The last time the Utica Comets were on the ice together as a team was nearly two months ago.

Since then, the American Hockey League has been on hold since mid-March because of the coronavirus pandemic. It is possible the players and coaches will not return to the ice to finish the 2019-20 season.

The AHL is set for a conference call with the board of governors Friday with a decision to be discussed on what to do regarding the remainder of the season.

From a logistical standpoint, it appears to be hard for the league to finish the season. AHL President and CEO Dave Andrews said on SiriusXM NHL radio in April that the league was planning to "pivot more directly towards the 2020-21 season." That season could have a later start than the usual October dates depending on what plays out with the pandemic.

As the president of one of the AHLs small-market teams, Esche said Thursday he believes the call will be "enlightening."

"Most likely it will be talked about from every different side," said Esche, whose team had 15 regular-season games remaining at the leagues pause. "I dont think it is as simple as canceling the season or not canceling the season. I think there are a lot of variables that go into that. I think we have to look at theres a lot of different ownership groups, in the AHL especially. Some people are impacted differently than others. I think the good thing about Utica is we have the ability to adjust to whatever is thrown at us. It is going to be difficult no matter how we cut that."

Esche, the former NHL goaltender, said as an athlete he wants to see the season decided with a winner. However, he understands that ability this season "seems difficult to do at this stage."

Building availability or lack thereof with those closed during the pandemic is among the factors. While the NHL is discussing playing games in a few arenas, thats not an option in the AHL. Playing games without fans also isnt likely as AHL teams earn most revenue from ticket sales.

Esche said Andrews has reached out to him "several times in the last couple of weeks to get Uticas take" on the situation. Esche said he "nothing but respect" for Andrews, who is set to retire from his position this summer with the AHL after 26 years.

"The great thing that Dave Andrews has done is he allows a great forum for people to say their opinions and to get things on the table," said Esche, who described Andrews as an unbelievable leader. "Hes definitely a guy that has ruled through some turbulent times. ...

"At the end of the day theres a lot that goes into this. We want to make sure everyone is healthy and there also has to be some point where you move and you settle on for whats next down the line."

Contact reporter Ben Birnell at 315-792-5032 or follow him on Twitter (@OD_Birnell).

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AHL, Utica Comets 2019-20 season hangs in the balance - Utica Observer Dispatch

OverviewIn the distant past, people were both awed and alarmed by comets, perceiving them as long-haired stars that appeared in the sky unannounced and unpredictably. Chinese astronomers kept extensive records for centuries, including illustrations of characteristic types of comet tails, times of cometary appearances and disappearances, and celestial positions. These historic comet annals have proven to be a valuable resource for later astronomers.

We now know that comets are leftovers from the dawn of our solar system around 4.6 billion years ago, and consist mostly of ice coated with dark organic material. They have been referred to as "dirty snowballs." They may yield important clues about the formation of our solar system. Comets may have brought water and organic compounds, the building blocks of life, to the early Earth and other parts of the solar system.

Where Do Comets Come From?

As theorized by astronomer Gerard Kuiper in 1951, a disc-like belt of icy bodies exists beyond Neptune, where a population of dark comets orbits the Sun in the realm of Pluto. These icy objects, occasionally pushed by gravity into orbits bringing them closer to the Sun, become the so-called short-period comets. Taking less than 200 years to orbit the Sun, in many cases their appearance is predictable because they have passed by before. Less predictable are long-period comets, many of which arrive from a region called the Oort Cloud about 100,000 astronomical units (that is, about 100,000 times the distance between Earth and the Sun) from the Sun. These Oort Cloud comets can take as long as 30 million years to complete one trip around the Sun.

Each comet has a tiny frozen part, called a nucleus, often no larger than a few kilometers across. The nucleus contains icy chunks, frozen gases with bits of embedded dust. A comet warms up as it nears the Sun and develops an atmosphere, or coma. The Sun's heat causes the comet's ices to change to gases so the coma gets larger. The coma may extend hundreds of thousands of kilometers. The pressure of sunlight and high-speed solar particles (solar wind) can blow the coma dust and gas away from the Sun, sometimes forming a long, bright tail. Comets actually have two tailsa dust tail and an ion (gas) tail.

Most comets travel a safe distance from the Suncomet Halley comes no closer than 89 million kilometers (55 million miles). However, some comets, called sungrazers, crash straight into the Sun or get so close that they break up and evaporate.

Exploration of Comets

Scientists have long wanted to study comets in some detail, tantalized by the few 1986 images of comet Halley's nucleus. NASA's Deep Space 1 spacecraft flew by comet Borrelly in 2001 and photographed its nucleus, which is about 8 kilometers (5 miles) long.

NASA's Stardust mission successfully flew within 236 kilometers (147 miles) of the nucleus of Comet Wild 2 in January 2004, collecting cometary particles and interstellar dust for a sample return to Earth in 2006. The photographs taken during this close flyby of a comet nucleus show jets of dust and a rugged, textured surface. Analysis of the Stardust samples suggests that comets may be more complex than originally thought. Minerals formed near the Sun or other stars were found in the samples, suggesting that materials from the inner regions of the solar system traveled to the outer regions where comets formed.

Another NASA mission, Deep Impact, consisted of a flyby spacecraft and an impactor. In July 2005, the impactor was released into the path of the nucleus of comet Tempel 1 in a planned collision, which vaporized the impactor and ejected massive amounts of fine, powdery material from beneath the comet's surface. En route to impact, the impactor camera imaged the comet in increasing detail. Two cameras and a spectrometer on the flyby spacecraft recorded the dramatic excavation that helped determine the interior composition and structure of the nucleus.

After their successful primary missions, the Deep Impact spacecraft and the Stardust spacecraft were still healthy and were retargeted for additional cometary flybys. Deep Impact's mission, EPOXI (Extrasolar Planet Observation and Deep Impact Extended Investigation), comprised two projects: the Deep Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI), which encountered comet Hartley 2 in November 2010, and the Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization (EPOCh) investigation, which searched for Earth-size planets around other stars on route to Hartley 2. NASA returned to comet Tempel 1 in 2011, when the Stardust New Exploration of Tempel 1 (NExT) mission observed changes in the nucleus since Deep Impact's 2005 encounter.

How Comets Get Their Names

Comet naming can be complicated. Comets are generally named for their discoverereither a person or a spacecraft. This International Astronomical Union guideline was developed only in the last century. For example, comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was so named because it was the ninth short-periodic comet discovered by Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy. Since spacecraft are very effective at spotting comets many comets have LINEAR, SOHO or WISE in their names.

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In Depth | Comets NASA Solar System Exploration

Skywatchers had high hopes that a comet called ATLAS would light up the night sky this spring, with forecasts suggesting it could become bright enough to see with the unaided eye.

Instead, the icy object crumbled to pieces but it's still putting on a spectacular show for scientists. Ye Quanzhi, an astronomer at the University of Maryland, snagged some time with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to take a look at Comet ATLAS on Monday (April 20) and caught a stunning image of its fragments that he shared on Twitter as a preview of his research.

"We have been following the break-up of ATLAS since it was first detected in early April, but with ground-based telescopes we couldn't resolve most of the debris field," Ye told Space.com in an email, adding that he was excited to see the new images. "With Hubble, we are finally able to resolve individual mini-comets."

Related: The Hubble Space Telescope and 30 years that transformed our view of the universe

Ye hopes those mini-comets will help scientists understand what caused ATLAS to fall apart. In particular, astronomers rely on the distance between fragments to reconstruct events, since that distance increases as more time passes since a specific fracture.

Previous observations had identified four main fragments from Comet ATLAS. In the Hubble image, Ye said, he believes two of those fragments have broken down even more, yielding the two pairs of bright spots on the right, which represent the four largest fragments at the time.

The two clouds of brightness on the left may represent where older fragments have broken up into smaller pieces. Before beginning the observations, which lasted for one of Hubble's orbits around Earth, Ye had hoped that Hubble would be able to spot more mini-comets in those regions, but it would appear those fragments had already disintegrated too far by the time the observations began.

Comet ATLAS is hardly the first icy space rock to break up within scientists' view, but there are a few special conditions that make these new observations particularly exciting, Ye said. First, ATLAS happened to break up when it was quite close to Earth and quite bright, giving astronomers an especially clear view.

And ATLAS hails from the Oort Cloud, a distant sphere of icy rubble enveloping the solar system as much as 9.3 trillion miles (15 trillion kilometers) away from Earth. That vast distance makes it quite difficult for astronomers to study the Oort Cloud directly, but watching Comet ATLAS's antics will help scientists develop new hypotheses about what's happening out there.

ATLAS is only the second bright Oort cloud comet whose fragments Hubble has been able to observe in its 30 years of work, Ye said.

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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That's the way the comet crumbles: Hubble image shows remains of Comet ATLAS - Space.com

Photograph I took of Comet Bradfield on the morning of April 26, 2004.Perihelion: 2004 April 17.09, q= 0.168 AU

One of the most legendary comet discoverers of the 20th Century was the Australian amateur astronomer William Bradfield, who resided near Adelaide, South Australia. By trade a rocket propulsion engineer with the Australian government until his retirement in 1986, Bradfield began a systematic visual comet hunting effort at the beginning of 1971, and scored his first success a little over 14 months later. He would go on to discover a total of 18 comets over the next 3 decades, which is not only a remarkable feat in and of itself, but furthermore all of his discoveries bear his name alone. A couple of his discoveries turned out to be Halley-type comets, and meanwhile, although none of his discoveries could be considered Great Comets, several of them did become bright enough to see with the unaided eye.

Bradfields 18th, and last, comet was also one of his best. He discovered it low in evening twilight on March 23, 2004 as an 8th magnitude comet and successfully re-observed it the following night, however due to poor weather and its low location it eluded detection for the next two weeks before he and other observers successfully relocated it, by which time its brightness had increased to about 4th magnitude but its elongation had dropped to 17 degrees. The discovery was formally announced on April 12, and the very preliminary orbit available then indicated an imminent perihelion passage at a small heliocentric distance, and also indicated it would soon become visible in the LASCO C3 coronagraph aboard the SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft.

Comet Bradfield entered the C3 field of view late on the 15th, and for the next five days put on a spectacular show in the C3 images as it traveled from south to north, and exhibited a tail up to eight degrees long. The comet was passing between Earth and the sun at the time with the minimum distance from Earth being 0.83 AU on the 19th and with phase angles as high as 164 degrees it undoubtedly exhibited a significantly enhanced brightness due to forward scattering of sunlight.

After exiting C3 Comet Bradfield began appearing in the northern hemispheres morning sky around April 22, initially as a 4th-magnitude object deep in twilight. As it climbed higher into the morning sky over subsequent mornings it became rather easily visible to the unaided eye, and exhibited a long filmy tail for which I measured a maximum length of 8 degrees near the end of the month. Meanwhile the comet began to fade fairly rapidly, being near 5th magnitude during the last few days of April and dropping below naked-eye visibility in early May. It remained visually detectable until late May or early June by which time it had become quite vague and diffuse and the final observations were obtained in mid-September, by which time it had faded to magnitude 19 or 20.

On one morning in late April I successfully observed Comet Bradfield and another comet, Comet LINEAR C/2002 T7, simultaneously with my unaided eye the first of only two occasions in my life when I have obtained such an observation. Comet LINEAR was low in the southeastern sky at the time and soon became accessible only from the southern hemisphere (although it came back north after it had faded); curiously, observers in the southern hemisphere were able to observe it simultaneously with another naked-eye comet, Comet NEAT C/2001 Q4. This comet was still relatively bright, at 3rd magnitude, when it became accessible from the northern hemisphere in early May, and remained visible to the unaided eye for another month.

William Bradfield would not discover any additional comets, and he passed away in June 2014 at the age of 86. With all the comprehensive survey programs that are now operational and with even more expected to come on-line within the not-too-distant future, it is quite certain that we will never again encounter someone with his level of success at the art of visual comet hunting.

This Week in History Special Topic Free PDF Download Glossary

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Comet of the Week: Bradfield C/2004 F4 - RocketSTEM

This might be a good time to look up.

So said writer and physicist Andr Bormanis. He may be biased, because he has been telling true and fictional stories set in space for more than 25 years. Many of us now have more time, and if you can safely step outside, you can spy the skies and navigate the universe.

In your imagination, you can travel to different worlds simply by looking up at night, he said.

Bormanis, who has a masters degree in science, technology and public policy from George Washington University, served as a science consultant for the Star Trek television and film franchise in the 1990s, then went on to write for Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise and other series.

He wrote the narration for Centered in the Universe, the Griffith Observatorys long-running planetarium show, and serves as co-executive producer and writer for the Fox/Hulu series The Orville and consulting producer for National Geographics Cosmos.

We asked Bormanis for a beginners introduction to the sky a handful of celestial highlights you can see without a telescope. He gave us seven. All should be visible to the naked eye on a cloudless night, especially if theres not too much light pollution in your neighborhood. (For his bonus suggestion, No. 7, you might need binoculars.)

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Planets, stars, and comets to spot while stargazing - Los Angeles Times

Comet Atlas is racing toward the inner solar system, and it could become the brightest comet seen in the night sky in over two decades. The comet, discovered by an observatory designed to protect Earth from asteroids, may even be visible during the day just two months from now.

Also known as C/2019 Y4, this comet was discovered by astronomers at the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in Hawaii in December 2019. At the time, the comet was exceedingly dim but the comet became 4,000 times brighter in just a month. This increase is far greater than astronomers predicted, and could potentially signal the comet may soon be exceptionally bright.

Comet ATLAS continues to brighten much faster than expected. Some predictions for its peak brightness now border on the absurd, statedKarl Battamsof the Naval Research Lab.

Comets are, essentially, dirty snowballs. As the comet approaches the Sun, the heat will drive off some of the ice which makes up the nucleus (main body) of the object. If the comet holds it shape as it continues to heat, then Comet Atlas could grow as bright as the planet Venus (the brightest object in the night sky other than the Moon).

The comet, currently near the orbit ofMars, is closely following the path taken by one of the great comets in history the Great Comet of 1844.

At its current rate of brightening, Comet Atlas could be visible to the naked eye, under dark skies, during the first weeks of April. For skywatchers in the northern hemisphere, this would be a sight unseen since the dual shows of Comets Hyakutake in 1996 and Hale-Bopp the following year. When Hyakutake was at its peak, the tail of the comet stretched halfway across the sky.

In May, the comet could shine with a green hue, providing a unique view for viewers in the northern hemisphere.The brightest predictions for the comet suggest it could become bright enough to be seen during the day.

The peak brightness of Comet Atlas would depend, largely, on how much material is encased within its nucleus. If the comet is sizable, and it does not fall apart as it is heated by theSun, it could put on an amazing show in May.

The ATLAS observatory which first spotted the comet consists of a pair of 0.5-meter (19) telescopes, placed 160 kilometers (100 miles) apart. The system, operating since 2017, is designed to detect near-Earth objects asteroids and other bodieswhich could potentially impact Earth. In addition to finding roughly 100 space rocks measuring 30 meters (100 feet) in diameter or larger every year, the observatory also occasionally discovers comets.

When it was first spotted on December 28, the comet was 439 million kilometers (273 million miles) from theSun. At its closest approach, Comet Atlas will come within 37.8 million kilometers (23.5 million miles) of our parent star. The comet is brightening at nearly an unprecedented rate and by March 17, the comet was already 600 times brighter than predicted.

Thecometis currently in the constellation of Ursa Major (which includes the Big Dipper) and it will remain visible all night (as seen from the northern hemisphere) all night during it pass through the inner solar system.

Severalcometsastronomers thought were destined for greatness failed to achieve their potential. In 2013, Comet PANSTARRS became as bright as Sirius (the brightest star in the sky), but it was positioned low on the horizon as seen from the northern hemisphere, making it difficult to see. The last two brightcomets McNaught in 2007 and Lovejoy in 2011 were only visible from the southern hemisphere.

The path traveled by Comet Atlas the same as that take by the Great Comet of 1844 suggests that each of these bodies (and potentially others) may have broken off of an ancient mega-comet long ago. The Great Comet of 1844 was first seen by observers at the Cape of Good Hope on December 18 of that year, and was visible without the aid of a telescope through January 1845.

During the latter part of December and the first week in January, it was a brilliant objects in the southern hemisphere, equaling, it is said, in brightness the celebrated comet of Halley in its last appearance,The Astronomical Journalreported in 1850.

Out to sea, the calm lagoon waters were darkening, while the comets overhead glowed brighter, omens in the gloaming. Julian May, Perseus Spur

Comets are one of the most beautiful sights to see in the night sky, and they make perfect targets for families to view together, creating a lifetime of memories.

Of course, the behavior of comets is notoriously difficult to predict, and some comets once thought to be destined for greatness fizzled.

In 1974, many astronomers believed Comet Kohoutek would light up the night sky, but it failed to deliver. Similar expectations were dashed by Comets Austin in 1990 and ISON in 2013.

If this comet fails to live up to its potential, it will be a long time before we see it again once it heads out to the outersolar system, it will not return for another 6,000 years.

This article was originally published onThe Cosmic Companionby James Maynard, an astronomy journalist, fan of coffee, sci-fi, movies, and creativity. Maynard has been writing about space since he was 10, but hes still not Carl Sagan. The Cosmic Companionsmailing list/podcast. You can read this original piecehere.

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Comet Atlas could be the brightest comet in decades - The Next Web

The pinnacle is easy to define.

On the night of March 27, 2018 at the Giant Center in Hershey, the Abington Heights boys basketball team reached the top, winning a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 5A state title with a 67-55 victory over Mars.

The state title was part of a lengthy run of success that, by some measurements, came to an end in the recently completed season.

Defining the most impressive long-term accomplishment is not as easy as recognizing the most significant single moment. The run has included coach Ken Bianchi becoming the all-time leader among District 2 coaches and picking up his 800th career win.

Even saying the run is over is not definitive because, after all, the Comets did win a Lackawanna League Division 1 title again this season, their third straight, starting with the state championship team.

Longer streaks, however, were halted in a pair of District 2 tournament losses.

Abington Heights had won eight straight district championships before falling, 49-39, in this seasons semifinals against Dallas, a team that is still one of eight quarterfinalists left in the suspended state tournament.

Dallas also ended a 27-game winning streak by the Comets in District 2 or District 2-4 Subregional playoff games.

The Comets still had a chance to find a way into their 14th straight state tournament.

All semifinalists in Class 5A have two shots at the state tournament because the districts top three teams advance. Corey Perkins, a starter on the state championship team two years earlier, made sure the second chance was available with his buzzer-beater to complete a 48-46 rally over North Pocono in the quarterfinals when the streaks first appeared in jeopardy of ending.

Abington Heights, however, was unable to repeat that dramatic finish in the districts third-place game, losing to Pittston Area, 37-35, to stop the streak of state tournament trips at 13.

The loss also ended any chance of the Comets reaching the state Final Four for the fourth straight season and of posting 20-plus wins for a ninth straight season.

Still, there are many impressive cumulative numbers that have been run up by the Abington Heights boys basketball team in the 14-year stretch that started with qualifying for the state tournament in 2007.

Here are some of them:

Division titles. The Comets have nine in 14 years, beginning with four straight titles in what was then an eight-team Division 1 of the Lackawanna League from the 2006-07 season through 2009-10. They won back-to-back titles again in 2012-13 and 2013-14, then the current streak of three straight.

Perfect seasons. Abington Heights went 14-0 in the Lackawanna League in 2008-09 and 13-0 in 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2018-19.

Winning records. The Comets have finished in the top half of the league all 14 seasons with the nine titles, three second-place finishes in the current five-team division plus a tie for third and a fourth-place finish in the old eight-team Division 1.

Winning percentage. The Comets have gone a combined 164-24 in the league for an .872 winning percentage in that time.

Better in playoffs. Prior to losing two straight to Dallas and Pittston Area, the Comets had been 39-3 in district playoff games over the past 14 seasons. Even with the losses, they have a higher winning percentage in district playoff games (.886) than league play with their 39-5 record.

State success. Beginning in 2009, Abington Heights won at least one state playoff game in nine of 11 seasons and at least two in seven of those seasons. After going 2-11 in state playoff games since 2009, the Comets are 19-9 since.

Overall record. Despite consistently seeking out a non-league schedule that includes some of the states top programs, the Comets have won 22 or more games in 12 of the last 14 seasons for an overall record of 329-67 and overall winning percentage of .831.

The first state final appearance came about only after the Comets escaped a controversial technical foul in the final second for fans throwing Hersheys Kisses on the floor in celebration. The resulting free throws put the game in overtime where Abington Heights prevailed over Bonner-Prendergast, 56-51, to reach the 2018 final.

Once there, first-team, all-stater George Tinsley scored 29 points, including 19 in the second half.

At the beginning of the second half, I started taking it to the rack a little bit more, Tinsley, the America East Conferences Rookie of the Year at Binghamton University this season, said after reaching 1,000 points for his career with his final points of the night.

The Comets overcame some serious obstacles.

The teams other first-team, all-stater, Jackson Danzig, now a two-year starter at the University of Scranton, was limited to 11 points and four assists because of foul trouble. He left the game for good with 5:23 to go.

Notre Dame-bound Robby Carmody scored 27 of his 34 points in the second half for Mars, but there was no stopping the Comets.

Tinsley took over in a game that the Comets had trailed in at halftime.

Jack Nealon went 5-for-6 from the line in the final 1:26 to finish with 13 points and 4 assists.

Perkins went 3-for-6 on 3-pointers while providing 11 points and six rebounds.

They left me open, so I made them pay for it, said Perkins, who joined Mike Malone as sophomore starters on the state championship team that went the bulk of the season without returning all-star Trey Koehler, a current Ursinus College player, because of a foot injury.

The championship was the highlight of a successful run by the Abington Heights boys basketball program while also representing an end to struggles by District 2 teams.

The state title was the first by a District 2 basketball team since Bishop OReilly had won back-to-back in 2004 and 2005 and the first by a Lackawanna League team since Bishop Hannan in 2002. All three of those titles came in Class A boys, as opposed to the Abington Heights championship in the second-largest of six enrollment classifications.

Abington Heights players and coaches celebrate as the final seconds tick off the clock during the 2018 PIAA Class 5A boys basketball game at the GIANT Center in Hershey.

Abington Heights co-captains Jackson Danzig, left, and George Tinsley hold the championship trophy and a chocolate bar after the Comets won the 2018 PIAA Class 5A boys basketball title in Hershey.

Abington Heights guard Jackson Danzig drives to the basket during the 2018 PIAA Class 5A boys basketball title game in Hershey.

The Abington Heights players and coaching staff pose for a photo after the Comets won the first boys basketball championship in school history in 2018.

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Comets have enjoyed extended run of success on court - The Abington Journal

A photographer has caught on camera a massive comet coming towards Earth - and it's called C19.

The comet, named C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS), is pictured glimmering in space by Jamie Cooper in Lincolnshire.

The celestial body will be visible to the naked eye within weeks as it zooms brightly in the atmosphere.

In one picture a fuzzy outer-layer of light can also be seen around the comet, known as the coma.

The comet was first spotted on the 28th December 2019, days before the first reported cases of coronavirus in Wuhan, China.

Astrophotographer Jamie loves to take pictures of the natural world and can add C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) to his collection.

He said: ''Comets have been feared throughout human history as harbingers of doom.

"Well there is one heading our way Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) - which is expected to reach naked eye visibly in the coming weeks, just as humanity braces its self in the midst of a global pandemic.

"I managed to photograph the comet approaching on Sunday evening through a small telescope.

"The comet has a similar orbit to the Great Comet of 1844, leading to speculation on whether C/2019 Y4 is a fragment of the same parent body."

The travelling space body is reported to only be a few kilometres wide but it's atmosphere has grown increasingly big, now believed to be about half as wide as the Sun.

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Comet coming towards the Earth caught on camera, and it's called C19 - MyLondon

Welcome to the Best Team Ever bracket series, where the greatest of all time have their most dominant seasons stacked up against each other until we ultimately crown a champion in each sport. The tournament will be decided by fan vote, so be sure to submit yours below! The results from the first round are here. The second round of polling closes at noon ET on Thursday, April 2.

[Brackets: NFL | NBA | MLB | NCAAF | NCAAB | NCAAW | WNBA | Soccer | NHL | Nascar]

Best Team Ever bracket series: WNBA edition, round 2 (Yahoo Sports illustration)

No. 1 Houston Comets (27-5)

OffRtg: 109.4 | DefRtg: 94.0 | Net: 18.4

The 2000 Comets, who cemented their dynasty status with a fourth title in four years, moved on easily with 87 percent of the vote over the 2005 Connecticut Sun in the 1-16 matchup. Sheryl Swoopes (20.7 PPG, 50.6 FG%) was named MVP and Defensive POY while 37-year-old Cynthia Cooper earned Finals MVP for a fourth time and the ESPY for best WNBA player. Tina Thompson (16.9 PPG, 41.7 3FT%) completed the first and continuously most celebrated big three in WNBA history.

The team scored 1.091 points per possession, which was the most efficient offense in WNBA history until the 2019 Washington Mystics. Their plus-12.8 point differential is best in league history and their nine 20-point wins rank second, again behind the 19 Mystics.

No. 9 Los Angeles Sparks (26-8)

OffRtg: 107.8 | DefRtg: 98.6 | Net: 9.2

The 2016 champion Sparks got by the 2012 Minnesota Lynx in the 8-9 matchup. That years Lynx squad had the fourth-best offensive rating in league history. Nneka Ogwumike was named league MVP, averaging 19.7 points on 66.5 percent shooting, 9.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists.

Candace Parker, a two-time MVP (08 13), averaged 19.3 points (49.6 FG%), 8.7 rebounds and 3.2 assists in the playoffs. Kristi Toliver, who signed a contract with the Sparks this offseason after the Mystics championship, had one of her best seasons averaging 13.2 points.

The overall teams effective field goal percentage (53.3) ranks third all-time.

No. 5 Seattle Storm (26-8)

OffRtg: 111.1 | DefRtg: 101.5 | Net: 9.6

League MVP Breanna Stewart, veteran Sue Bird

Rank top-10 in effective FG percentage

The 2018 Storm edged the 2013 Minnesota Lynx, which won their second championship, with 55 percent of the vote. Breanna Stewart had one of the most decorated 12 months in basketball history that included the 2018 WNBA championship alongside veteran Sue Bird. Their offensive rating ranks seventh and the teams effective field goal percentage (53.4) ranks second in league history. They also posted a top-10 assist-to-turnover ratio (1.58).

Stewart averaged 24.6 points in the playoffs and was joined in double-figures by Natasha Howard and Jewell Loyd. They swept the Mystics in the finals after a tough Game 5 win against the Mercurys big three of Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner and DeWanna Bonner.

No. 4 Phoenix Mercury (29-5)

OffRtg: 106.4 | DefRtg: 94.1 | Net: 12.3

The 2014 Mercury won 71 percent of the vote against the 2016 Detroit Shock, which came back to win its second consecutive WNBA championship. Mercury Taurasi (16.2 PPG), Griner (15.6 PPG) and Bonner (10.4 PPG) led Phoenix to the 14 title. Griner, the No. 1 pick in the 2013 draft, was named the Defensive Player of the Year for her league-leading 153 blocks and the Mercury swept the Chicago Sky in the finals even though she missed Game 3.

Griner ranks third in career blocks (636) and Taurasi continues to add to her career lead in points (8,575). Their 2014 team lost only one game in the postseason (to the reigning champion Lynx) and lost only one of five games in the regular season by more than eight points.

Story continues

No. 15: Houston Comets (26-6)

OffRtg: 105.8 | DefRtg: 92.5 | Net: 13.3

The 1999 Houston Comets pulled the upset in a tough first-round matchup for the 2019 Washington Mystics, which hold a slew of WNBA records. The Comets advanced with 54 percent of the vote.

The Comets also had a season for the ages behind Cooper, Swoopes and Thompson. It was the third of their four championships and they beat opponents by an average of 9.3 points, ranking eighth. The 2000 and 1998 versions rank first and second, respectively.

No. 7 Los Angeles Sparks (28-4)

OffRtg: 106.7 | DefRtg: 94.7 | Net: 12.0

The 2001 Sparks advanced past the 2010 Storm, who had three-time MVP Lauren Jackson, with 67 percent of the vote in the first round.

Lisa Leslie won her first of three MVPs (2004, 06) averaging 19.5 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.3 blocks. The Sparks lost four regular season games, three of which came in a streak in June and included two four-point losses. In the penultimate game, the margin was two. They dropped only one game in the playoffs, which were a best-of-three series then.

No. 6 Houston Comets (29-3)

OffRtg: 104.1 | DefRtg: 86.7 | Net: 17.4

Best win percentage in WNBA history (.900)

Rank second in point differential, net rating

The 1998 Houston Comets, arguably the second-best championship version behind the 2000 team, won 77 percent of the vote in the first round. They defeated the 2009 Mercury squad that featured regular-season and finals MVP Taurasi.

The Comets trail only the 2000 squad in point differential (12.8) and net rating (17.4), proving theyre one of the best all-around teams in league history. The team of course included the three Naismith Hall of Fame inductees of Cooper (22.7 PPG, 4.4 APG in 1998), Swoopes (15.6 PPG, 5.1 RPG)and Thompson (12.7 PPG, 7.1 RPG).

No. 3 Minnesota Lynx (27-7)

OffRtg: 108.5 | DefRtg: 94.4 | Net: 14.1

The 2017 Minnesota team is the only Lynx squad to make it through to the next round, getting 81 percent of the vote over the 2016 Chicago Sky. It was the last Lynx squad to win a championship, the final pillar in the dynasty that put them equal to the Comets with most WNBA titles (four).

The Lynx were another all-around quality squad, ranking sixth in offense and fourth in net rating differential. Sylvia Fowles was named the 2017 league MVP and both she and 14 MVP Maya Moore were named first-team All-WNBA selections. Rebekka Brunson was named to the second all-defensive team and Lindsey Whalen led the playoff offense, dishing out 4.9 assists per game.

Excerpt from:

Best Teams Ever bracket: WNBA edition, Round 2 - Yahoo Sports

A comet called Atlas discovered in December is on its way towards Earth and could appear as bright as a crescent moon - unless it breaks up from the Sun's heat first.

Atlas is close to Mars' orbit at the moment but is increasing in speed as it makes its way towards the Sun, making its closest approach to Earth at the end of May.

It was discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert system (ATLAS) in Hawaii and takes its name from the initials of the system.

When it was discovered on December 28, 2019 it was faint and required a telescope, but as it comes closer it is getting brighter and can now be seen with binoculars.

Seeing a comet with the naked eye would be a rare event for astronomers - the last bright comet in the northern hemisphere was Hale-Bopp in 1997.

Provided by Daily Mail This is an image of a comet captured by the Hubble Space Telescope - it is not ATLAS. If it manages to hold itself together ATLAS could be as bright as a a crescent moon

At the end of May it will be just 0.25 astronomical units to the Sun - that is a quarter of the distance the Earth is from the star.

While it is there it will get brighter as seen from the Earth as its glow will be amplified by the Sun.

'Comet ATLAS continues to brighten much faster than expected,' Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC told SpaceWeatherArchive.

'Some predictions for its peak brightness now border on the absurd.'

It's original name was C/2019 Y4 when it was first discovered but has been nicknamed ATLAS due to the system that spotted it.

It has seen a 4,000-fold increase in brightness since it was first discovered and could be visible to the naked eye as early as April.

When it was first stopped it was in the area of Ursa Major and was very faint - it was about 398,000 times dimmer than stars visible to the naked eye appear.

At that point it was 273 million miles from the Sun but it has been increasing in brightness at an unprecedented speed since then.

Unfortunately there is a real chance it will break up from the heat before it gets a chance to put on a show for astronomers.

'Right now the comet is releasing huge amounts of its frozen volatiles (gases),' says Battams. 'That's why it's brightening so fast.'

The only way it will survive long enough to get as close to the Sun as Mercury it would need to have a large nuclear with stores of frozen gas.

If not it will likely 'run out of gas' leading to it crumbling and fading as it approaches the Sun, according to SpaceWeatherArchive.

Battams is not optimistic, though, he said it will likely break up.

'My personal intuition is that Comet ATLAS is over-achieving, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it start to fade rapidly and possibly even disintegrate before reaching the sun,' he says.

The head (or coma) of Comet ATLAS is big, albeit 'very faint and ghostly,' John Bortle, an expert in comets told Space.com.

'If it's a truly significant visitor, it should be considerably sharper in appearance. Instead we see, at best, a quite modestly condensed object with only a pinpoint stellar feature near its heart.'

If it does break up as it approaches the Sun it may still be possible for NASA spacecraft to capture images of the end of its life.

'The Heliospheric Imager on NASA's STEREO spacecraft will get a great view of ATLAS from mid-May through early June,' says Battams.

'The camera is very sensitive, so we might be able to observe ATLAS's tail interacting with the solar wind and outflowsas well as any potential breakup events.'

There is some speculation this could be related to the Great Comet of 1844 as it follows a similar trajectory and orbit.

Its trajectory would require a 6,000 year orbit around the Sun that would take it beyond the outer edges of the solar system - about 57 billion miles from the Sun.

Astronomers predict this comet and the Great Comet both broke off from a much larger comet born in the early days of the solar system.

It's a hyperbolic comet which means its orbit stretches deeper into the cosmos and the Sun only acts as a gravitational slingshot to hurtle it further out of the solar system.

This may be a one time shot - we may never see the comet again after it makes its closest approach.

In the meantime when it gets dark it will be visible halfway up in the north-northwest sky and potentially visible with the naked eye from April.

'It's going to be fun the next few weeks watching Comet ATLAS develop (and provide a nice distraction from the current state of the world), Carl Hergenrother, a comet observer based in Arizona, wrote. 'Here's to good health and clear skies!'

More here:

Newly-discovered comet Atlas could shine as bright as the MOON when it makes its closest approach to Earth in May - as long as doesn't break up on its...

Unlike the other small bodies in the solar system, comets have been known since antiquity. There are Chinese records ofComet Halleygoing back to at least 240 BC. The famousBayeux Tapestry, which commemorates the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, depicts an apparition of Comet Halley.

As of 1995, 878 comets have been cataloged and their orbits at least roughly calculated. Of these 184 areperiodiccomets (orbital periods less than 200 years); some of the remainder are no doubt periodic as well, but their orbits have not been determined with sufficient accuracy to tell for sure.

Comets are sometimes calleddirty snowballsor icy mudballs. They are a mixture of ices (both water and frozen gases) and dust that for some reason didnt get incorporated into planets when the solar system was formed. This makes them very interesting as samples of the early history of the solar system.

When they are near theSunand active, comets have several distinct parts:

Comets are invisible except when they are near the Sun. Most comets have highly eccentric orbits which take them far beyond the orbit ofPluto; these are seen once and then disappear for millennia. Only the short- and intermediate-period comets (like Comet Halley), stay within the orbit of Pluto for a significant fraction of their orbits.

After 500 or so passes near the Sun off most of a comets ice and gasis lost leaving a rocky object very much like anasteroidin appearance. (Perhaps half of the near-Earth asteroids may be dead comets.) A comet whose orbit takes it near the Sun is also likely to either impact one of the planets or the Sun or to be ejected out of the solar system by a close encounter (esp. with Jupiter).

By far the most famous comet isComet HalleybutSL 9was a big hit for a week in the summer of 1994.

Meteor shower sometimes occur when the Earth passes thru the orbit of a comet. Some occur with great regularity: thePerseidmeteor shower occurs every year between August 9 and 13 when the Earth passes thru the orbit of CometSwift-Tuttle. Comet Halley is the source of theOrionidshower in October.

Many comets are first discovered by amateur astronomers. Since comets are brightest when near the Sun, they are usually visible only at sunrise or sunset. Charts showing the positions in the sky of some comets can be created with aplanetarium program.

Read this article:

Comets | Facts, Information, History & Definition

Ben Birnellbbirnell@uticaod.com

TuesdayFeb11,2020at2:07PM

The Utica Comets are getting another NHL veteran on a conditioning stint.

On Tuesday, the Vancouver Canucks announced rugged winger Micheal Ferland is joining the Comets on a long-term injury conditioning loan.Vancouver General Manager Jim Benning had mentioned Ferland would join Utica last week, but the trip ended up getting pushed back.

For Ferland -- who has been dealing with reported post-concussion symptoms twice this season and has been out since Dec. 10 -- the loan means he can play three games or spend up to six days with the Comets under rules.

The Comets schedule aligns well with that timeline as the team plays visiting Laval on Wednesday before playing Friday at Syracuse and Sunday afternoon at Rochester.

Ferland -- who will wear No. 79 with the Comets, according to the team's website -- did not practice with the team on Tuesday.

Defenseman Oscar Fantenberg and Antoine Roussel each had brief conditioning stints with the Comets earlier this season.

Ferland, who has played 355 NHL games, signed a four-year $14 million free-agent deal on July 10 with the Canucks to help provide a physical element as well as playmaking abilities to the lineup. He's also played with Calgary and Carolina.

In 14 games this seasaon with the Canucks, Ferland has a goal and four assists.

Ferland's games with the Comets won't be the first time he's played in Utica. As a member of teams then located in Abbotsford and Adirondack, Ferland played a total of six AHL games in Utica. The last one in Utica was while with Adirondack on Jan. 10, 2015. In total, he's played 64 AHL games with 71 penalty minutes.

See the rest here:

Comets get Ferland on conditioning loan - Utica Observer Dispatch

RUSSELL When the teams met in early December, West Carter and Russell took turns piling up points in the opening round of the Eastern Kentucky Conference tournament.

West Carter won an 85-81 shootout in overtime.

Tuesdays rematch looked nothing like that. Both defenses challenged every drive through the lane in a physical contest.

Russell struggled to get a basket early, but went on to feed off its own stops for a 61-47 victory in Marvin Meredith Gym.

Junior guard Charlie Jachimczuk called it one of the Red Devils top defensive performances.

Our coach (Tom Barrick) has been stressing defense all year, said Jachimczuk, who accounted for three of Russells eight steals. Its what we focus on the most. Tonight Ithink it was really good. Everybody did their part.

West Carter without guard catalyst Tyson Webb for the first time this season due to a concussion had a hard time getting open looks on the perimeter and met strong resistance around the basket. It resulted in 36-percent shooting and one of the Comets lowest scoring outputs of the season.

They are a team that likes to drive a lot, Jachimczuk said. Tyson Webb was out. (Braden) Leadingham is a pure driver. We tried to focus on closing off the lanes.

West Carter coach Jeremy Webb chalked it up as a tough night all around.

Its been what, eight days since we last had a game, he said. We couldnt practice for a while due to illness. We were down Tyson and just have some things to play through. Its just a part of what happens in the regular season.

Webb followed up by passing out kudos to the Red Devils.

Youve got to give Russell credit for the defense they played, Webb said. Theyre long and pretty athletic. Their length and overall defense gave us some difficulties.

West Carter (13-9) led 7-2 while Russell started 1-for-11 from the field. Then Tristan Millers 3-pointer triggered a 15-3 run in which the Red Devils scored three times off steals or Comets ballhandling miscues.

Russell closed the half with a similar flurry to take a 26-17 halftime lead. Miller opened the third quarter by coming off a screen to nail a 3-pointer. Teammate Brady Bell connected from long range following a West Carter turnover as the margin jumped to 15.

The Red Devils maintained at least a nine-point advantage the rest of the way. They made 23 of 28 second-half free throws, including 13 in a row during a stretch of the fourth quarter.

In all, Russell scored 26 points off West Carters 16 turnovers.

A lot of our offense goes through Tyson and Braden, said the Comets coach. Were having to learn without him. Were trying to replace 15 points and probably our best defender.

Leadingham finished with 16 points and Trevor Callahan added 11 for West Carter.

Russells Miller scored a game-high 22 hitting 6 of 8 floor shots and all eight of his free throw attempts. Jachimczuk joined him in double figures with 10 points.

Though the Red Devils 9-13 record isnt what their players and coaches wanted to this point, Jachimczuk likes the teams chances for making a postseason run.

I think we could go a pretty good ways in the tournament, he said. This (63rd) district is wide open with all four teams.

(606) 326-2671 |

rstanley@dailyindependent.com

W. CARTER FG FT REB TP

Jordan 1-3 2-2 1 4

B. Leadingham 6-16 3-4 6 16

Callahan 4-9 0-0 3 11

Dean 4-7 0-1 7 8

Tackett 0-4 0-0 3 0

Wilburn 1-4 0-0 1 2

Bond 2-6 1-2 0 6

Nichols 0-0 0-0 0 0

G. Leadingham 0-0 0-0 0 0

Team 5

TOTALS 18-49 6-9 26 47

FG Pct.: 36.7. FT Pct.: 66.7. 3-point FGs: 5-21 (Callahan 3-6, B. Leadingham 1-5, Bond 1-4, Jordan 0-1, Tackett 0-4, Dean 0-1). PF: 23. Fouled out: None. Turnovers: 16.

RUSSELL FG FT REB TP

Jachimczuk 2-7 6-10 3 10

Bell 1-9 6-6 2 9

Cantrell 1-3 4-4 7 6

Bechtel 1-4 0-0 2 2

Miller 6-8 8-8 3 22

Downs 2-3 2-2 5 6

Goodman 2-2 2-3 3 6

Quinn 0-0 0-0 0 0

Team 4

TOTALS 15-36 28-33 29 61

FG Pct.: 41.7. FT Pct.: 84.8. 3-point FGs: 3-8 (Miller 2-3, Bell 1-3, Jachimczuk, Downs 0-1). PF: 15. Fouled out: None. Turnovers: 13.

W. CARTER 10 7 14 16 47

RUSSELL 11 15 14 21 61

Officials: Jordan Barker, Larry Whelan, Tyler Maynard.

Original post:

Devils slam on brakes to top Comets | Sports - The Independent

Motored by a sweep in diving and a trio of top-three finishes in the pool, the Solon girls captured the Division I sectional swim title on Saturday at the Spire Institute in Geneva.

Solon senior Tara Fitzgerald won the 1-meter springboard competition with an 11-dive score of 450.2 points to lead a one-two-three-four showing by the Lady Comets that also included freshman Alex Ludgate, 435.8 points, junior Abby Wilkov, 430.25 points, and freshman Bethany Mercer, 416.15 points.

That domination spotted the Solon girls a 56-point lead on defending champion Chardon, which was enough cushion to win their first sectional swim banner since 2016.

Behind top swim performances from freshman Grace Perlberg and sophomore Bridget Ferris, the Lady Comets scored 361 points to dethrone Chardon, 338 points, while Shaker Heights took third with 277 points and Mentor was fourth with 270 points in the 14-team field.

Perlberg finished third in the 200-yard freestyle in 2:00.46, while Ferris finished 10th in 2:05.66 and freshman teammate Ava Shaker was 12th in 2:07.08 to advance to district competition in that event.

Perlberg also took third in the 500 freestyle in 5:25.93, while Shaker was seventh in 5:38.23 and senior teammate Moraine Jackson was 11th in 5:51.44 to advance to districts.

Although Solon had a 56-point lead entering the swimming portion of the meet, the Chardon girls made up that deficit and actually owned a five-point lead on the Lady Comets entering the second-to-last event the 100 breaststroke.

But Solon put forth a three-four-five finish from Ferris, 1:14.20, junior Alexis DiMatteo, 1:15.13, and freshman Lilly Olpin, 1:15.29, to outscore the Lady Hilltoppers by 40 points in that event and create enough separation heading into the 400 freestyle relay.

The Chardon girls won the 400 freestyle relay in 3:41.37, while Solons quartet of Perlberg, 56.18 seconds, DiMatteo, 57.83, freshman Hannah Jones, 59.64, and Shaker, 58.41, clocked a 3:52.06 to finish fifth.

Individually, Jones took fifth in the 100 butterfly in 1:03.15, while sophomore teammate Irene Chang took ninth in 1:05.02 to qualify for districts.

In the 200 individual medley, Solon posted a five-six-seven finish from freshman Niya Fried, 2:23.48, Jones, 2:24.15, and Chang, 2:24.96.

Fried also punched her ticket to districts in the 100 backstroke by finishing ninth in 1:06.54.

And the Lady Comets 200 medley relay of backstroker Perlberg, 29.25 seconds, breaststroker Ferris, 33.37, butterflier Jones, 28.20, and freestyler DiMatteo, 26.39, clocked a 1:57.21 to finish third and advance.

See more here:

Lady Comet torpedoes capture first sectional title in four years - chagrinvalleytoday.com

The Utica Comets have recently had mixed results on special teams.

That was again true for the Comets on Saturday against an efficient Cleveland Monsters power play.

The Monsters scored back-to-back goals on the man-advantage over about a two-minute span of game time and added another shorthanded goal to hand the Comets a 3-2 setback in a matinee to close a two-game set between the North Division opponents.

It was the third time in the last six games that the Comets have allowed two power-play goals. The Comets are 17-of-24 (70%) on the penalty kill over the six-game span. The team has dropped to 18th in the AHL on the penalty kill.

Cleveland (21-21-2-2, 46 points) finished 2-for-2 on the power play to help them win for the third time in four games. The Monsters sit near the bottom of the North Division.

The result spelled the fifth setback in the last six games for the Comets (26-18-2-2, 56 points), who are battling for position near the top of the North. The Comets whose 48 games played are most among North teams are 5-6-0-0 in their last 11 contests.

Utica got its own power-play goal from rookie forward David Pope to finish 1-for-5 on the advantage. Lukas Jasek also had a goal for the Comets, who lacked a physical aspect with the same lineup as Fridays shutout win as they remained without forwards Reid Boucher and Jonah Gadjovich among injured players. Justin Bailey and Zack MacEwen are on recall.

Zane McIntyre who had a couple quality saves on high-danger chances to keep the game close finished with 24 saves. Hes 11-10- 2 with a 3.16 goals-against average this season.

Special teams were a factor from the beginning for the Comets and Monsters.

The Comets opened the scoring 3:30 into the game with help from their sixth-ranked power-play. Utilizing strong puck movement by the teams second unit, Pope scored on a backdoor play following a quick pass from Carter Camper. Olli Juolevi also had a good setup to help start the tic-tac-toe play.

Clevelands penalty kill answered 3:12 later against the Comets aggressive power play. Calvin Thurkauf tied it at 1 when he snuck a shot from the right circle around Brogan Rafferty and over McIntyres glove.

It was the 12th shorthanded goal allowed by the Comets this season, which is most in the AHL.

With the Comets on the kill Francis Perron was off for hooking late in the period the Monsters Stefan Matteau made it 2-1 when his one-time blast from the right circle eluded McIntyre over his shoulder with 1:14 left.

Cleveland started the middle frame on the power play following a late Jasek penalty and extended the lead to 3-1 when Trey Fix-Wolansky buried a backdoor feed from Mark Dano just 1:10 into the period.

Utica pulled within 3-2 late in the second when Jasek put in a rebound from the slot for his 13th of the season. The Comets again showed good puck movement on the play with Nikolay Goldobin sending a pass to Jalen Chatfield, who had his one-timer from the high slot denied by Brad Thiessen.

It was Goldobins career-best 27th assist this season and his 100th career assist in the AHL.

The Comets made a good push in the third period, including pulling McIntyre late for an extra attacker. However, the Comets had a power-play late in the game halted after the officials called Kole Lind for tripping with 51 seconds to limit the Comets.

Ferland to join Comets

Canucks General Manager Jim Benning told Vancouver media that forward Micheal Ferland will join the Comets on a conditioning loan this week.

The rugged Ferland (upper body) has been on injured reserve since early December. According to rules, that would mean Ferlands stint would last six days. The loan could be extended, if needed.

Monsters 3, Comets 2

Utica 1 1 0 - 2

Cleveland 2 1 0 - 3

1st Period-1, Utica, Pope 1 (Camper, Juolevi), 3:30 (PP). 2, Cleveland, Thurkauf 6 (Bittner, Karlsson), 6:48 (SH). 3, Cleveland, Matteau 11 (Clendening, Stenlund), 18:46 (PP). Penalties-Fix-Wolansky Cle (hooking), 1:48; Vigneault Cle (slashing), 5:40; Perron Uti (hooking), 18:02; Jasek Uti (hooking), 19:18.

2nd Period-4, Cleveland, Fix-Wolansky 6 (Dano, Matteau), 1:10 (PP). 5, Utica, Jasek 13 (Chatfield, Goldobin), 16:04. Penalties-Somerby Cle (holding), 2:37; Clendening Cle (slashing), 19:41.

3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Clendening Cle (delay of game), 18:37; Lind Uti (tripping), 19:09.

Shots on Goal-Utica 8-9-11-28. Cleveland 13-6-8-27.

Power Play Opportunities-Utica 1 / 5; Cleveland 2 / 2.

Goalies-Utica, McIntyre 11-10-2 (27 shots-24 saves). Cleveland, Thiessen 2-1-0 (28 shots-26 saves).

A-8,752

Referees-Beau Halkidis (48), Jake Jackson (76).

Linesmen-Tyson Baker (88), Jonathan Deschamps (84).

Read the original post:

Monsters special teams key in win over Comets - Utica Observer Dispatch

A pair of Harvard astrophysicists have proposed a wild theory of how life might have spread through the universe.

Imagine this:

Millions or billions of years ago, back when the solar system was more crowded, a giant comet grazed the outer reaches of our atmosphere. It was moving fast, several tens of miles above the Earth's surface too high to burn up as a fireball, but low enough that the atmosphere slowed it down a little bit. Extremely hardy microbes were floating up there in its path, and some of those bugs survived the collision with the ball of ice. These microbes ended up embedded deep within the comet's porous surface, protected from the radiation of deep space as the comet rocketed away from Earth and eventually out of the solar system entirely. Tens of thousands, maybe millions, of years passed before the comet ended up in another solar system with habitable planets. Eventually, the object crashed into one of those planets, deposited the microbes a few of them still living and set up a new outpost for earthly life in the universe.

Related: 5 Reasons to Care About Asteroids

You could call it "interstellar panspermia," the seeding of distant star systems with exported life.

We have no idea whether this ever actually happened .and there's a mountain of reasons to be skeptical. But in a new paper, Amir Siraj and Avi Loeb, both astrophysicists at Harvard University, argue that at least the first part of this story the depositing of the microbes into a comet that gets ejected from the solar system should have happened between one and a few dozen times in Earth's history. Siraj told Live Science that although a lot more work needs to be done to back up the finding, it should be taken seriously and that the paper may have been, if anything, too conservative in its estimate of the number of life-exporting events.

While the study's concept may seem far-fetched, humanity is constantly confronted with seeming impossibilities, like Earth going around the sun, or quantum physics, or bacteria hitching a ride into the galaxy aboard a comet that turn out to be true, Siraj said

And there's been reason to suspect that it might be possible. A series of experiments using small rockets in the 1970s found colonies of bacteria in the upper atmosphere. Comets really do enter and leave our solar system from time to time, and Siraj and Loeb's calculations show that it's plausible, maybe even likely, this has happened to large comets that graze Earth. Comets are porous, and might actually shield microbes from deadly radiation some microbes can survive a remarkably long time in space.

That alone is reason for scientists to take the idea seriously, Siraj said, and for researchers from fields like biology to jump in and figure out some of the details.

"It's a brand new field of science," he told Live Science

However, Stephen Kane, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Riverside, told Live Science that he was deeply skeptical of the suggestion that microbes from Earth might have actually turned up alive on alien planets through some version of this process.

The first problem would occur when the comet slammed into the atmosphere, he said. Siraj and Loeb point out that some bacteria can survive extraordinary accelerations. But the precise mechanism by which the microbes would adhere to the comet is unclear, Kane said, since the aerodynamic forces around the comet might make it impossible for any microbes to reach the surface and work their way deep enough below the surface to be protected from radiation.

It's also not clear, he said, whether any microbes would really have been up high in our atmosphere in the first place Those rocket experiments from the 1970s are old and questionable, he said, and we still don't have a good picture of what the biology of the upper atmosphere really looks like today let alone hundreds of millions of years ago, when comet encounters were much more common.

The biggest question, though, Kane said, is what would happen to the microbes after they landed aboard the comet. It's plausible, he said, that some bacteria might survive decades in space long enough to reach, say, Mars. But there's little direct evidence that any bacteria might survive the thousands or millions of years necessary to travel to another habitable star system. And that's really the key idea of this paper: Researchers have long suggested that debris from major collisions might blast life around between our solar system's planets and moons. But exporting life to an alien star system likely requires a more specialized scenario.

Still, Kane said, the calculations in this study of how precisely a comet might skim through the atmosphere were new to him, and "very interesting."

Siraj didn't strongly challenge any of Kane's concerns, but reframed them one by one as opportunities for further study. He wants to know, he said, precisely what the biology of the upper atmosphere looks like, and how comets might react to it. There's reason to think that at least some bacteria might survive super-long trips through deep space, he said, based on how robust they are under extreme conditions on Earth and in orbit. But for now, it's time for scientists across fields to jump in and start filling in the gaps, Saraj said.

Originally published on Live Science.

Excerpt from:

Physicists: Ancient life might have escaped Earth and journeyed to alien stars - Livescience.com

My very first comet observation. This is the sketch I made of Comet Tago-Sato-Kosaka as it appeared through my 11-cm reflector on the evening of February 2, 1970.Comet Tago-Sato-Kosaka 1969gsPerihelion: 1969 December 21.27, q = 0.473 AU

Everyone fondly remembers their first. When it comes to comets, my first came exactly 50 years ago on Monday evening, February 2, 1970, when I was 11 years old and in the 6th Grade, and involved a 5th-magnitude fuzzball located close to the 2nd-magnitude star Hamal in the constellation Aries. My best friend, Mark Bakke who was every bit as much into astronomy as I was came over and brought his 60-mm refractor, and by using information within the magazine Sky & Telescope and a pair of 735 binoculars I easily located the comet. I could faintly see it with my unaided eye, and through the 11-cm reflector I had recently acquired it appeared as a bright, diffuse coma with a distinct central condensation. In addition to Mark, I successfully convinced the various members of my family, which included my father, my mother, my paternal grandmother, and my older brother Barry (then 16 years old) to come out and look at it, although to be honest I think I they were a bit underwhelmed. Mark and I, on the other hand, were about as excited as one can be, and we shared our observation with our teacher and classmates at school the following day.

The comet in question had been discovered on October 10, 1969, by a Japanese amateur astronomer, Akihiko Tago. He waited two nights to confirm it, and when he did so it was independently picked up by two more (quite young) Japanese amateur astronomers, Yasuo Sato (age 19) and Kozo Kosaka (age 17). At the time of its discovery Comet Tago-Sato-Kosaka was about 10th magnitude and visible in the western sky after dusk; it traveled southward and brightened, becoming inaccessible from the northern hemisphere in early November and disappearing into twilight from the southern hemisphere in early December, by which time it was about 6th magnitude.

The comet became observable from the southern hemisphere again during the latter part of December, and was reported as being as bright as magnitude 2 to 3, and with a distinct tail. In early January 1970 it started heading back north, and for a while its brightness held fairly steady as it was still approaching Earth (closest approach being 0.38 AU on January 20). It was still around 4th magnitude when it became accessible again from the northern hemisphere in mid-January.

Comet Tago-Sato-Kosaka became the first comet ever to be observed from space, when beginning on January 14 and continuing for the next two weeks a team of astronomers led by Arthur Code at the University of Wisconsin observed it with the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 (OAO-2) spacecraft that had been launched in late 1968. OAO-2s ultraviolet detectors recorded a large cloud of hydrogen almost three degrees across 1 times the diameter of the sun in physical terms. The existence of such a cloud was not unexpected, in fact it had been predicted by the German astronomer Ludwig Biermann in 1964. These Lyman-alpha clouds have now been detected surrounding many other comets, and indeed they are now known to accompany most comets visiting the inner solar system. These and other spacecraft observations of comets are discussed in this weeks Special Topics presentation.

As I indicated, the comet had faded to 5th magnitude by early February. I followed it every night for the next week, and on the evening of February 6 it seemed surprisingly bright, and was easily detectable with the unaided eye. I would later learn that the comet had undergone a brief outburst at that time, and there is some evidence that it might have undergone a small fragmenting event then. On the next two nights the comet had faded back to its normal brightness, and after being clouded out on the evening of the 9th I didnt look for it again. According to other observers, it faded steadily, to around 11th magnitude in early April, and the final photographs were obtained in early May.

50 years later, it occurs to me that, of the five people who shared that initial comet observation with me, only one is still alive. My grandmother passed away in 1973, my father in 2002, and my mother in 2013; Mark, meanwhile, was tragically killed in a gunshot accident in 1984 at the age of 27. My brother Barry is still going strong at age 66 and I hope he continues doing so.

Orbital calculations indicate that Comet Tago-Sato-Kosaka is traveling in a very elongated orbit that will bring it back in about 110,000 years. Perhaps any beginning comet observers from whoever, or whatever, will be living on Earth at that time will once again be able to view it.

Ice and Stone 2020 Week 6 consists of three other articles:This Week in History: February 2-8Special Topic: Comet observations from spaceFun & Games: Word Search #1

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All of the Ice and Stone 2020 educational materials for Week 6 are available in a PDF format.CLICK HEREto download the content from any of the released weeks.

Original post:

Comet of the Week: Tago-Sato-Kosaka 1969g - RocketSTEM

Alex Bevan once sang You wanna make a hit record? Ill tell you what to do. You go to Cleveland. You can add to this statement by saying if you want to take in a hockey game, go to Cleveland. The 13,198 fans in attendance at tonights game would likely agree with this statement.

After five days off, the Cleveland Monsters were back in black (uniforms) to take on the Utica Comets. Its the first game back from five days off. Youre not sure what youre going to get, Head Coach Mike Eaves said of the extended break.

Both teams tried their hardest to hit Veini Vehvilainen and Michael DiPietro with their best shot. They kept firing away at the net. At one point, DiPietro launched his body across the crease to stop a laser beam from Kole Sherwood. The shot slammed right into DiPietros mask before bouncing behind the net.

After the five minute mark, things started to heat up between the two teams. Dylan Blujus came barreling towards Trey Fix-Wolansky with every intent to hit him and steal the puck. Fix-Wolansky had other plans on his mind. As Blujus neared his target, Fix-Wolansky quickly turned and laid a hit of his own.

The Comets responded to this hit by scoring a goal 5:08 into the game. Vehvilainen grabbed an errant puck from behind the net and flung it towards Gabriel Carlsson who was posted along the boards. Carter Bancks forced Carlsson to pass the puck behind the net to Adam Clendening. Within moments of receiving the puck, Clendening had his pocket picked by Tanner Sorenson who took off with the puck. From behind the net, Sorenson tossed the puck off to Bancks who tapped the puck into the net for the goal.

Not even a minute later, Derek Barach was collared for tripping putting the Monsters on their first penalty kill of the night. The Monsters struggled to get the puck into the neutral zone during the pk. However, Vehvilainen made a few good plays to prevent goals from happening.

With 7:13 left in the first period, Anton Karlsson dropped to the ground in an attempt to stop Nikolay Goldobins shot from entering the net. The puck flew past Karlssons ear like a summer breeze before it banged off the post into the net to give the Comets the 2-0 lead.

The second period started out with a few penalties from each team. Clendening accidentally kneed one of the Comets while trying to keep them from leaving the neutral zone with the puck. Brett Gallant noticed the Comets werent too pleased with the hit and immediately rushed to Clendenings side in case someones manners slipped . Jalen Chatfield started to come for Clendening in aid of his teammate. Gallant saw him lying low in the weeds ready to ambush Clendening and was all over him with the fervor of a barracuda. After the officials separated everyone, Chatfield and Gallant received a five minute major for roughing. While Clendening received two minutes for kneeing. The Monsters were able to successfully kill the penalty thanks to players like A. Karlsson who sped down the ice faster than a Maserati that goes 185 to chase down Comets who were on a breakaway with the puck.

With 11:13 left in the second period, the Monsters had a two-man advantage for two minutes. They were unable to do anything with the 5-on-3 due to the fact the Comets created a triangle formation in the slot. This formation prevented the Monsters from being able to fire off any decent passes or shots on net.

Early in the third period, Sam Vigneault turned on the burners and fired off a shot at DiPietro. The shot was quickly stopped but Paul Bittner pushed the rebound into the net for the goal. Or so everyone thought. The official quickly waived it off as a no goal. They said it was goalie interference. That was the length of it. Its not reviewable in our league, explained Coach Eaves, We were caught shorthanded on that one. Its the referees discretion. Thats what we were told.

To say the fans were not pleased with the no-goal call would be an understatement. Hate is a strong word but the fans really, really, really didnt like the refs for that call. Boos rained down from every corner of Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Then, the ref you suck chants could be heard out of the mouth of both the young and old. As the game continued, the boos for the officials continued. Typically when there is an official timeout fans yell What official?. Tonight, the word official was met with boos upon boos.

The Monsters were never able to get their momentum back. In the waning minutes of the game, the Monsters went on the two-man disadvantage where the Comets delivered the final blow in the form of a power play goal.

Despite the loss, the Monsters fans still have the teams back. The Monsters have their ups and downs. It doesnt matter because this is their team and theyll be right back here at 1pm on Saturday to cheer the Monsters to a redemption victory.

1st - Michael DiPietro (Utica Comets) - 27 saves, 27 shots faced, 60:00 TOI2nd - Carter Bancks (Utica Comets) - 1g, 0a3rd - Nikolay Goldobin (Utica Comets) - 2g, 0a

Stefan Matteau - Kevin Stenlund - Trey Fix-WolanskyMarko Dano - Ryan MacInnis - Kole SherwoodCalvin Thurkauf - Sam Vigneault - Paul BittnerBrett Gallant - Derek Barach - Maxime Fortier

Gabriel Carlsson - Adam ClendeningDillon Simpson - Andrew PeekeAnton Karlsson - Doyle Somerby

See the article here:

Utica Comets rocked Cleveland Monsters with a 3-0 shutout - The Cannon

Chris Singleton Staff Writer @courierchris

FridayJan31,2020at3:13PM

Central Lafourche boys basketball player Ashtrein Duncan and South Lafourche girls basketball player Ava Pitre were named the winners of the Barker Honda Athletes of the Week contest presented by The Courier and Daily Comet today.

Both athletes won a fan vote that took place from Jan. 25-30 at houmatoday.com and dailycomet.com.

Duncan won the male honor after he led the Trojans with 21 points during a 62-56 win over Destrehan on Jan. 24. He had 18 points during a 66-53 win over East St. John on Jan. 21.

South Lafourche basketball player Eric Thibodaux was second in the male contest voting, and Thibodaux basketball player Darwin Davis was third.

Pitre won the female honor after she scored 23 points in a 61-56 win over Vandebilt on Jan. 21.

Central Lafourche soccer player McKenzie Champagne was second in the female contest voting, and Vandebilt Catholic soccer player Sydne Marcel was third.

Every week, local fans will get to visit The Courier and Daily Comets websites at houmatoday.com and dailycomet.com and cast their vote in the player of the week poll. Area athletes from all 13 local high schools in The Courier/Daily Comets coverage area are eligible for the player of the week honors.

The players will be nominated based on their athletic achievements in every sport each week throughout the high school sports calendar year, and the winners will receive a framed certificate and have their picture printed in the paper.

Visit our websites at noon Saturday to see the new list of player of the week candidates.

Read more:

Duncan, Pitre named Barker Honda Athletes of the Week - Daily Comet

A new genesis of life throughout the cosmos is now proposed, and it is just mind-boggling. It postulates that life in other parts of the cosmos was caused by a near collision of a proto-earth, with a comet. This giant comet carried away remnants of microbes that hitched and seeded part of the cosmos.

This process can be called "interstellar panspermia", to seed the stars with Terran lifeforms.

It seems that life did persist on the asteroid surface as the comet flew through space, these space bugs evolving into more robust life forms. Waiting for the chance to be released in a suitable world, similar to proto-earth. This galactic Noah's ark must have carried quite a variety of lifeforms, until entering its last journey and depositing its live cargo. These creatures might be out there, earth-born but different.

A study that proposes, one of the most eccentric ideas regarding life in the universe, is by Amir Siraj and Avi Loeb, both astrophysicists at Harvard University. Digressing on the major ideas that their paper suggests is very dramatic and chaotic compared to other ideas. In contrast to the idea that earth cannot have seeded life, because collisions with comets are sparse or were not as frequent.

When and what specific epochs in the earth need to be cleared up, and to prove this theory. The earth is old and proving scrapes with comets is a tall order. The proof has been known to show up in unexpected places too.

Proving the comet hitching microbes is not far from other concepts thought to be false. Notions are always challenged, and it is up to the scientist to provide proof for his theory. A sun-centered solar system was once, very "earth-centric", quantum physic was not valid according to Newtonian models, or bacterium on a wild stellar-joyride that crashes and seeds a compatible world. Most are accepted except the microbes on a stellar joyride, it can be proven according to prior human history.

All these ideas have a basis and not all pure guesswork, when small rockets in the 70s encountered bacteria in the higher atmosphere, in colonies. If comets that invade the orbits of planets, then impacts are possible but not impossible to happen. Comets are porous and might shelter microbes from radiation and ill effects of living in outer space, before crashing.

It might not be the most acceptable explanation, but the survival of bacteria in xeno-worlds is a worthy field of study for xeno-biologists. This portent to be another field of application for scientists to investigate.

Not all scientists agree, and Stephen Kane from the University of California was not convinced that earth-born life was ever exported to the stars. It would be stacked against phenomenal odds to survive as well.

Siraj and Loeb's propositions have to be proven on several points, which leads to everything stacked against it as acceptable truth.

a. When the comet collided with the atmosphere, how did the bacteria stay on despite the incredible velocity?

b. Is the way bacteria attach to comets explainable?

c. How were bacteria able to reach under the surface?

d. Is it even possible to survive the radioactivity of the comet?

e. These rockets experiments are sitting on the loose ground not very plausible.

There is no sure outcome for the problem, and if a giant comet did take along microbes, these then seeded somewhere out there. We will never know, but it might just happen.

Originally posted here:

Giant Comet Struck the Earth Seeding Microbes That Started Earth-Based Life - Science Times