty ices’) deep space = cold

sublimating ices

solar heat & light sublimating (vaporizing) water ices

containing dust becomes the coma and tail
of the comet

coma tail

12
 the ‘dirty snowball’ theory

• Comets are composed of dust and ices left over

from the formation of the solar system billions of
years ago.

• The comet accelerates as it approaches the Sun

on an elliptical orbit. The radiant heat from the
sun sublimates (evaporates) the ices. The gases
expand around the nucleus of the comet to form
the coma and are swept back by the solar wind
to form the tail.
For the purposes of
illustration the comet
‘nucleus’ has been
made large - it would
be virtually invisible in
proper scale to the
coma and tail. 13

Index
 • With the comet’s repeated passages around the
Sun, solar heat vaporizes surface ice and leaves a
“rind” of dust.

• The solar heat penetrates the surface of a

blackened, shallow crust, and pockets of gas
form. Where the pressure breaks through the
surface, energetic jets form.

14
 sun = hot deep space = cold

energetic jets

(solar heat)

nucleus (with ‘rind of dust’)

15

Index
16
 problems with the ‘dirty snowball’ model

The discoveries and observations that have

startled and/or confounded cometologists include:

• the presence of high-speed collimated jets

exploding from comet nuclei;

• the inexplicable confinement of these jets into

narrow filaments, defying the behavior of
neutral gases in a vacuum;

• jets occurring on the dark sides of comet nuclei;

Comet Halley

17

Index
 problems with ‘dirty snowball’ model

• comet surfaces with sharply carved relief — the

opposite of what astronomers expected under the
"dirty snowball" model;

• a lack of water ice and other volatiles on comet nuclei;

Comet Wild 1

18
 19

Index
20
 problems with ‘dirty snowball’ model

• unexpectedly high temperatures and X-ray emissions

from cometary comas;

• evidence for 1 oxygen atom combined with 1

hydrogen atom (OH) in cometary comas (a discovery
that allowed astronomers to think they were seeing
evidence of the ultraviolet breakdown product of
water ice (H2O) removed from the comet surface);

• mineral particles from comets that can only be formed

under extremely high temperatures — the last thing
one would expect from a chunk of dirty ice arriving
from the outermost reaches of the solar system;

Comet Hyakutake
21

Index
 problems with ‘dirty snowball’ model

• comets flaring up while in "deep freeze," beyond the

orbit of Saturn;

• comets disintegrating far from the Sun;

• comet dust particles more finely and evenly divided

than is plausible for the accretion of material to form
the comet in the outer solar system;

22
 Comet Linear fragments,
August 5, 2000
23

Index
24
 problems with ‘dirty snowball’ model

• the unexplained ability of a relatively minuscule comet

nucleus (only a few kilometers in diameter) to hold in
place a huge coma, sometimes larger than the sun
(up to millions of kilometers in diameter), against the
force of the solar wind.

Comet IZ

25

Index
Comet–coma & tail
(nucleus too small to be seen)

Earth

This is the relative size of

the comet Hale-Bopp to the
Earth. Even though the
nucleus is miniscule (see
comparison opposite page),
the coma and tail is vast
26
 Earth

comet (nucleus)

27

Index
 So many of the observed phenomena of the comet
now contradict the ‘dirty snowball’ model.

But if it isn’t a ‘dirty snowball’ what is it?

28
 29

Index
30
31
 O nly
ter One
- Chap
P LE
SAM

the thunderbolts project

Only
On e
ter
- Chap
PL E
SAM

Copyright © by David Talbott & Wallace Thornhill 2009. All rights reserved.
This ebook may not be reprinted or distributed in electronic, print, web, or
other format without express written permission. dtalbott@teleport.com

32
 nly
eO
O nly te r On
ter One - Ch
ap
Chap PLE
PL E - SAM
SAM

THE THUNDERBOLTS PROJECT 33