SO MUCH FOR DOOMSDAY: Comet Elenin breaking apart...

maybe the whole point of elenin was to try and make doomsday people look like fools..... successful comet is successful!

reply to post by Illustronic

All of that is somewhat fact based, but how does CME's effect orbital trajectories

The reason I surmised that a CME would have an effect is because of the potential for a strong kinetic interaction with the comet. CME's have significantly more mass, energy, and density than the particles that make up the solar wind:

Coronal mass ejections reach velocities between 20km/s to 3200km/s with an average speed of 489km/s, based on SOHO/LASCO measurements between 1996 and 2003. The average mass is 1.6×1012kg.

Link

My thought was that there appeared to be a CME at the same time that Elenin disappeared. DJW001 mentioned in an earlier comment that the impact of the CME itself could account for the proposed disintegration of the comment. Here's a possible scenario:

- The material from a CME, in the form of a plasma, is ejected from the sun's surface. The CME "cloud" has a velocity and direction which can be described as a vector.

- The CME cloud impacts the comet. The kinetic energy imparted to the comet is some function of the density of the cloud at the point of contact, the area of the surface of the comet impacted by the CME, and the average speed of the particles that make up the cloud.

- The density of the comet body defines how the kinetic energy alters the structure of the comet. A loosely packed pile of rubble will disassociate more completely than a solid structure. The disintegration level of a solid structure would be related to the force vector of the CME, body density, body elasticity, and the vectors that describe its orbital trajectory. For instance a head-on collision between a CME and a comet would cause more structural damage to the comet than would a CME impact tangent to the orbit of the comet. However, a tangential impact would do more to disturb the orbital trajectory of the comet as the force vector of the impact alters the angular momentum of the comet.

- Assuming that the impact occurred neither exclusively parallel, nor exclusively perpendicular, to the orbital trajectory, it is likely that both some level of disintegration and orbital trajectory modification occurred.

Presumably there is enough data, available from various sources, to model the effect of a CME/Elenin collision. It would be an interesting assignment for someone with too much spare time on their hands.

Of course, as you said, this assumes that the comet has actually fragmented. Currently there is no solid evidence to indicate that this has happened. In fact, it seems more likely to me that if the CME had any effect at all, it was to simply "blow away" the coma, causing the comet to be more difficult to track from Earth.

Dex

Originally posted by Vandipants
posted on 30-8-2011 @ 11:28 PM this post .
Yet, here it was, somehow having increased its brightness by many hundreds of times!"
www.space.com...

www.space.com...

edit on 31-8-2011 by Vandipants because: (no reason given)

I gotta wonder if it is only bright here on ATS

This article says nothing about the comet becoming brighter...

Within the past week the comet's brightness has declined by 50%, dropping a half magnitude between August 19th and 20th, according to Australian observer Michael Mattiazzo. (The comet's current location in western Virgo makes it virtually unobservable from northern latitudes.) Worse, images show Comet Elenin's bright core becoming elongated and diffuse — the telltale signs that its icy nucleus has either broken in two or disintegrated altogether.

One veteran comet-watcher who's not surprised is John Bortle. Four months ago, based on Elenin's performance to that point, he cautioned, "The comet may be intrinsically a bit too faint to even survive perihelion passage." And his words have proved prescient, as the fading continues (estimates are near 9th magnitude) and there's speculation that this object or its remnants might not be around much longer.

I guess all those pseudoscientific bloggers who predicted planet-altering encounters with a cosmic visitor bright enough to be seen in broad daylight will just have to find something else to worry about.

www.skyandtelescope.com...

reply to post by seeker11


I'm not referring to Elenin becoming brighter...i'm simply asking why is it behaving differently...as in becoming dimmer. The coma of a comet becomes larger and brighter as it nears the sun (perihelion), am i right...and i was pointing out that another comet that broke up in 1995 actually increased in brightness (as 3 peices) at perihelion rather than dimming.
Just a question of information, thats all.

reply to post by Vandipants

Comets are different. Comet Holmes unexpectedly increased in brightness for no apparent reason. Perhaps 73/P was particularly dusty and that dust was released during the breakup. 73/P broke into fragments. We don't seem to see that with Elenin. It's just sort of fading away ("I'm melting. What a world! What a world!")

In any case recent observations seem to show that there may not be much left of Elenin.

Rob McMaught reports that he can see only a smear and no central condensation using the E12 instrument, indicative that the comet is indeed disintegrating

astroblogger.blogspot.com...

reply to post by Illustronic

I was in the understanding that this is the first trip to the inner solar system for this comet. Outgassing must have caused some big debris loosening, the big chunks would continue the sam trajectory as the comet before it broke up. We have no firm data of the alleged breakup. If it broke apart it would become LESS of a threat to earth. If solar heating broke it apart, what do you think earth atmospheric entry would do to it, especially as smaller pieces, when it's projected size as a whole would not create an Extinction Level Event?

I agree that any chunks that came loose from Elenin due to outgassing or other low energy effects would simply continue in the same orbit. In that case there would not be sufficient kinetic energy to significantly affect the separation velocity of the fragments.

Dex

I never came across any actual size and mass information abut Elenin. However, given the generally accepted description that Elenin was a whimpy comet, I would agree that Elenin probably posed no Extinction Level Event threat. It would be interesting to feed the size, mass, velocity, and density information into the Earth Impact Effects Calculator.

Even a comet that didn't meet the ELE requirements could do significant damage. Only a small amount of temporary damage to the atmosphere, or a few well placed strikes on significant pieces of our infrastructure could cause societal collapse.

One thing to think about with respect to the smaller fragments is the fact that a very large quantity of smaller fragments can also have a devastating impact. Even though those smaller fragments vaporize in our atmosphere and never reach the surface, the aggregate effect of a large quantity of atmospheric entry events can be the heating the planet's atmosphere. As we've seen with global climate change, even small changes in our climate system can have catastrophic effects.

reply to post by Phage


And with that, my friends, Comet Elenin is finished. Gone. Forever.

On behalf of everyone here at ATS I'd like to thank Comet Elenin for WASTING SO MANY FREAKING HOURS OF OUR LIVES.

Alright, back to reality in 3.....2.....1...

Threads on 2012, Aliens, 9/11, Fukushima, JFK, Loch Ness Monsters, NWO, Chemtrails, Fake Birth Certificates, The Economy, Bigfoot, World War Three, Chupacabras, Illuminati, Psychics, Bin Laden, Bird/Swine Flu, Ancient Egyptian Technology, Time Wave Zero, Crop Circles, Yellowstone, Ghosts, Oil Spills, and Falling Birds have been neglected!

Back to work, ATS. Back to work! We have yet to come up with the unifying conspiracy theory that ties all of these things together. For shame!!

They shot a missle @ Elenin splitting it in two.
It's now breaking apart. No worries. They shot it into pieces.

Aw.....I'm bummed. My kids have never seen a comet yet and I wanted them to see one!
Is there another coming some time soon? (that can be seen with the naked eye?)

-Or is that just inviting another slew of doomsday projections...?

reply to post by Bluesma

None very promising.
But don't worry about it. Hale-Bopp came out of nowhere and put on a great show. You never know.

So Elenin has become a botty burp (think about it ) with a smear...
Much like the doomsday followers, all full of gas and no substance.

YeY!! I hope it was our Galactic friends in space that shot at Elenin. They did mention that if it was a threat to us they were going to destroy it.

reply to post by Phage


I were waiting for another big show like
Comet Holmes. [url=http://www.spaceweather.com/comets/holmes/13nov07/Sean-Walker1.jpg]
Here in drop box. dl.dropbox.com...


Regards, Rob.

Thank god. Now maybe some of the nutcases on here that are praying for doomsday can crawl back under their rock

Fantasy knows absolutely no limits.

Its been said before on here numerous times, no matter how much scientific proof or evidence gets shoved down the throats of ELE-tards, they will always have some ridiculous story to try and prove all their pathetic theories correct.

And all the Hopi/Mayan/Bible prophecies people decide to affiliate with this failing comet, it's just not feasible, you can try and link me to hundreds of sites saying the latter, but they are peoples opinions on the subject, not actual fact.

How about this for a realistic theory, Man will destroy earth.

Not a comet, not another race of aliens, not a "Brown Dwarf", we are our own worst enemy, with all the Natural events happening in the world making people edgy plus all the riots and countries over throwing leaders - it will only be a matter of time before World War 3 gets underway.

Forget comets in space, forget "E.T" communicating or visiting us, start thinking about a more realistic picture.

Everyone should be more worried about the current state of the world instead of events that we have seen and have had pass heaps of times before, if i remember correctly the last doomsday comet sparked a mass suicide, MAJOR FAIL!.

World War 3 will inevitably happen before a comet strikes us, or "aliens" visit us.

People need to settle down and quit being amateur about these sorts of situations, it causes fear and panic and is more fodder for gullible people to start believing hype about things that will never happen.

I'm out, and i just hope that we don't see another Ele-nin thread.... i might just neck myself

Extinction
Letdown
Event
Naysaying
Is
Next

Originally posted by TheLieWeLive
Eureka! Elenin is Eleven and Nine right? That means there will be 9 to 11 comets coming our way. We will know more on 9/11 at precisely 9:11 pm. Eastern Standard I believe.
9 to 11 countries will come forth and admit that Elenin is in fact Nibiru which is in fact Nemesis which is in fact Planet X. X is also 10 which falls between 9 and 11! It's a mathematical code that after several days of studying I have concluded that 9 and 11 equals 20. That's as far as I've gotten.

I thought I should edit in I'm just kidding, ya know, for the more serious of you.

edit on 29-8-2011 by TheLieWeLive because: jk

lol you ruined it by saying your kidding...if the serious dont get the joke they are the idiots you shouldnt explain anything to them lol.

anyway hopefully this elenin business can be put to bed and we can all focus on 2012...and once that comes and goes hopefully it will convince a few of the nut jobs that doomsday predictions are never worth believing in.

Elenin breaking up? Oh noes, that can only mean - Multi Vector Assault Mode






(video code pinched from another ATS thread by JaxonRoberts)

This in all it's entirety it's what we call, Divine Intervention. We are obviously doing something right as we've actually been given a second chance. My theory is all this activity in the skies have been our visitors monitoring our evolution and decided another catastrophic even for Earth is no longer needed.

OR

It's just a coincidence the thing has broken apart! I has been in orbit for many many years! The thing is probably battered and bruised!

reply to post by DexterRiley


Density fluctuation of the comet will not change it's trajectory, and CME's are electrons and protons and possibly various heavier atoms such as helium and oxygen but the point is these are atomic and subatomic particles and no matter how fast they are traveling they simply can only effect particles with similar mass, like a comet tail and coma. There is insufficient mass to alter the inertia of a body larger than atomic particles. Any thoughts of electromagnetic radiation causing inertial changes is fantasy because electricity has no mass.

Without positive verification of the comet actually breaking apart (which still won't alter its trajectory) hasn't anybody thought that the recent CME has just temporarily stripped the comet's tail and coma that diminished its luminosity? I mean we know a comet nucleus (the actual body) in not a very reflective body. I've read an albedo in the ranges of less than 5% as the highest and near 2% as the lower. If I must I can site specific measurements from the NASA Stardust mission on this very topic, and I'm sure any ESA close comet approaches would also bear out the same kinds of readings if they took such readings.