What is plasmatreat’s official stance on comets?

Some plasma physicists have proposed an alternative comet theory.   In their model a comet may actually be a negatively charged body created from the violent collision of large masses during planet formation.  As these charged bodies accelerate towards the sun they interact with solar winds in an extravagant display of plasma discharge.  Water or hydroxyl compounds would be the explained byproduct from the combination of the oxygen present in silicates with the protons being ejected from the sun.

Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) taken from TRAPPIST national telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory on the morning of Nov. 15, 2013. (Liège, Belgium)

Scientific observation of comets have been recorded for more than a century. In the late 20^th century the scientific community reached its first consensus of the comet’s theoretical constitution.  Fred Whipple coined the hypothesis “dirty snowball” presenting the astrological object as an amalgamation of ice, rock, and star dust.  When this body nears the sun a brilliant tail emerges resulting from the sublimation of ice within the comet nucleus.

Yet some would argue that there are a few unexplained attributes of a comet to note.  First is that the coma generally always remains spherical.  This would not necessarily be expected from asymmetric jets of ice emanating from the core but might be sustained by a strong electrical field.  Second is a low constitution of water sampled in missions probing the surface and tail of a comet. One such program “Stardust mission” sent a space craft equipped with an aerogel net through the path of a comet tail.  Upon return the ground based team was surprised to find an assortment of complex high temperature crystalline formations; portions of which were anhydrous structures.  This fundamentally challenges the accepted theory as a low temperature snowball.  There are some that even liken a comet surface to objects on Earth that have become ablated by plasma discharge.  Search for SEM images and decide for yourself.

Comet; plasma or ice?