Huge Comet Headed for Inner Solar System

What the heck?

This must be fine, right? I mean, we don't hear anything about it, right?

From Spaceweather.com

A fresh comet is swinging through the inner solar system, and it is brightening rapidly as it approaches the sun....

The comet's green atmosphere is larger than the planet Jupiter, while the long willowy ion tail stretches more than a million kilometers through space....

...It is brightening as it approaches Earth for a 1.13 AU close encounter on June 15th and 16th.

spaceweather.com...

My understanding from reading other things on the internet (OK, wikipedia) is that "Comet McNaught" is extremely unpredictable but was not expected to cross our paths again after 2007.

en.wikipedia.org...

(edited, different Comet McNaught, apparently McNaught has several comets named after him. Confusing.)

so..... it has an atmosphere bigger than the planet Jupiter, it's unpredictable, and it's headed toward the inner solar system.

Yeah. Anybody have any good info on this? Scientific opinion would be especially appreciated.

[edit on 7-6-2010 by quakewatcher]

[edit on 7-6-2010 by quakewatcher]

That's wicked.

I hope we will be able to see it in the Northern Hemisphere when it's at it's closest.

~Keeper

Could this be nibiru?

reply to post by quakewatcher


Here is a bit of info on it from todays APOD. It says there that it was only discovered last year, though.

APOD

And a bigger photo here:

Comet------======[(O)]


[edit on 7/6/2010 by Chamberf=6]

Wow - I hope we'll be able to see this one... Just not too up close and personal!

Thanks for the heads up...


Oh, and what's Nibiru?




*JK*

peace

reply to post by quakewatcher


Errmmm...."massive" is a bit of a misnomer. IF you understood the make up of comets, and WHY they seem so 'big', as described.

(Hint: It is not 'mass').

Anyway...sheesh! You know, when Halley's Comet first appeared, early 1900s....people were so frightened they commited suicide. Sad, really sad, the ignorance.

OK "massive" is an unfortunate adjective. Didn't mean it literally although I suppose when you are talking physics that could be assumed.

I just remember the one that smacked into Jupiter a few years back.

Edited to say: I changed it to "huge"

[edit on 7-6-2010 by quakewatcher]

It's green now, but will it turn blue when it gets here?
Kachina the blue star cometh. Wanna know something equally weird? When I spellchecked "Cometh" it suggested "Comet"

Blue star hopi prophecy, and red star follows. Nibiru?

Interesting find OP s&f.
2nd

Doesn't look like this one will be prominent naked eye object - shame as there's not been any for a while.

The comet is not "unpredictable" (the Wiki reference is obsolete) and it's not really crossing our path. Being in a highly inclined orbit, it doesn't cross Earth's orbit at all and its closest approach to Earth it will be farther away than the Sun.

The reference on spaceweather is that the comet's brightness is unpredictable, not its orbit. Hope for the best.

Nice find Op!

Luckily though it's not coming anywhere near us, which is good!

ssd.jpl.nasa.gov...

Sorry weedwhacker, the first time Halleys Comet appeared was NOT in the early 1900's. Using Isaac Newton's new Laws of Motion, the astronomer, Edmond Halley, made a prediction in 1705. He stated that a comet which had appeared in 1531, 1607 and 1682 would reappear in 1758. Although he was proven to be correct, Halley did not live to see it. However, the comet was later named in his honor.

This could be as big as Comet Hale-Bopp right? It should make for a nice show...

I wonder if there's something big out there shaking up the ORT cloud? More to follow?

doh!

The comet in the Wiki article is C/2006 P1 McNaught. The comet we will be seeing (hopefully) is C/2009 R1. It's a completely different comet. No wonder the orbit is different.

Originally posted by weedwhacker
reply to post by quakewatcher

 

Anyway...sheesh! You know, when Halley's Comet first appeared, early 1900s....people were so frightened they commited suicide. Sad, really sad, the ignorance.

People weren't frightened of the comet as they had known of it for a good many years. You make it sound like people saw it and freaked out, but that's not the case.

After reviewing a spectrograph of the comet's tail, an astronomer made an announcement that as the earth passed through the comets tail, deadly gas could penetrate the earth's atmosphere and poison the planet. This lead to a good year in Gas Mask sales. If anyone did kill themselves, it was only an added benefit to the human species, as anyone following another person off a bridge belongs to their fate.

Halley's Comet

Peace

reply to post by IOfTheStorm


...yeah...typed in haste. 'First' shouldn't be in there....in reference to Halley's. Was thinking about it in 'modern' times, advent of news media, and so forth....

Oh, and letthereaderunderstand is correct, too. I meant to add that the REASON for the panic was the prediction of Earth pasing through the Halley Comet's "tail"....

Good you are all on your (and MY) toes...

BTW...was reading about that incident (early 1900s) and the reaction (the suicides, and even the gas masks) because of the terrible misunderstanding of science back then (and, unfortunately all too often, even today).

A mental image was offered: IF all of the particles that made up the entire 'tail' of Halley's Comet were collected, they could have been compacted into, and carried within, a briefcase. Hardly dangerous...hence the

Such dangerous beauty. Hope they are right about its passing distance from earth. Something that big would decimate us all. So many wonders lurk in the darkness out there.

HOLY COMET FROM HEAVEN!

Really fregen big!

When are we able to see it in the northern hemisphere and at what time?