Earth to have close brush with comet

Cornell would be a good one to ask. They built the big scope down in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. You may be familiar with it if you've seen the movie, Contact.

I sent an email to Cornell. Thanks for that link. It says they can take up to two weeks to respond

Flyersfan, , you are so good to me. I will be alright. I'm expecting a new baby girl in the family and i will enjoy her and be filled with happiness

Regenmacher- thank you for all the information you provided us with.

Then I guess you'll be learning how to be tolerant of other
people and their thought processes now won't ya'???
You strongly believe in science. That's nice.
Others strongly believe in the metaphysical. That's fine too.
For some - like me - I believe in a balance of the two.
It is possible to believe both exist.
I fully believe what my signature says about religion and science.

www4.tpgi.com.au...

This site has articles and info on tsunami created by asteroid impacts.
I know comet and comet fragments are different than asteroids, but
it still may be of interest to some folks reading this thread.

www.sciencedaily.com...

Space daily article. Rather interesting.
Ya'll might be interested in reading it.

Just a note for those of you reading the numbers and who are not sure what they mean:

The distance between Earth and the comet is TWENTY SIX times the distance of the Earth to the Moon. At that range, thie effect of Earth's gravitational field is almost undetectable and is far overshadowed by the effect of the Sun's gravitational field.

So there's no forces to yank the whole thing toward Earth. The fragments do diverge as the comet splits, but if you look at the picture, they tend to lag behind the main one rather than angling off in other directions.

I'm looking forward to seeing my first comet through my new telescope!

Yup. Calculus to the rescue! Wikipedia has a nice review of the equations:
en.wikipedia.org...

And yes, with 3 days' worth of data and observations, we really CAN tell where it's going to go.


Read up on history. There's been far worse times (the Black Plague years, for instance, when 90% of the people in some areas of Europe died.)

By the way, if you could launch a Hummer (vehicle) and have it end up a few yards from the comet, you would find that the gravitational field of the Hummer (it has one because it has mass) is greater than that of the Earth and the fragments would veer very slightly toward the Hummer.

So when we say that the thing is 26 times the distance from here to the Moon and it's not going to suddenly leap across the sky and smack into us because Nostradamus said so (he's been wrong on a number of things and too impossibly vague on a lot of other things). The universe hasn't shown much ability to favor prophecies and numerology over physics.

AH....point of order. What about 2006 GY2? May 16th. 0.0171 AU. Now look at the various 73P orbits. I have ask NEO about the possible interaction.........no response yet.

I'm wondering when the next close encounter between Earth and these fragments may be after this month. Hopefully someone will alert us to possible meteor showers from a debris cloud whether the Earth passes back through it again in 2007 or in 2012.

It's been mentioned several times in this thread (and the other one too, probably) that the next favorable pass is in 2022.

www.coasttocoastam.com...





FYI-

I wouldn't sweat it... People always say this and that about Nostradamus prophecies. They're nearly all so open to interpretation that it could mean any number of things. Or it could just be made up like the one that floated around the internet that "predicted" the attack.

Well, since Saturn is in Leo every 30 years, that means there's one Mars-Saturn conjunction in Leo every 30 years. We've had comets then, too. So far there's faled to be any notable disaster under those configurations.

How long do you wait on a "prophecy" before you say "busted!"?? These things need expiration dates.

what if the government knew that this comet was going to hit and didnt tell us because they didnt want to start a panic like the movie armageddon???

73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3-BD

Well, this fragment is coming _very_ close, minimum pass distance could be only 0.001 astronomical units; approx. 10 000 miles.

NASA NEO Approaches

Let ze fireworks commence! *takes out sunglasses*

Holy crapoly batman, that is a little too close for comfort.

.004 LD .......humm exactly how close is that really??? Is that one of those, it wont hit the ground just fly through the clouds kind of close?

Is there anywhere to watch it live on the Internet for free?

I've looked but they are charging!

Thanks

Unholy,

Don't misread the charts that you posted a reference to. The minimum miss distance number is the closest that the object could possibly come to the earth. You'll see that the nominal number is 33.7 LD or 8.4 million miles. Over the next few days, you'll see that number get refined more precisely as they get better tracking on the fragment.

I've said it before and I'll say it again....we MIGHT get a meteor shower out of this comet. There may be a few fragments as big as a large automobile that could come near enough to the earth from this. There is little possibility that an object that size would impact the earth. Most likely such a fragment would explode in our upper atmosphere causing a spectacular explosion that we probably wouldn't even hear. If it happened to occur over you, you'd be very impressed with the bright flash of the explosion and you might get a flashburn out of it...something like a sunburn. On the very, very slim chance that an object that size survived to impact the earth, you would only be in danger if you are within a mile of it. The debris from an impact of an object that size could fly a mile or more from the impact site.

So...NASA says that we are in NO danger from this comet and for all intents and purposes they are right. I suppose your odds of being injured from a fragment of this comet are probably about 1 in a trillion. Since there are 6 billion people on the planet, the odds of one person being injured from it are probably about 1 in 200. We all take more serious risks just walking out the front door each day.

The end result is to watch the skies with interest this month, especially later in the month and hope to be one of the lucky ones who gets to see a large meteor or fireball or something like it. For that matter, there is a decent possibility this Saturday before sunrise from comet debris left behind by Comet Halley.

Have fun with this comet, Y'all. The fragments now about 11 million miles from earth and most won't be getting much closer as they pass us. If you have Binoculars and skies that are dark enough, then look straight up and slightly to the northeast at about midnight for fragments C & B....perhaps someone else here will post a good sky chart showing where to look.

Great post, davenman!



Come to Michigan. I've got access to a nifty observatory!

Just look up an astronomy club near you. Type in your city or a near by college and then "astronomy club" into a search engine. There's bound to be something!

I wonder if I am due an apology yet???

Maybe I will wait a few more days before I say... I TOLD YOU SO...

NeoN HaZe.