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Small comets: Naked‐eye visibility
Author(s) -
Rizk Bashar,
Dessler A. J.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/97gl03185
Subject(s) - comet , visibility , sunset , physics , astronomy , sunrise , comet dust , comet tail , astrophysics , astrobiology , solar system , meteoroid , water ice , magnitude (astronomy) , apparent magnitude , flux (metallurgy) , geology , interplanetary dust cloud , meteorology , stars , solar wind , plasma , chemistry , quantum mechanics , organic chemistry
We investigate an obvious consequence of the small‐comet hypothesis. We find that the 30‐ton cloud of water‐ice particles formed by a small comet would survive long enough to be an unmistakably bright object. The visual magnitude of such clouds would be between that of a bright star and the full Moon. A whole‐Earth small‐comet flux of 20/min implies the sudden appearance of at least two bright patches of light every five minutes. The two‐hour periods after sunset and before sunrise ought to produce the most spectacular sightings—intermittent punctuations of bright rapidly‐moving points of light. Because such events are not reported, we conclude that this class of object does not exist in detectable numbers.