View Single Post
  #23 (permalink)  
Old 10-November-2007, 03:28 AM
Hornblower's Avatar
Hornblower Hornblower is offline
Established Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Falls Church, VA (near Washington, DC)
Posts: 1,769
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by paul schroeder View Post
What's the chance that the source of the light is not from an explosion, but from the accumulation of photons? The concept would be Dopplewr in nature and similar to sound when the source is moving toward the observer. The rays of photons are emitted forward with a shorter wave lenght by C - speed of Holmes comet. The higher intensity would occur when the comet is aimed most directly toward the observer. Additionally, those rays sent out nearly forward would arrive in a group as their forward motion would exceed their sideways motion. They would thus produce the halo seen for Holmes.
The comet is not moving toward us, but rather across our line of sight and slightly away. Even if it was moving directly toward us it would be too slow to have any visually significant Doppler effect.

Last edited by Hornblower; 10-November-2007 at 03:29 AM.. Reason: Fix a misspelling
Reply With Quote