Wimpy Comet Elenin Headed for Inner Solar System

Wimpy Comet Elenin Headed for Inner Solar System

www.space.com

Trajectory of comet Elenin.
CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech

View full size image
A comet first discovered just six months ago will be making a visit to the inner solar system soon, but don't expect to be completely dazzled. This comet is a bit of a wimp, NASA says.

Comet Elenin (also known by its astronomical name C/2010 X1), was first detected on Dec. 10, 2010 by Leonid Elenin, an observer in Lyubertsy, Russia, who found the comet while using the remote-controlled ISON-NM observatory near Mayhill, New Mexico.

At the time of its discovery, the comet was about 401 million miles

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.accuweather.com
news.yahoo.com


Mod Edit: Review This Link: Instructions for the Breaking News Forums: Copy The Exact Headline

This obviously isnt really "new" news as we've all known about it for awhile. The reason I've created the thread off of this article specifically is that Nasa, openly labels it as "wimpy".
There's obviously been a lot of suggestive posts in regards to Elenin being the doomsday comet, so is NASA's play of words to label a comet headed near earth as wimpy to play down its effect it will have or is it just a bad choice of words? How many other comets has nasa openingly called "wimpy" or another passive play on words?
What do you think?
Its funny that if Nasa says its wimpy, the MSM has to define just how wimpy by constant repetition in articles and propaganda.


www.space.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I don't think it matters if Elenin is wimpy or not. What matters is what does c/2010 x1 have to do with DNA altering viruses and RH- blood?

abovetopsecret

S&F because a 90lb geek in a fist fight is one thing. A 90lb geek infected with a mutation inducing virus is something else all together. "Wimpy" in appearance maybe.

reply to post by srbouska


That may very well be true. Just out of curiosity, was the mass of this comet mentioned.
I will cycle back and read the article when I have a moment. Cant do right now.
For months though, this comets mass Data was unavailable. Do you have the Data?

Regards,,, S&F

I'll be darned if there really is any reason to worry about this comet. No one seems to be worried (even amateurs), so why would we think they were lying? We can't stop it even if it is huge or going to hit us or anything like that.

reply to post by Mactire


Hoo haa, another Black Plague?

That is Natures way. I guess I'll be somebodies hassle once I begin to decay and smell.

Bring out your dead. Bring out your dead!


Comical Link: www.youtube.com...

reply to post by srbouska

No, independent observations have lowered expectarions for it as well.

So-So Prospects for Comet Elenin

Last December, comet-lovers got a bit of an adrenaline rush when they learned that a new object, Comet Elenin (C/2010 X1), might reach naked-eye brightness a week or so after it reaches perihelion on September 10th.

It's still early in the game, but ireports from visual and photographic observers over the past few weeks have tempered expectations somewhat.

Another consideration is that the visual estimates (magnitude 15.3 and 14.9, respectively) are at odds with CCD observations suggesting something no brighter than magnitude 16. Such differences would make sense if Comet Elenin were somewhat diffuse, but everyone agrees that it's strongly condensed and almost stellar in appearance.
But the comet cognoscenti have already started calling it "intrinsically faint," and it's becoming clear that hopes for a nice eyeball-easy showing have dimmed considerably.

Best guesstimates now suggest that Comet Elenin's total brightness might peak near magnitude 6 in mid-September — a nice binocular object — presuming that it survives its dash through perihelion just 45 million miles (0.48 astronomical unit) from the Sun.

Meanwhile, you have my permission to ignore or refute any of the wacky postings about the supposed danger posed by Comet Elenin. All this nonsense seems to have started back in January, when edge-of-reality blogger Laura Knight Jadczyk made provocative warnings — all based on information from a member of her research team who's "an astronomer at a large observatory". (Yea, right.) It's not even worth giving you a link to her ramblings.

www.skyandtelescope.com...

Two thousand years ago, primitive peoples feared comets and eclipses as harbingers of doom.

Some things never change.

jw

reply to post by srbouska


Sept. 27, 2011. I guess we will see how wimpy. Ask the Japanese.

Nasa isn't buying it. The Japanese have.

reply to post by srbouska


Could Elenin have been the object that ripped the atmosphere away from Mars?

Well, we guess not. It is "wimpy".

Originally posted by Mactire
I don't think it matters if Elenin is wimpy or not. What matters is what does c/2010 x1 have to do with DNA altering viruses and RH- blood?

abovetopsecret

S&F because a 90lb geek in a fist fight is one thing. A 90lb geek infected with a mutation inducing virus is something else all together. "Wimpy" in appearance maybe.

edit on 9-5-2011 by Mactire because: (no reason given)

am i the only one thinking thats where zombies come from no wonder every zombie map in cod has something to do with aliens and Hitler in it

Originally posted by yourmamaknows
reply to post by srbouska

 

Could Elenin have been the object that ripped the atmosphere away from Mars?

Well, we guess not. It is "wimpy".

No object ripped the atmosphere from Mars. Its magnetic field could not protect it from the solar wind, and it was gradually "blown" away.

yes

also, they are bringing up YU55 a lot now

ignore that man behind the curtain

Please stop worrying about Comet Elenin. It is a normal comet, on a normal elliptical orbit around the Sun. If NASA classes it as "wimpy", it simply means that the comet is probably not very large, and also not outgassing to a huge extent. It does NOT mean that NASA is trying to hide anything.

To be honest, I am not really sure why everyone is worried about what NASA thinks of the comet. Contrary to popular opinion, it is not their job to track comets and asteroids. That is done by various organisations, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, and the IAU Minor Planet Centre in Massachusetts.

reply to post by srbouska


Or..the comet is completely harmless. And Nasa is trying to save the doomsday sayers from EPIC EMBARASSMENT, the same embarassment they will see in 2012.