Those people over at the Godlike Discussion boards don't giv

[tazmandevil3]

I was just over there, checking out what they have been talking about ever since Comet NEAT didn't hit us. They're now talking about the possibility of the government lying and doctoring the photos, and NEAT is actually headed right for us, and also the possibility of earth being pounded by the incoming debris from the comet's tail.

They just don't give up on their doomsday scenarios, do they? How can they enjoy talking about nothing but dying all the time? Maybe I just don't understand.

Well anyway, I do have a question. Wasn't the earth caught up in the tail of a comet before, in recent history? Or am I mistaken?

[irony]

Yeah. We passed through Halley's comet's tail the time before last, I think. Nothing happened particularly.

[chaiyah]

Here's what they're talking about:
Complications

http://www.cyberspaceorbit.com/comcme21.gif
This slideshow of the CME impacting the comet and the apparance of the "eye"

http://w1.605.telia.com/~u60512538/20030219.bmp
This is a photo of the sun through a filter that day, such that you can see two pieces of
the comet. In the next photo--it gets spit out--
http://homepage.eircom.net/~gulufutu...0222_eject.gif

Notice in the european photo above, the piece on the right is the same shape as the smaller piece that got spit out, in the
SOHO photo.

The outstanding question is: "Where is the little piece going?" Nobody knows the answer to that. The main body of the comet has been photographed in Argentina at
http://science.nasa.gov/spaceweather.../Mansilla1.jpg

As of 2/27/03, this much is all we know for fairly certain. Here is a summary of the Comet Neat Story, as seen by NASA observers.

http://www.exopolitics.org/CometNeat.htm

Truly, judgments and generalizations don't do a whole lot to settle any issue. What we need is the facts, plainly before us.

[Hale_Bopp]

Actually, it was the 1910 pass of Comet Halley where we passed through its tail. Yes, there were predictions of doom then also [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

1985-1996 was a pretty poor appearance of Comet Halley. I'll have to make it to my 90's to have a chance at a sequal.

Rob

[tazmandevil3]

Okay, thanks. I think the odds that the small piece of the comet hitting us are pretty small. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[patrioticamerican]

This "PhD" is speculating that Comet Neat V1's passage around..."interaction" with the Sun could be the cause of the recent unusual weather, such as the snow in Israel.

Aside from that being hilariously stupid, I'd be curious to know just what this "expert's" PhD is in. Man, these people need to get a life!

"you can't fool all of the people all of the time, but you CAN fool all of the fools all of the time"

[R.A.F.]

On 2003-02-27 20:40, patrioticamerican wrote:
I'd be curious to know just what this "expert's" PhD is in.

If I understand his convoluted webpage correctly, he has a PhD in government. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[Mainframes]

I may be wrong, but everytime the leonids and other such meteor showers occur each year is this not the debris from various comets that have passed by in the past?

[JackC]

On 2003-02-28 06:39, Mainframes wrote:
I may be wrong, but everytime the leonids and other such meteor showers occur each year is this not the debris from various comets that have passed by in the past?

Yes, you are quite right. In the case of the Leonids, it is Temple-Tuttle.

In fact, this past year, the Leonids were supposed to be particularly spectacular because we (the Earth) went through nearly the centre of not one, but TWO previous cometary tails. This site has the nice little graphic (a little less than halfway down) that shows the path of the earth against the trail areas.

Jack

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: JackC on 2003-02-28 10:20 ]</font>

[patrioticamerican]

Read it, believe it (as much as it hurts the doomsday folks):

COMET NEAT: Last week Comet NEAT swung perilously close
to the Sun--a lovely event recorded by SOHO coronagraphs.
Contrary to some internet rumors, the comet's orbit was not altered
by its apparent encounter with a coronal mass ejection. Comet
NEAT is not on a collision course with Earth.

http://www.spaceweather.com

[The Bad Astronomer]

There will be a space.com article up about this either today or Monday, too. I'll post a link when it does.

[Glom]

I found this today featuring a very obscure astronomer and a mention of some website I've never heard of. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]