X-Rays from Comet Hyakutake

[Bruce Pickett <SHEA136@KGV2.bems.boeing.com>]

 I copied the following from one of the new services:

  =========

 Los Angeles, California:

 Comet Hyakutake, which recently passed by Earth, has developed a bizarre X-ray
 glow, scientists say.

 Scientists are at a loss to explain the emissions, the first X-rays ever seen
 coming from a comet.

 X-rays normally crackle from high-energy sources like exploding stars. But,
 said NASA astronomer Stephen Maran:

 "A comet is not a blazing object. A comet is a dirty ice ball. I'd no more
 expect X-rays from a comet than I'd expect X-rays from ice cubes in my
 Frigidaire."

 The X-rays are in a crescent-shaped glow on the side of the comet that is
 toward the sun. That suggests that sunlight is pumping up oxygen atoms in the
 comet's atmosphere, and causing them to emit X-rays.

 A competing theory suggests that the comet is plowing through the solar wind,
 building up a shock wave that emits the X-rays. Solar wind is a stream of
 electrified particles sweeping off the sun.

 Goddard's Maran suggests that a clue might come when the comet emerges from
 the other side of the sun. If the glow is caused by the shock wave, then the
 crescent shape should still be on the forward side of the comet as it moves
 away from the sun. If it's caused by the sun, then the crescent should still
 be facing the sun.

  ==========

   Bruce Pickett
   The Boeing Company, Seattle WA
   shea136@kgv2.bems.boeing.com

 +-------------------------------------------------------------+
 | "With all of our running and all of our cunning, If we      |
 |  couldn't laugh we would all go insane" - Jimmy Buffett     |
 +-------------------------------------------------------------+