Obscure Comet Brightens Suddenly..Wed Oct 24, 4:15 PM ET

[IGBT]

Text




Comet Holmes, which was discovered in November 1892 by Edwin Holmes, in London England, was no brighter than magnitude 17 in mid-October?that's about 25,000 times fainter than the faintest star that can normally be seen without any optical aid. In order to view an object this faint, one would need a moderately large telescope.


But the comet's brightness has suddenly rocketed all the way up to 3rd-magnitude, brightening nearly 400,000-times in less than 24-hours! On this astronomers scale, smaller numbers mean brighter objects. From urban locations, a 3rd-magnitude object might be hidden by light pollution, but under rural skies it would be clearly vsiible.

 

[FoBoT]

oh crap
it is going to hit us isn't it

i knew something bad was going to happen


how soon before they can calculate the impact zone?

 

[Nik]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
oh crap
it is going to hit us isn't it

i knew something bad was going to happen


how soon before they can calculate the impact zone?

Comet != asteroid

Comets are made of ice and dust and frozen gas. Comets don't make it to touch down on the planet surface most of the time. If they do, good luck noticing.

Asteroids are rock and metal. Those puppies are the ones that do damage.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: GuideBot

Originally posted by: FoBoT
oh crap
it is going to hit us isn't it

i knew something bad was going to happen


how soon before they can calculate the impact zone?

Comet != asteroid

Comets are made of ice and dust and frozen gas. Comets don't make it to touch down on the planet surface most of the time. If they do, good luck noticing.

Asteroids are rock and metal. Those puppies are the ones that do damage.

WRONG

Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit Jupiter in 1994 and left a scar that was more visiable then the big red spot for months,

with the largest coming on July 18 at 07:34 UTC when fragment G struck Jupiter. This impact created a giant dark spot over 12,000 km across, and was estimated to have released an energy equivalent to 6,000,000 megatons of TNT (750 times the world's nuclear arsenal). Two impacts 12 hours apart on July 19 created impact marks of similar size to that caused by fragment G, and impacts continued until July 22, when fragment W struck the planet.

if a comet hit earth everything on this planet would no longer exist

 

[Hammerhead]

In other news, Comet Esé is following slowly behind

 

[meltdown75]

Comet Holmes eh... bet it's got a really huge... tail.

 

[Fritzo]

Is it just me. or am I the only one that though "Maybe it doesn't have a tail because it's heading straight for us?"

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
it's heading straight for us?"

yes
WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!!!1111111ONEONEONEoneoneone

 

[bigrash]

Originally posted by: Hammerhead
In other news, Comet Esé is following slowly behind

Na, I heard Comet Paco beat the crap out of him

 

[paulxcook]

Originally posted by: Hammerhead
In other news, Comet Esé is following slowly behind

I laughed. I had to think about it for a second, but I laughed.

 

[MrWizzard]

Originally posted by: Anubis

if a comet hit earth everything on this planet would no longer exist

Meh not to worry according to scientist comets could hold ?life things? that could restart the evolution process or something, how do we know this didn?t happen like 40 million years ago and its all part of the cycle or something...

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: MrWizzard

Originally posted by: Anubis

if a comet hit earth everything on this planet would no longer exist

Meh not to worry according to scientist comets could hold ?life things? that could restart the evolution process or something, how do we know this didn?t happen like 40 million years ago and its all part of the cycle or something...

it very well could have happend in the past imm all for that idea, however if one hits we still all die,

 

[spidey07]

That's what I'm thinking...no tail = coming right for us.

<NED> It's coming right for us!!! Shoot!

 

[Nik]

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: GuideBot

Originally posted by: FoBoT
oh crap
it is going to hit us isn't it

i knew something bad was going to happen


how soon before they can calculate the impact zone?

Comet != asteroid

Comets are made of ice and dust and frozen gas. Comets don't make it to touch down on the planet surface most of the time. If they do, good luck noticing.

Asteroids are rock and metal. Those puppies are the ones that do damage.

WRONG

Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit Jupiter in 1994 and left a scar that was more visiable then the big red spot for months,

with the largest coming on July 18 at 07:34 UTC when fragment G struck Jupiter. This impact created a giant dark spot over 12,000 km across, and was estimated to have released an energy equivalent to 6,000,000 megatons of TNT (750 times the world's nuclear arsenal). Two impacts 12 hours apart on July 19 created impact marks of similar size to that caused by fragment G, and impacts continued until July 22, when fragment W struck the planet.

if a comet hit earth everything on this planet would no longer exist

I watched a show on Discovery the other night talking about an asteroid exploding 5 miles above the surface, wiping out 1000's of square miles in just minutes with a scorching pressure and energy wave 1000's of times the magnitude of the Heroshima bomb. They said a comet would never make it to earth's surface

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: GuideBot

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: GuideBot

Originally posted by: FoBoT
oh crap
it is going to hit us isn't it

i knew something bad was going to happen


how soon before they can calculate the impact zone?

Comet != asteroid

Comets are made of ice and dust and frozen gas. Comets don't make it to touch down on the planet surface most of the time. If they do, good luck noticing.

Asteroids are rock and metal. Those puppies are the ones that do damage.

WRONG

Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit Jupiter in 1994 and left a scar that was more visiable then the big red spot for months,

with the largest coming on July 18 at 07:34 UTC when fragment G struck Jupiter. This impact created a giant dark spot over 12,000 km across, and was estimated to have released an energy equivalent to 6,000,000 megatons of TNT (750 times the world's nuclear arsenal). Two impacts 12 hours apart on July 19 created impact marks of similar size to that caused by fragment G, and impacts continued until July 22, when fragment W struck the planet.

if a comet hit earth everything on this planet would no longer exist

I watched a show on Discovery the other night talking about an asteroid exploding 5 miles above the surface, wiping out 1000's of square miles in just minutes with a scorching pressure and energy wave 1000's of times the magnitude of the Heroshima bomb. They said a comet would never make it to earth's surface

comets are generally huge, one would not have to actually make landfall to kill us all, also they arnt all just dust and ice packed together, some contain a larg amnt of solid material

 

[NesuD]

Originally posted by: GuideBot

Originally posted by: FoBoT
oh crap
it is going to hit us isn't it

i knew something bad was going to happen


how soon before they can calculate the impact zone?

Comet != asteroid

Comets are made of ice and dust and frozen gas. Comets don't make it to touch down on the planet surface most of the time. If they do, good luck noticing.

Asteroids are rock and metal. Those puppies are the ones that do damage.

Umm look up the Tunguska event in 1908. That is thought by many to have been a comet that detonated 7-10 Km above the earth. It exploded with an estimated force of 10 to 20 megatons. It flattened approximately 80 thousand trees over 2,150 square miles and was estimated to have measured 5.0 on the richter scale. - wikipedia

 

[Nik]

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: GuideBot

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: GuideBot

Originally posted by: FoBoT
oh crap
it is going to hit us isn't it

i knew something bad was going to happen


how soon before they can calculate the impact zone?

Comet != asteroid

Comets are made of ice and dust and frozen gas. Comets don't make it to touch down on the planet surface most of the time. If they do, good luck noticing.

Asteroids are rock and metal. Those puppies are the ones that do damage.

WRONG

Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit Jupiter in 1994 and left a scar that was more visiable then the big red spot for months,

with the largest coming on July 18 at 07:34 UTC when fragment G struck Jupiter. This impact created a giant dark spot over 12,000 km across, and was estimated to have released an energy equivalent to 6,000,000 megatons of TNT (750 times the world's nuclear arsenal). Two impacts 12 hours apart on July 19 created impact marks of similar size to that caused by fragment G, and impacts continued until July 22, when fragment W struck the planet.

if a comet hit earth everything on this planet would no longer exist

I watched a show on Discovery the other night talking about an asteroid exploding 5 miles above the surface, wiping out 1000's of square miles in just minutes with a scorching pressure and energy wave 1000's of times the magnitude of the Heroshima bomb. They said a comet would never make it to earth's surface

comets are generally huge, one would not have to actually make landfall to kill us all, also they arnt all just dust and ice packed together, some contain a larg amnt of solid material

Dust and ice ARE solid material. According to Discovery channel, they also *might* contain frozen gasses but are almost always ice and dust.

Has Discovery made a mistake?

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: GuideBot

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: GuideBot

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: GuideBot

Originally posted by: FoBoT
oh crap
it is going to hit us isn't it

i knew something bad was going to happen


how soon before they can calculate the impact zone?

Comet != asteroid

Comets are made of ice and dust and frozen gas. Comets don't make it to touch down on the planet surface most of the time. If they do, good luck noticing.

Asteroids are rock and metal. Those puppies are the ones that do damage.

WRONG

Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit Jupiter in 1994 and left a scar that was more visiable then the big red spot for months,

with the largest coming on July 18 at 07:34 UTC when fragment G struck Jupiter. This impact created a giant dark spot over 12,000 km across, and was estimated to have released an energy equivalent to 6,000,000 megatons of TNT (750 times the world's nuclear arsenal). Two impacts 12 hours apart on July 19 created impact marks of similar size to that caused by fragment G, and impacts continued until July 22, when fragment W struck the planet.

if a comet hit earth everything on this planet would no longer exist

I watched a show on Discovery the other night talking about an asteroid exploding 5 miles above the surface, wiping out 1000's of square miles in just minutes with a scorching pressure and energy wave 1000's of times the magnitude of the Heroshima bomb. They said a comet would never make it to earth's surface

comets are generally huge, one would not have to actually make landfall to kill us all, also they arnt all just dust and ice packed together, some contain a larg amnt of solid material

Dust and ice ARE solid material. According to Discovery channel, they also *might* contain frozen gasses but are almost always ice and dust.

Has Discovery made a mistake?

you know i ment large portions of rock, and yes everyone assumes they burn up in the atmosphere but if its of signifigent mass, travleing at 50K MPH which is the average these things move, they come through the atmosphere in a split second a 1mile sized rock in a comet would cause issues

 

[RU482]

I remember some movie when I was a kid...well, two actually.
Night of the Comet
Maximum Overdrive

When you're driving home tonight, make sure to take it easy on your car, if not, it could come back to haunt you

 

[Nik]

Originally posted by: redly1
I remember some movie when I was a kid...well, two actually.
Night of the Comet
Maximum Overdrive

When you're driving home tonight, make sure to take it easy on your car, if not, it could come back to haunt you

Maximum Overdrive was AWESOME.

 

[michaels]

MMM I wonder if this is what I saw Sunday morning(4:30am), it was extremely bright and I have never seen it before.

 

[IronWing]

The comet is in the sky this morning. For comets I've gotten to see, this is the best since Hale-Bopp. You need a pair of binoculars to see it but worth the effort.

 

[IGBT]

Originally posted by: spidey07
That's what I'm thinking...no tail = coming right for us.

<NED> It's coming right for us!!! Shoot!

...:Q nobody sent me an invite to the bunker.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Originally posted by: IGBT

Originally posted by: spidey07
That's what I'm thinking...no tail = coming right for us.

<NED> It's coming right for us!!! Shoot!

...:Q nobody sent me an invite to the bunker.

We need an AT crisis bunker... Maybe Anand should cut a deal with the NORAD folks... or buy an old Tritan missile silo.

http://www.missilebases.com/

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

That's because it's not a comet. It's aliens or necromongers or whatever the fuck it was in that Pitch Black sequel.