{"id":4778,"date":"2025-04-15T22:11:50","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T21:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/?p=4778"},"modified":"2025-04-16T15:54:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T14:54:13","slug":"comets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/?p=4778","title":{"rendered":"Comets."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Three scientists\u2014Papaia, Banani, and Ravioli\u2014and their assistant Igor work at the NASAL observatory. During a trip to a big conference, they find some interesting books and start getting into creationism. But their bosses don\u2019t like this new interest. The four are called into the boss\u2019s office, where he tells them they\u2019ll need to pass a psychological test to keep their jobs. But they go to the wrong door by mistake. That\u2019s the infirmary, where Ravioli is forced to undergo a painful nasal swab.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the waiting room of the infirmary where Papaia and Banani are waiting for Ravioli, who is taking \u201cthe\u201d test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banani: What do you think, Papaia? Does that mean the Big Bang is wrong?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Papaia: I don\u2019t know, Banani! But apart from the numbers not adding up, there\u2019s also evidence that the universe can\u2019t possibly be as old as billions of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banani: Evidence? What evidence?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Papaia: There are various ones. One of them comes from comets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banani: Comets? How so?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Papaia: Aren\u2019t comets covered in ice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banani: Oh, yes, that\u2019s true! I saw it in a documentary once. The ice vaporizes when the comet gets close to the sun, and that\u2019s why we see the characteristic tail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Papaia: Exactly. And the ice in the tail? Where does it go, have you ever wondered?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banani: Honestly, no. Maybe it disperses into space?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Papaia: Exactly! Every time a comet passes near the sun, it loses some ice. Now imagine comets that approach the sun every 70 years during their orbit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banani: Like the famous Halley\u2019s Comet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Papaia: Yes, like Halley\u2019s Comet. What do you think happens after this comet passes by the sun a thousand or a hundred thousand times?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banani: I don\u2019t know. I guess it \u201cburns out,\u201d having no more ice for the tail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Papaia: So, if the solar system were millions of years old, how many comets would have already \u201cburned out\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banani: All of them, obviously!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banani thinks about it for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banani: Maybe they recharge somewhere, like in the asteroid belt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Papaia (surprised.): Nice thought \u2026 I didn\u2019t expect that from you! Anyway, other researchers have thought the same thing, but so far, there\u2019s no evidence to support this hypothesis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Igor: Comets are shutting down forever\u2026Just like our office lights when the boss kicks us out of the building. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83e\udd23\ud83e\udd23\ud83e\udd23<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…No ice, no tail, no job… just empty space!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83e\udd23\ud83e\udd23\ud83e\udd23<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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Three scientists\u2014Papaia, Banani, and Ravioli\u2014and their assistant Igor work at the NASAL observatory. During a trip to a big conference, they find some interesting books and start getting into creationism. But their bosses don\u2019t like this new interest. The four are called into the boss\u2019s office, where he tells them they\u2019ll need to pass a … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-episode"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4778"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4875,"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4778\/revisions\/4875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}