Future
Dynamically, the Kreutz Sungrazers might continue to be recognised as a distinct family for many thousands of years yet. Eventually their orbits will be dispersed by gravitational perturbations, although depending on the rate of fragmentation of the constituent parts, the group might be completely destroyed before it is gravitationally dispersed. The continuing discovery of large numbers of the smaller members of the family by SOHO will undoubtedly lead to a greater understanding of how comets break up to form families.
It is not possible to estimate the chances of another very bright Kreutz comet arriving in the near future, but given that at least 10 have reached naked eye visibility over the last 200 years, another great comet from the Kreutz family seems almost certain to arrive at some point. Comet White–Ortiz–Bolelli in 1970 reached an apparent magnitude of 1. In December 2011, Kreutz sungrazer C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) survived its perihelion passage and had an apparent magnitude of −3.
Read more about this topic: Kreutz Sungrazers
Famous quotes containing the word future:
“There are many of us who cannot but feel dismal about the future of various cultures. Often it is hard not to agree that we are becoming culinary nitwits, dependent upon fast foods and mass kitchens and megavitamins for our basically rotten nourishment.”
—M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)
“Bobby read his future in women; his girls were omens, changes in the weather, and he’d sit all night in the Gentleman Loser waiting for the season to lay a new face down in front of him like a card.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)
“Our system of government, in spite of Vietnam, Cambodia, CIA, Watergate, is still the best system of government on earth. And the greatest resource of all are the 215 million Americans who still have within us the strength, the character, the intelligence, the experience, the patriotism, the idealism, the compassion, the sense of brotherhood on which we can rely in the future to restore the greatness to our country.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)