here is a remarkable dilemma has
occurred in all prior visits to comets
no appreciable water ice was seen on the
surface of the active comet Tempel 1
from the first disclosures of dry
cometary surfaces theorists speculated
that such surfaces simply hid the icy
watery content beneath the surface they
surmised that in response to solar
warming pressurized pockets of
subsurface water vapor formed exploding
through the dry crust to create the
observed Jets of active comets of course
the envisioned rupture of the surface
would expose the presumed ice below but
has occurred in all visits to comets no
detection of temple1 subsurface ice was
ever reported nevertheless mission
scientists tell us that infrared
readings did detect substantial water
ice in the ejecta cloud
the Enigma deserves investigation what
happened at the surface and below the
surface at the moment of impact most
NASA scientists interpreted the
fast-moving cloud as vaporized silicates
the cloud was self-luminous at an
estimated 1,000 to 2,000 degrees Kelvin
and the low angle of the impact and
blast propelled the ejecta downrange the
infrared readings of the ejecta occurred
about three seconds after impact as the
cloud came into the view of the infrared
camera
these readings show what NASA scientists
described as a narrow beam of water this
water column was easily distinguished
from the rapidly moving dust cloud and
was very close to vertical directly over
the impact site that's a bizarre
contrast to the trajectory of the dust
cloud
how did a vertical column of water get
instantaneously separated from an
explosion of dust heated to over 1,000
degrees and propelled downrange the
electric comet model offers an answer
the heated silicate cloud would be
ionized a plasma a conductive pathway
for an explosive electric discharge the
evidence indicates the discharge
occurred between a negatively charged
nucleus and a surrounding region of
positive charge an abundance of hydrogen
ions gathered at or close to the surface
of the nucleus would provide the
necessary conditions for two things
first an instantaneous electrical
breakdown or discharge on impact and
second and equally instantaneous
electrochemical response to the
discharge consider what is already known
from laboratory experiments in a
condition of electrical breakdown
hydrogen ions from the solar wind
combining with the oxygen and silicates
can produce an abundance of hydroxyl
and/or water this very process has been
proposed to explain the enigmatic water
on the planet Mercury
the electric comet model suggests that
the detected column of water directly
over the impact site occurred along the
path of an electric discharge and that
always means roughly perpendicular to
the surface water created explosively
electrochemically in the ejecta even if
no water lay beneath the dry surface of
comet Tempel 1 this intriguing answer
takes us deeper into the infrared
readings the conventional model
predicted that comet water ice would
contain substantial quantities of dust
this dust content would be expected to
show up as refractory particles in the
ice of the collimated ejecta plume but
amazingly the ice particles themselves
were free of dust
it seems the instruments measured virgin
water water freshly formed as one would
expect from the instantaneous
electrochemistry of water production
from hydrated silicates this very point
is emphasized in a recent analysis by
dr. franklin anariba a specialist in
electrochemistry at the singapore
university of technology and design
allow this possibility into discussions
of Comet science in particular the
unsolved mysteries of missing water and
water creation by comets and the picture
changes dramatically
when we follow this possibility the
missing water on the surface of temple 1
becomes an affirmation of the electric
comet model