ED54B-04
Old flying ice-rock body in space allows a glance at its inner working.

Friday, 18 December 2015: 16:35
310 (Moscone South)
Andre Michel Bieler, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
Abstract:
I am studying old, cold bodies of rock and ice flying through space,
usually far, far away from the Sun. They are even behind the last of
the big 8 balls we call our home worlds. (There were 9 balls a few years
ago, but then one of the balls was not considered a ball anymore by
some people and he/she had to leave the group.)
Because they are so far away from the Sun, they remain dark and very
cold for the most part of their life.
That is why even most of the very nervous stuff sticks on them ever
since. With stuff I mean the little things that the Sun, the big 8
balls, we humans and everything else that is flying around the Sun is
made of. The nervous ones quickly change into something wind like and
can get lost. But the cold on the ice-rock bodies slows this down and
they stick around. This makes those ice-rock bodies interesting to
study, they did not change too much since they were made.
I study news sent back from a computer controlled box flying around one
of those rock-ice things that is now closer to the Sun. When the
space between such a body and the Sun gets smaller, it warms up and
some of the ice changes into wind like things. We find out how much
of what stuff is flying away from that body and at what time.
Then I and my friends put those numbers into a big ass computer to find
out more on how those rock-ice bodies work. Where does the wind come
from? Do they all come from the same place or only some? Is it really the Sun's fault? How many cups of ice change into wind each day?

Many questions.