Misplaced Pages

#530469

103-471: Official reports cite the cave as being discovered in 1894 by Joseph Aerni, a local resident. The cave was first used for storing potatoes and, later, cheese. Homer Spencer established the Guler Cheese Co., which used the cave's constant 42 °F (6 °C) to 44 °F (7 °C) passage to age its cheese. The cheese company is now gone, but remnants of storage racks remain toward the north end of

206-518: A bad drainage system were blamed for its creation. It swallowed a three-story building and a house; it measured approximately 20 m (66 ft) wide and 30 m (98 ft) deep. A similar hole had formed nearby in February 2007. This large vertical hole is not a true sinkhole, as it did not form via the dissolution of limestone, dolomite, marble, or any other water-soluble rock. Instead, they are examples of "piping pseudokarst", created by

309-484: A collision between two objects in the Solar System. Other splitting comets include 3D/Biela in 1846 and 73P/Schwassmann–Wachmann from 1995 to 2006. Greek historian Ephorus reported that a comet split apart as far back as the winter of 372–373 BC. Comets are suspected of splitting due to thermal stress, internal gas pressure, or impact. Comets 42P/Neujmin and 53P/Van Biesbroeck appear to be fragments of

412-731: A comet is known as the nucleus. Cometary nuclei are composed of an amalgamation of rock , dust , water ice , and frozen carbon dioxide , carbon monoxide , methane , and ammonia . As such, they are popularly described as "dirty snowballs" after Fred Whipple 's model. Comets with a higher dust content have been called "icy dirtballs". The term "icy dirtballs" arose after observation of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 collision with an "impactor" probe sent by NASA Deep Impact mission in July 2005. Research conducted in 2014 suggests that comets are like " deep fried ice cream ", in that their surfaces are formed of dense crystalline ice mixed with organic compounds , while

515-430: A comet may be seen from Earth without the aid of a telescope and can subtend an arc of up to 30° (60 Moons) across the sky. Comets have been observed and recorded since ancient times by many cultures and religions. Comets usually have highly eccentric elliptical orbits, and they have a wide range of orbital periods , ranging from several years to potentially several millions of years. Short-period comets originate in

618-482: A comet nucleus. Infrared imaging of Hartley 2 shows such jets exiting and carrying with it dust grains into the coma. Most comets are small Solar System bodies with elongated elliptical orbits that take them close to the Sun for a part of their orbit and then out into the further reaches of the Solar System for the remainder. Comets are often classified according to the length of their orbital periods : The longer

721-551: A comet was seen or not. Using Edmond Halley 's records of comet sightings, however, William Whiston in 1711 wrote that the Great Comet of 1680 had a periodicity of 574 years and was responsible for the worldwide flood in the Book of Genesis , by pouring water on Earth. His announcement revived for another century fear of comets, now as direct threats to the world instead of signs of disasters. Spectroscopic analysis in 1910 found

824-711: A crater on Comet Tempel 1 to study its interior, and the European Space Agency's Rosetta , which became the first to land a robotic spacecraft on a comet. The word comet derives from the Old English cometa from the Latin comēta or comētēs . That, in turn, is a romanization of the Greek κομήτης 'wearing long hair', and the Oxford English Dictionary notes that

927-523: A doughnut-shaped inner cloud, the Hills cloud, of 2,000–20,000 AU (0.03–0.32 ly). The outer cloud is only weakly bound to the Sun and supplies the long-period (and possibly Halley-type) comets that fall to inside the orbit of Neptune . The inner Oort cloud is also known as the Hills cloud, named after Jack G. Hills , who proposed its existence in 1981. Models predict that the inner cloud should have tens or hundreds of times as many cometary nuclei as

1030-784: A few genuinely hyperbolic (i.e. non-periodic) trajectories, but no more than could be accounted for by perturbations from Jupiter. Comets from interstellar space are moving with velocities of the same order as the relative velocities of stars near the Sun (a few tens of km per second). When such objects enter the Solar System, they have a positive specific orbital energy resulting in a positive velocity at infinity ( v ∞ {\displaystyle v_{\infty }\!} ) and have notably hyperbolic trajectories. A rough calculation shows that there might be four hyperbolic comets per century within Jupiter's orbit, give or take one and perhaps two orders of magnitude . The Oort cloud

1133-809: A gross underestimate based on inadequate data. The greatest amount of karst sinkhole damage in the United States occurs in Florida, Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. The largest recent sinkhole in the USA is possibly one that formed in 1972 in Montevallo, Alabama , as a result of man-made lowering of the water level in a nearby rock quarry. This "December Giant" or "Golly Hole" sinkhole measures 130 m (425 ft) long, 105 m (350 ft) wide and 45 m (150 ft) deep. Other areas of significant karst hazards include

SECTION 10

#1732801128531

1236-621: A group consisting of professional astronomers and citizen scientists in light curves recorded by the Kepler Space Telescope. After Kepler Space Telescope retired in October 2018, a new telescope called TESS Telescope has taken over Kepler's mission. Since the launch of TESS, astronomers have discovered the transits of comets around the star Beta Pictoris using a light curve from TESS. Since TESS has taken over, astronomers have since been able to better distinguish exocomets with

1339-466: A hyperbolic orbit (e > 1) when near perihelion that using a heliocentric unperturbed two-body best-fit suggests they may escape the Solar System. As of 2022 , only two objects have been discovered with an eccentricity significantly greater than one: 1I/ʻOumuamua and 2I/Borisov , indicating an origin outside the Solar System. While ʻOumuamua, with an eccentricity of about 1.2, showed no optical signs of cometary activity during its passage through

1442-515: A lifetime of about 10,000 years or ~1,000 orbits whereas long-period comets fade much faster. Only 10% of the long-period comets survive more than 50 passages to small perihelion and only 1% of them survive more than 2,000 passages. Eventually most of the volatile material contained in a comet nucleus evaporates, and the comet becomes a small, dark, inert lump of rock or rubble that can resemble an asteroid. Some asteroids in elliptical orbits are now identified as extinct comets. Roughly six percent of

1545-641: A parent comet. Numerical integrations have shown that both comets had a rather close approach to Jupiter in January 1850, and that, before 1850, the two orbits were nearly identical. Another group of comets that is the result of fragmentation episodes is the Liller comet family made of C/1988 A1 (Liller), C/1996 Q1 (Tabur), C/2015 F3 (SWAN), C/2019 Y1 (ATLAS), and C/2023 V5 (Leonard) . Some comets have been observed to break up during their perihelion passage, including great comets West and Ikeya–Seki . Biela's Comet

1648-432: A periodic orbit (that is, all short-period comets plus all long-period comets), whereas others use it to mean exclusively short-period comets. Similarly, although the literal meaning of "non-periodic comet" is the same as "single-apparition comet", some use it to mean all comets that are not "periodic" in the second sense (that is, to include all comets with a period greater than 200 years). Early observations have revealed

1751-533: A small area, giving the landscape a pock-marked appearance. These sinkholes drain all the water, so there are only subterranean rivers in these areas. Examples of karst landscapes with numerous massive sinkholes include Khammouan Mountains ( Laos ) and Mamo Plateau (Papua New Guinea). The largest known sinkholes formed in sandstone are Sima Humboldt and Sima Martel in Venezuela . Some sinkholes form in thick layers of homogeneous limestone. Their formation

1854-402: A very low albedo , making them among the least reflective objects found in the Solar System. The Giotto space probe found that the nucleus of Halley's Comet (1P/Halley) reflects about four percent of the light that falls on it, and Deep Space 1 discovered that Comet Borrelly 's surface reflects less than 3.0%; by comparison, asphalt reflects seven percent. The dark surface material of

1957-480: A very small fraction of the total potential comet population, as the reservoir of comet-like bodies in the outer Solar System (in the Oort cloud ) is about one trillion. Roughly one comet per year is visible to the naked eye , though many of those are faint and unspectacular. Particularly bright examples are called " great comets ". Comets have been visited by uncrewed probes such as NASA's Deep Impact , which blasted

2060-486: A very young A-type main-sequence star , in 1987. A total of 11 such exocomet systems have been identified as of 2013 , using the absorption spectrum caused by the large clouds of gas emitted by comets when passing close to their star. For ten years the Kepler space telescope was responsible for searching for planets and other forms outside of the solar system. The first transiting exocomets were found in February 2018 by

2163-589: Is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline , enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes , and to openings where surface water enters into underground passages known as ponor , swallow hole or swallet . A cenote is a type of sinkhole that exposes groundwater underneath. Sink , and stream sink are more general terms for sites that drain surface water, possibly by infiltration into sediment or crumbled rock. Most sinkholes are caused by karst processes –

SECTION 20

#1732801128531

2266-484: Is a little beyond the orbit of Neptune . Comets whose aphelia are near a major planet's orbit are called its "family". Such families are thought to arise from the planet capturing formerly long-period comets into shorter orbits. At the shorter orbital period extreme, Encke's Comet has an orbit that does not reach the orbit of Jupiter, and is known as an Encke-type comet . Short-period comets with orbital periods less than 20 years and low inclinations (up to 30 degrees) to

2369-416: Is bound to the Sun with roughly a 92,600-year orbit because the eccentricity drops below 1 as it moves farther from the Sun. The future orbit of a long-period comet is properly obtained when the osculating orbit is computed at an epoch after leaving the planetary region and is calculated with respect to the center of mass of the Solar System . By definition long-period comets remain gravitationally bound to

2472-434: Is covered by a low pavilion structure and It has a permanently placed ladder descending to a debris pile. The debris pile can be descended on foot, landing on a flat and clear cinder floor. The main length of the cave is mostly clear with occasional piles of fallen rock. 45°59′16.6″N 121°33′1.5″W  /  45.987944°N 121.550417°W  / 45.987944; -121.550417 Sinkhole A sinkhole

2575-562: Is difficult. The nucleus of 322P/SOHO is probably only 100–200 meters (330–660 ft) in diameter. A lack of smaller comets being detected despite the increased sensitivity of instruments has led some to suggest that there is a real lack of comets smaller than 100 meters (330 ft) across. Known comets have been estimated to have an average density of 0.6 g/cm (0.35 oz/cu in). Because of their low mass, comet nuclei do not become spherical under their own gravity and therefore have irregular shapes. Roughly six percent of

2678-612: Is facilitated by high groundwater flow, often caused by high rainfall; such rainfall causes formation of the giant sinkholes in the Nakanaï Mountains , on the New Britain island in Papua New Guinea. Powerful underground rivers may form on the contact between limestone and underlying insoluble rock, creating large underground voids. In such conditions, the largest known sinkholes of the world have formed, like

2781-404: Is followed by its de-excitation into the ground state of the ion by the emission of X-rays and far ultraviolet photons. Bow shocks form as a result of the interaction between the solar wind and the cometary ionosphere, which is created by the ionization of gases in the coma. As the comet approaches the Sun, increasing outgassing rates cause the coma to expand, and the sunlight ionizes gases in

2884-407: Is formed as a result of the ionization by solar ultra-violet radiation of particles in the coma. Once the particles have been ionized, they attain a net positive electrical charge, which in turn gives rise to an "induced magnetosphere " around the comet. The comet and its induced magnetic field form an obstacle to outward flowing solar wind particles. Because the relative orbital speed of the comet and

2987-695: Is subsidence due to subterranean human activity, such as mining and military trenches . Examples have included, instances above World War I trenches in Ypres , Belgium ; near mines in Nitra , Slovakia ; a limestone quarry in Dudley , England; and above an old gypsum mine in Magheracloone , Ireland . Some of the largest sinkholes in the world are: [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of

3090-490: Is the pollution of groundwater resources, with serious health implications in such areas. The Maya civilization sometimes used sinkholes in the Yucatán Peninsula (known as cenotes ) as places to deposit precious items and human sacrifices. When sinkholes are very deep or connected to caves, they may offer challenges for experienced cavers or, when water-filled, divers . Some of the most spectacular are

3193-568: Is thought to occupy a vast space starting from between 2,000 and 5,000 AU (0.03 and 0.08 ly) to as far as 50,000 AU (0.79 ly) from the Sun. This cloud encases the celestial bodies that start at the middle of the Solar System—the Sun, all the way to outer limits of the Kuiper Belt. The Oort cloud consists of viable materials necessary for the creation of celestial bodies. The Solar System's planets exist only because of

Cheese Cave - Misplaced Pages Continue

3296-405: Is usually associated with very high-temperature bodies . The X-rays are generated by the interaction between comets and the solar wind: when highly charged solar wind ions fly through a cometary atmosphere, they collide with cometary atoms and molecules, "stealing" one or more electrons from the atom in a process called "charge exchange". This exchange or transfer of an electron to the solar wind ion

3399-420: Is well understood, and proper site characterization can avoid karst disasters. Thus most sinkhole disasters are predictable and preventable rather than " acts of God ". The American Society of Civil Engineers has declared that the potential for sinkhole collapse must be a part of land-use planning in karst areas. Where sinkhole collapse of structures could cause loss of life, the public should be made aware of

3502-489: The Rosetta space probe . Collapses, commonly incorrectly labeled as sinkholes, also occur due to human activity, such as the collapse of abandoned mines and salt cavern storage in salt domes in places like Louisiana , Mississippi and Texas , in the United States of America. More commonly, collapses occur in urban areas due to water main breaks or sewer collapses when old pipes give way. They can also occur from

3605-558: The ALICE spectrograph on Rosetta determined that electrons (within 1 km (0.62 mi) above the comet nucleus ) produced from photoionization of water molecules by solar radiation , and not photons from the Sun as thought earlier, are responsible for the degradation of water and carbon dioxide molecules released from the comet nucleus into its coma. Instruments on the Philae lander found at least sixteen organic compounds at

3708-568: The Ebro Basin in northern Spain ; the island of Sardinia ; the Italian peninsula; the Chalk areas in southern England ; Sichuan , China ; Jamaica ; France ; Croatia ; Bosnia and Herzegovina ; Slovenia ; and Russia , where one-third of the total land area is underlain by karst. Sinkholes tend to occur in karst landscapes. Karst landscapes can have up to thousands of sinkholes within

3811-544: The Kuiper belt or its associated scattered disc , which lie beyond the orbit of Neptune . Long-period comets are thought to originate in the Oort cloud , a spherical cloud of icy bodies extending from outside the Kuiper belt to halfway to the nearest star. Long-period comets are set in motion towards the Sun by gravitational perturbations from passing stars and the galactic tide . Hyperbolic comets may pass once through

3914-551: The United States Geological Survey . Bibliography Comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun , a process called outgassing . This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or coma surrounding the nucleus, and sometimes a tail of gas and dust gas blown out from the coma. These phenomena are due to

4017-1117: The Zacatón cenote in Mexico (the world's deepest water-filled sinkhole), the Boesmansgat sinkhole in South Africa, Sarisariñama tepuy in Venezuela, the Sótano del Barro in Mexico, and in the town of Mount Gambier, South Australia . Sinkholes that form in coral reefs and islands that collapse to enormous depths are known as blue holes and often become popular diving spots. Large and visually unusual sinkholes have been well known to local people since ancient times. Nowadays sinkholes are grouped and named in site-specific or generic names. Some examples of such names are listed below. The 2010 Guatemala City sinkhole formed suddenly in May of that year; torrential rains from Tropical Storm Agatha and

4120-468: The asteroid belt . Because their elliptical orbits frequently take them close to the giant planets, comets are subject to further gravitational perturbations . Short-period comets have a tendency for their aphelia to coincide with a giant planet 's semi-major axis, with the JFCs being the largest group. It is clear that comets coming in from the Oort cloud often have their orbits strongly influenced by

4223-423: The collapse of a cave roof, or a lowering of the water table . Sinkholes often form through the process of suffosion . For example, groundwater may dissolve the carbonate cement holding the sandstone particles together and then carry away the lax particles, gradually forming a void. Occasionally a sinkhole may exhibit a visible opening into a cave below. In the case of exceptionally large sinkholes, such as

Cheese Cave - Misplaced Pages Continue

4326-460: The ionosphere of the planet Venus streams outwards in a manner similar to the ion tail seen streaming from a comet under similar conditions." Uneven heating can cause newly generated gases to break out of a weak spot on the surface of comet's nucleus, like a geyser. These streams of gas and dust can cause the nucleus to spin, and even split apart. In 2010 it was revealed dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) can power jets of material flowing out of

4429-407: The near-Earth asteroids are thought to be the extinct nuclei of comets that no longer experience outgassing, including 14827 Hypnos and 3552 Don Quixote . Results from the Rosetta and Philae spacecraft show that the nucleus of 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko has no magnetic field, which suggests that magnetism may not have played a role in the early formation of planetesimals . Further,

4532-426: The 1982 perihelion passage, but a 1980 encounter with Jupiter accelerated the comet giving it the largest eccentricity (1.057) of any known solar comet with a reasonable observation arc. Comets not expected to return to the inner Solar System include C/1980 E1 , C/2000 U5 , C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) , C/2009 R1 , C/1956 R1 , and C/2007 F1 (LONEOS). Some authorities use the term "periodic comet" to refer to any comet with

4635-520: The 662-metre-deep (2,172 ft) Xiaozhai Tiankeng ( Chongqing , China), giant sótanos in Querétaro and San Luis Potosí states in Mexico and others. Unusual processes have formed the enormous sinkholes of Sistema Zacatón in Tamaulipas (Mexico), where more than 20 sinkholes and other karst formations have been shaped by volcanically heated, acidic groundwater. This has produced not only

4738-667: The Minyé sinkhole in Papua New Guinea or Cedar Sink at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky , an underground stream or river may be visible across its bottom flowing from one side to the other. Sinkholes are common where the rock below the land surface is limestone or other carbonate rock , salt beds , or in other soluble rocks, such as gypsum , that can be dissolved naturally by circulating ground water . Sinkholes also occur in sandstone and quartzite terrains. As

4841-514: The Solar System, such as Jupiter. An example of this is Comet C/1980 E1 , which was shifted from an orbit of 7.1 million years around the Sun, to a hyperbolic trajectory, after a 1980 close pass by the planet Jupiter. Interstellar comets such as 1I/ʻOumuamua and 2I/Borisov never orbited the Sun and therefore do not require a 3rd-body interaction to be ejected from the Solar System. Jupiter-family comets and long-period comets appear to follow very different fading laws. The JFCs are active over

4944-416: The Sun because this gas is more strongly affected by the solar wind than is dust, following magnetic field lines rather than an orbital trajectory. On occasions—such as when Earth passes through a comet's orbital plane, the antitail , pointing in the opposite direction to the ion and dust tails, may be seen. The observation of antitails contributed significantly to the discovery of solar wind. The ion tail

5047-455: The Sun, outgassing of its icy components releases solid debris too large to be swept away by radiation pressure and the solar wind. If Earth's orbit sends it through that trail of debris, which is composed mostly of fine grains of rocky material, there is likely to be a meteor shower as Earth passes through. Denser trails of debris produce quick but intense meteor showers and less dense trails create longer but less intense showers. Typically,

5150-410: The Sun. The coma is generally made of water and dust, with water making up to 90% of the volatiles that outflow from the nucleus when the comet is within 3 to 4 astronomical units (450,000,000 to 600,000,000 km; 280,000,000 to 370,000,000 mi) of the Sun. The H 2 O parent molecule is destroyed primarily through photodissociation and to a much smaller extent photoionization , with

5253-407: The Sun. At this distance the solar wind becomes strong enough to blow the gas and dust away from the coma, and in doing so enlarging the tail. Ion tails have been observed to extend one astronomical unit (150 million km) or more. Both the coma and tail are illuminated by the Sun and may become visible when a comet passes through the inner Solar System, the dust reflects sunlight directly while

SECTION 50

#1732801128531

5356-412: The Sun. For example, about a month after an outburst in October 2007, comet 17P/Holmes briefly had a tenuous dust atmosphere larger than the Sun. The Great Comet of 1811 had a coma roughly the diameter of the Sun. Even though the coma can become quite large, its size can decrease about the time it crosses the orbit of Mars around 1.5 astronomical units (220,000,000 km; 140,000,000 mi) from

5459-676: The Sun; those comets that are ejected from the Solar System due to close passes by major planets are no longer properly considered as having "periods". The orbits of long-period comets take them far beyond the outer planets at aphelia, and the plane of their orbits need not lie near the ecliptic. Long-period comets such as C/1999 F1 and C/2017 T2 (PANSTARRS) can have aphelion distances of nearly 70,000 AU (0.34 pc; 1.1 ly) with orbital periods estimated around 6 million years. Single-apparition or non-periodic comets are similar to long-period comets because they have parabolic or slightly hyperbolic trajectories when near perihelion in

5562-431: The bow shocks already were fully developed. The Rosetta spacecraft observed the bow shock at comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko at an early stage of bow shock development when the outgassing increased during the comet's journey toward the Sun. This young bow shock was called the "infant bow shock". The infant bow shock is asymmetric and, relative to the distance to the nucleus, wider than fully developed bow shocks. In

5665-427: The case of Oort cloud objects) may throw one of these bodies into an elliptical orbit that takes it inwards toward the Sun to form a visible comet. Unlike the return of periodic comets, whose orbits have been established by previous observations, the appearance of new comets by this mechanism is unpredictable. When flung into the orbit of the sun, and being continuously dragged towards it, tons of matter are stripped from

5768-428: The cave. Cheese Cave's natural entrance is located 246 feet (75 m) from the north end of the tube. The north cave entrance is in private property and has a building over the sinkhole . There is a steel staircase from the inside of the private building down to a small rock pile on the cave floor. Toward the north end of the cave, remnants of wooden racks can be seen. [REDACTED] The man-made south entrance

5871-757: The chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks , collapse or suffosion processes. Sinkholes are usually circular and vary in size from tens to hundreds of meters both in diameter and depth, and vary in form from soil-lined bowls to bedrock-edged chasms. Sinkholes may form gradually or suddenly, and are found worldwide. Sinkholes may capture surface drainage from running or standing water, but may also form in high and dry places in specific locations. Sinkholes that capture drainage can hold it in large limestone caves. These caves may drain into tributaries of larger rivers. The formation of sinkholes involves natural processes of erosion or gradual removal of slightly soluble bedrock (such as limestone ) by percolating water,

5974-437: The collapse of cavities in soil that have developed where soil falls down into underlying rock cavities, pose the most serious hazards to life and property. Fluctuation of the water level accelerates this collapse process. When water rises up through fissures in the rock, it reduces soil cohesion . Later, as the water level moves downward, the softened soil seeps downwards into rock cavities. Flowing water in karst conduits carries

6077-675: The collapse of large cavities that had developed in the weak, crumbly Quaternary volcanic deposits underlying the city. Although weak and crumbly, these volcanic deposits have enough cohesion to allow them to stand in vertical faces and to develop large subterranean voids within them. A process called " soil piping " first created large underground voids, as water from leaking water mains flowed through these volcanic deposits and mechanically washed fine volcanic materials out of them, then progressively eroded and removed coarser materials. Eventually, these underground voids became large enough that their roofs collapsed to create large holes. A crown hole

6180-439: The coma. When the solar wind passes through this ion coma, the bow shock appears. The first observations were made in the 1980s and 1990s as several spacecraft flew by comets 21P/Giacobini–Zinner , 1P/Halley, and 26P/Grigg–Skjellerup . It was then found that the bow shocks at comets are wider and more gradual than the sharp planetary bow shocks seen at, for example, Earth. These observations were all made near perihelion when

6283-410: The comet's surface, four of which ( acetamide , acetone , methyl isocyanate and propionaldehyde ) have been detected for the first time on a comet. The streams of dust and gas thus released form a huge and extremely thin atmosphere around the comet called the "coma". The force exerted on the coma by the Sun's radiation pressure and solar wind cause an enormous "tail" to form pointing away from

SECTION 60

#1732801128531

6386-498: The comets which greatly influence their lifetime; the more stripped, the shorter they live and vice versa. Long-period comets have highly eccentric orbits and periods ranging from 200 years to thousands or even millions of years. An eccentricity greater than 1 when near perihelion does not necessarily mean that a comet will leave the Solar System. For example, Comet McNaught had a heliocentric osculating eccentricity of 1.000019 near its perihelion passage epoch in January 2007 but

6489-481: The density of the debris trail is related to how long ago the parent comet released the material. The Perseid meteor shower , for example, occurs every year between 9 and 13 August, when Earth passes through the orbit of Comet Swift–Tuttle . Halley's Comet is the source of the Orionid shower in October. Many comets and asteroids collided with Earth in its early stages. Many scientists think that comets bombarding

6592-513: The discovery of main-belt comets and active centaur minor planets has blurred the distinction between asteroids and comets . In the early 21st century, the discovery of some minor bodies with long-period comet orbits, but characteristics of inner solar system asteroids, were called Manx comets . They are still classified as comets, such as C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS). Twenty-seven Manx comets were found from 2013 to 2017. As of November 2021 , there are 4,584 known comets. However, this represents

6695-405: The downward movement of water beyond the natural rate of groundwater recharge. The increased runoff from the impervious surfaces of roads, roofs, and parking lots also accelerate man-induced sinkhole collapses. Some induced sinkholes are preceded by warning signs, such as cracks, sagging, jammed doors, or cracking noises, but others develop with little or no warning. However, karst development

6798-424: The ecliptic are called traditional Jupiter-family comets (JFCs). Those like Halley, with orbital periods of between 20 and 200 years and inclinations extending from zero to more than 90 degrees, are called Halley-type comets (HTCs). As of 2023 , 70 Encke-type comets, 100 HTCs, and 755 JFCs have been reported. Recently discovered main-belt comets form a distinct class, orbiting in more circular orbits within

6901-408: The effects of solar radiation and the outstreaming solar wind plasma acting upon the nucleus of the comet. Comet nuclei range from a few hundred meters to tens of kilometers across and are composed of loose collections of ice, dust, and small rocky particles. The coma may be up to 15 times Earth's diameter, while the tail may stretch beyond one astronomical unit . If sufficiently close and bright,

7004-686: The existence of tektites and australites . Fear of comets as acts of God and signs of impending doom was highest in Europe from AD 1200 to 1650. The year after the Great Comet of 1618 , for example, Gotthard Arthusius published a pamphlet stating that it was a sign that the Day of Judgment was near. He listed ten pages of comet-related disasters, including "earthquakes, floods, changes in river courses, hail storms, hot and dry weather, poor harvests, epidemics, war and treason and high prices". By 1700 most scholars concluded that such events occurred whether

7107-489: The formation of the deepest water-filled sinkhole in the world— Zacatón —but also unique processes of travertine sedimentation in upper parts of sinkholes, leading to sealing of these sinkholes with travertine lids. The U.S. state of Florida in North America is known for having frequent sinkhole collapses, especially in the central part of the state. Underlying limestone there is from 15 to 25 million years old. On

7210-494: The fringes of the state, sinkholes are rare or non-existent; limestone there is around 120,000 years old. The Murge area in southern Italy also has numerous sinkholes. Sinkholes can be formed in retention ponds from large amounts of rain. On the Arctic seafloor, methane emissions have caused large sinkholes to form. Sinkholes have been used for centuries as disposal sites for various forms of waste . A consequence of this

7313-486: The gases glow from ionisation . Most comets are too faint to be visible without the aid of a telescope , but a few each decade become bright enough to be visible to the naked eye. Occasionally a comet may experience a huge and sudden outburst of gas and dust, during which the size of the coma greatly increases for a period of time. This happened in 2007 to Comet Holmes . In 1996, comets were found to emit X-rays . This greatly surprised astronomers because X-ray emission

7416-433: The gravity of giant planets as a result of a close encounter. Jupiter is the source of the greatest perturbations, being more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined. These perturbations can deflect long-period comets into shorter orbital periods. Based on their orbital characteristics, short-period comets are thought to originate from the centaurs and the Kuiper belt/ scattered disc —a disk of objects in

7519-431: The inner Solar System before being flung to interstellar space. The appearance of a comet is called an apparition. Extinct comets that have passed close to the Sun many times have lost nearly all of their volatile ices and dust and may come to resemble small asteroids. Asteroids are thought to have a different origin from comets, having formed inside the orbit of Jupiter rather than in the outer Solar System. However,

7622-405: The inner Solar System in October 2017, changes to its trajectory—which suggests outgassing —indicate that it is probably a comet. On the other hand, 2I/Borisov, with an estimated eccentricity of about 3.36, has been observed to have the coma feature of comets, and is considered the first detected interstellar comet . Comet C/1980 E1 had an orbital period of roughly 7.1 million years before

7725-429: The inner Solar System. However, gravitational perturbations from giant planets cause their orbits to change. Single-apparition comets have a hyperbolic or parabolic osculating orbit which allows them to permanently exit the Solar System after a single pass of the Sun. The Sun's Hill sphere has an unstable maximum boundary of 230,000 AU (1.1 pc; 3.6 ly). Only a few hundred comets have been seen to reach

7828-429: The interior ice is colder and less dense. The surface of the nucleus is generally dry, dusty or rocky, suggesting that the ices are hidden beneath a surface crust several metres thick. The nuclei contains a variety of organic compounds, which may include methanol , hydrogen cyanide , formaldehyde , ethanol , ethane , and perhaps more complex molecules such as long-chain hydrocarbons and amino acids . In 2009, it

7931-459: The land surface and natural drainage. Since water level changes accelerate sinkhole collapse, measures must be taken to minimize water level changes. The areas most susceptible to sinkhole collapse can be identified and avoided. In karst areas the traditional foundation evaluations ( bearing capacity and settlement ) of the ability of soil to support a structure must be supplemented by geotechnical site investigation for cavities and defects in

8034-444: The natural dissolution of rock. The U.S. Geological Survey notes that "It is a frightening thought to imagine the ground below your feet or house suddenly collapsing and forming a big hole in the ground." Human activities can accelerate collapses of karst sinkholes, causing collapse within a few years that would normally evolve over thousands of years under natural conditions. Soil-collapse sinkholes, which are characterized by

8137-468: The near-Earth asteroids are thought to be extinct comet nuclei. The nucleus of some comets may be fragile, a conclusion supported by the observation of comets splitting apart. A significant cometary disruption was that of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 , which was discovered in 1993. A close encounter in July 1992 had broken it into pieces, and over a period of six days in July 1994, these pieces fell into Jupiter's atmosphere—the first time astronomers had observed

8240-437: The nucleus may consist of complex organic compounds. Solar heating drives off lighter volatile compounds , leaving behind larger organic compounds that tend to be very dark, like tar or crude oil . The low reflectivity of cometary surfaces causes them to absorb the heat that drives their outgassing processes. Comet nuclei with radii of up to 30 kilometers (19 mi) have been observed, but ascertaining their exact size

8343-477: The outer Solar System , comets remain frozen and inactive and are extremely difficult or impossible to detect from Earth due to their small size. Statistical detections of inactive comet nuclei in the Kuiper belt have been reported from observations by the Hubble Space Telescope but these detections have been questioned. As a comet approaches the inner Solar System, solar radiation causes

8446-520: The outer halo; it is seen as a possible source of new comets that resupply the relatively tenuous outer cloud as the latter's numbers are gradually depleted. The Hills cloud explains the continued existence of the Oort cloud after billions of years. Exocomets beyond the Solar System have been detected and may be common in the Milky Way . The first exocomet system detected was around Beta Pictoris ,

8549-399: The outgassings of comet 67P, suggesting that the molecule may occur more often than had been thought, and thus less an indicator of life as has been supposed. It is suspected that comet impacts have, over long timescales, delivered significant quantities of water to Earth's Moon , some of which may have survived as lunar ice . Comet and meteoroid impacts are thought to be responsible for

8652-417: The overpumping and extraction of groundwater and subsurface fluids. Sinkholes can also form when natural water-drainage patterns are changed and new water-diversion systems are developed. Some sinkholes form when the land surface is changed, such as when industrial and runoff-storage ponds are created; the substantial weight of the new material can trigger a collapse of the roof of an existing void or cavity in

8755-413: The period the more elongated the ellipse. Periodic comets or short-period comets are generally defined as those having orbital periods of less than 200 years. They usually orbit more-or-less in the ecliptic plane in the same direction as the planets. Their orbits typically take them out to the region of the outer planets ( Jupiter and beyond) at aphelion ; for example, the aphelion of Halley's Comet

8858-504: The planetesimals (chunks of leftover space that assisted in the creation of planets) that were condensed and formed by the gravity of the Sun. The eccentric made from these trapped planetesimals is why the Oort Cloud even exists. Some estimates place the outer edge at between 100,000 and 200,000 AU (1.58 and 3.16 ly). The region can be subdivided into a spherical outer Oort cloud of 20,000–50,000 AU (0.32–0.79 ly), and

8961-496: The point where, at some distance along the ion tail, magnetic reconnection occurs. This leads to a "tail disconnection event". This has been observed on a number of occasions, one notable event being recorded on 20 April 2007, when the ion tail of Encke's Comet was completely severed while the comet passed through a coronal mass ejection . This event was observed by the STEREO space probe . In 2013, ESA scientists reported that

9064-499: The risks. The most likely locations for sinkhole collapse are areas where there is already a high density of existing sinkholes. Their presence shows that the subsurface contains a cave system or other unstable voids. Where large cavities exist in the limestone large surface collapses can occur, such the Winter Park, Florida sinkhole collapse . Recommendations for land uses in karst areas should avoid or minimize alterations of

9167-414: The rock dissolves, spaces and caverns develop underground. These sinkholes can be dramatic, because the surface land usually stays intact until there is not enough support. Then, a sudden collapse of the land surface can occur. On 2 July 2015, scientists reported that active pits, related to sinkhole collapses and possibly associated with outbursts, were found on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by

9270-512: The soil away, preventing soil from accumulating in rock cavities and allowing the collapse process to continue. Induced sinkholes occur where human activity alters how surface water recharges groundwater . Many human-induced sinkholes occur where natural diffused recharge is disturbed and surface water becomes concentrated. Activities that can accelerate sinkhole collapses include timber removal, ditching, laying pipelines, sewers, water lines, storm drains, and drilling. These activities can increase

9373-467: The soil to create larger surface depressions. Cover-collapse sinkholes or "dropouts" form where so much soil settles down into voids in the limestone that the ground surface collapses. The surface collapses may occur abruptly and cause catastrophic damages. New sinkhole collapses can also form when human activity changes the natural water-drainage patterns in karst areas. Pseudokarst sinkholes resemble karst sinkholes but are formed by processes other than

9476-429: The solar wind is supersonic, a bow shock is formed upstream of the comet in the flow direction of the solar wind. In this bow shock, large concentrations of cometary ions (called "pick-up ions") congregate and act to "load" the solar magnetic field with plasma, such that the field lines "drape" around the comet forming the ion tail. If the ion tail loading is sufficient, the magnetic field lines are squeezed together to

9579-443: The solar wind playing a minor role in the destruction of water compared to photochemistry . Larger dust particles are left along the comet's orbital path whereas smaller particles are pushed away from the Sun into the comet's tail by light pressure . Although the solid nucleus of comets is generally less than 60 kilometers (37 mi) across, the coma may be thousands or millions of kilometers across, sometimes becoming larger than

9682-425: The spectroscopic method. New planets are detected by the white light curve method which is viewed as a symmetrical dip in the charts readings when a planet overshadows its parent star. However, after further evaluation of these light curves, it has been discovered that the asymmetrical patterns of the dips presented are caused by the tail of a comet or of hundreds of comets. As a comet is heated during close passes to

9785-441: The subsurface, resulting in development of a sinkhole. Solution or dissolution sinkholes form where water dissolves limestone under a soil covering. Dissolution enlarges natural openings in the rock such as joints, fractures, and bedding planes. Soil settles down into the enlarged openings forming a small depression at the ground surface. Cover-subsidence sinkholes form where voids in the underlying limestone allow more settling of

9888-575: The term ( ἀστὴρ ) κομήτης already meant 'long-haired star, comet' in Greek. Κομήτης was derived from κομᾶν ( koman ) 'to wear the hair long', which was itself derived from κόμη ( komē ) 'the hair of the head' and was used to mean 'the tail of a comet'. The astronomical symbol for comets (represented in Unicode ) is U+2604 ☄ COMET , consisting of a small disc with three hairlike extensions. The solid, core structure of

9991-414: The toxic gas cyanogen in the tail of Halley's Comet, causing panicked buying of gas masks and quack "anti-comet pills" and "anti-comet umbrellas" by the public. If a comet is traveling fast enough, it may leave the Solar System. Such comets follow the open path of a hyperbola, and as such, they are called hyperbolic comets. Solar comets are only known to be ejected by interacting with another object in

10094-493: The trans-Neptunian region—whereas the source of long-period comets is thought to be the far more distant spherical Oort cloud (after the Dutch astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort who hypothesized its existence). Vast swarms of comet-like bodies are thought to orbit the Sun in these distant regions in roughly circular orbits. Occasionally the gravitational influence of the outer planets (in the case of Kuiper belt objects) or nearby stars (in

10197-428: The underlying rock. Since the soil/rock surface in karst areas are very irregular the number of subsurface samples ( borings and core samples ) required per unit area is usually much greater than in non-karst areas. In 2015, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated the cost for repairs of damage arising from karst-related processes as at least $ 300 million per year over the preceding 15 years, but noted that this may be

10300-448: The volatile materials within the comet to vaporize and stream out of the nucleus, carrying dust away with them. The streams of dust and gas each form their own distinct tail, pointing in slightly different directions. The tail of dust is left behind in the comet's orbit in such a manner that it often forms a curved tail called the type II or dust tail. At the same time, the ion or type I tail, made of gases, always points directly away from

10403-446: The young Earth about 4 billion years ago brought the vast quantities of water that now fill Earth's oceans, or at least a significant portion of it. Others have cast doubt on this idea. The detection of organic molecules, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons , in significant quantities in comets has led to speculation that comets or meteorites may have brought the precursors of life—or even life itself—to Earth. In 2013 it

10506-400: Was confirmed that the amino acid glycine had been found in the comet dust recovered by NASA's Stardust mission . In August 2011, a report, based on NASA studies of meteorites found on Earth, was published suggesting DNA and RNA components ( adenine , guanine , and related organic molecules) may have been formed on asteroids and comets. The outer surfaces of cometary nuclei have

10609-475: Was suggested that impacts between rocky and icy surfaces, such as comets, had the potential to create the amino acids that make up proteins through shock synthesis . The speed at which the comets entered the atmosphere, combined with the magnitude of energy created after initial contact, allowed smaller molecules to condense into the larger macro-molecules that served as the foundation for life. In 2015, scientists found significant amounts of molecular oxygen in

#530469