This is probably nit-picking, but...
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This means that with the VLT, for the first
time in the long history of this comet, the astronomers now possess
the means to observe it at any point in its 76-year orbit!
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Isn't this the first time we can observe
any comet during its entire orbit?
Quote:
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As the comet approached, the ice in the nucleus began to evaporate (sublimate), and the comet soon became surrounded by a cloud of dust and gas (the "coma").
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Doesn't sublimation occur when a solid changes phase
directly to gas? Dry ice to CO2 for instance. Do comets melt to liquid for a short time before going to a gaseous state, or are they gas-ice, as opposed to water-ice?
I am curious, and I would hate to have BA on the BABB. 8)