Live landing on a comet!

[JasonPratt]

First being, is it really a dirty snowball? Or more of an asteroidish composition?

[Nefaro]

First being, is it really a dirty snowball? Or more of an asteroidish composition?

Dusty rock ball methinks.

[JasonPratt]

Even a dusty rockball would change theories of how the tail is generated.

In a possibly trivial aside, I didn't notice any talk about eruptions creating a tail during the approach. (Though we've been through this already with the prior comet that we sent an impact probe to -- not a landing per se of course, but still an impact. Basically the comet was an asteroid in composition.)

[Nefaro]

Besides the ice dust, there is water and gases trapped in the rock IIRC.  So when it heats up, the various frozen liquids expand and evaporate into gas, shooting out.  That's where the tail comes from.  But there's generally still a fair amount of rock & dust in many of them, from what I've read.

It's also one of the popular theories proclaiming the Tunguska event to be caused by a small comet.  Air bursting over Siberia after it's icy gases were heated so quickly upon passing through the atmosphere that it exploded like a huge dry ice bomb in a plastic bottle.  8)

I've seen estimates of early comets, from shortly after the planets formed, containing something like  ~10% water.  So I get the impression that the gas and liquid stuff still don't make up the majority of many comets.. just notably higher than asteroids.   I'm sure there's a fair bit of variance, especially between comets from the Kuiper Belt or the rarer slowbies from the Oort cloud.

[LongBlade]

Until we start the LB Asteroid Mining Corporation we'll never know for sure.

[Nefaro]

Until we start the LB Asteroid Mining Corporation we'll never know for sure.

Is that where the Grogfort will then be located?  Asteroid LB0269?

[LongBlade]

Until we start the LB Asteroid Mining Corporation we'll never know for sure.

Is that where the Grogfort will then be located?

Summer camp.

For those of us on the orbital platform.

The rest of you guys can stay at Star's house when you visit South Beach.

[Nefaro]

The rest of you guys can stay at Star's house when you visit South Beach.

Will bring steel chastity belt and pepper spray.

[LongBlade]

The rest of you guys can stay at Star's house when you visit South Beach.

Will bring steel chastity belt and pepper spray.

Star is an expert locksmith and has an Israeli issued gas mask.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

[bayonetbrant]

Star is an expert locksmith and has an Israeli issued gas mask.

we'll defer to your first-hand expertise on this one