For Heaven’s Gate Comet Elenin

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[mnehring]

May 7, 2011 – Comet Elenin spawned mass hysteria on the internet – Leonid Elenin

A misreported April Fool’s joke sparked panic on the internet over a comet discovered by a Russian astronomer. Conspiracy theorists believe that the Elenin comet is an alien spaceship and demand that the scientist discloses data hushed up by NASA.

The web uproar focuses on the comet C/2010 X1, which was first discovered on December 10, 2010. Alien enthusiasts believe that it has a cluster of alien-made objects, most likely spacecraft, hiding in its tail. They fear that when the comet gets closer to Earth, the aliens will show themselves, and the first contact is likely to be a disaster. They expect doomsday on September 10.

The panic-sparking claims originate from Argentinean astronomer Sergio Toscano, whose report on the alien theory was cited by a number of Latin American media outlets. The scientist said the data came from the Chinese national space agency.

But the true origin of the story comes from a British newspaper, which published it as an April Fool’s joke. The astronomer may have been misguided by the fact that the Latin American counterpart for April Fool’s Day, Feast of the Holy Innocents, is celebrated on December 28.

Nevertheless, the internet rumor mill was quick to spread the story, which mutated into an alien invasion scare. Some even matched the comet with the infamous Nibiru planet.

“Non-existent” scientist’s misadventure

And the person arguably affected most by the scare is the Russian scientist who discovered the comet in the first place. Leonid Elenin from the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics in Moscow became the first target for the enquiries, demands and threats of all the worried souls.

“It was somewhat funny at first, and I even surfed the internet to see what they say, but now I’m scared to do it. I’m really irritated. I’m really disappointed that this nonsense appeared in the Russian segment of the web,” the astronomer told RIA Novosti news agency.

According to Elenin, conspiracy theorists go as far as claiming that he is a front firm for NASA or other government agencies, who try to put a lid on the information about the alleged upcoming disaster.

“I’ve seen discussions about what Leonid Elenin actually means. ‘Ele’ is ‘extinction level event’ and ‘nin’ is Nibiru in November,” the scientist said.

The astronomer did his best to explain that there is nothing special about the comet he detected, apart from the fact that it was the first comet discovered by a Russian astronomer in two decades.

He believes the hysteria has been fueled by the photo of the comet made by a tracking camera, which resulted in two nearby stars leaving stretched markings.

“There’s the comet flying and there are tracks from the two stars. I read an article claiming those two ‘cylinders’ are the spacecraft,” Elenin explained.

The Elenin comet is to flyby Earth at an estimated distance of 35,000,000 kilometers in mid-October. You would need good binoculars or a telescope to see it harmlessly pass and go away.

http://rt.com/news/comet-astronomer-first-elenin/

May 2, 2011 – Comet Elenin may be brighter than expected – Leonid Elenin

Comet C/2010 X1 (Elenin) is becoming one of the most observed long-period comets. At the moment, the overall number of CCD camera observations is approaching 1300, while the number of CCD observations of comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake) never exceeded 1000. Of course, for the most part that reflects the growth and accessibility of modern CCD cameras. I have underscored this fact for the conspiracy theorists who are saying that Comet Elenin is impossible to see in the sky and all its observations are being kept secret. Of course that is not the case, but let’s return to news about the comet.

On the basis of quality estimates of the comet’s brightness, the photometric model of comet C/2010 X1 (Elenin) has been revised by Artem Novichonok. According to the new prediction, the comet may reach a brightness of mag. 4 near perihelion, and that is without accounting for the effect of forward scattering, when the comet is directly between the Earth and the Sun. Tiny icy dust particles will scatter light passing through them, and the comet’s brightness, which we can observe on images taken by SOHO’s space coronagraph, will increase. The comet could reach mag. 0 or even brighter! True, such a sharp increase in brightness will be very brief, and when the comet comes out of conjunction with the Sun and we can see it in the morning sky, its brightness will have already returned to mag. 4-4.5. The comet will remain visible to the unaided eye until the beginning of November.

A challenge from ParaNikki comes from paranormalutopia.com

Every now and again I am a little embarrassed to be part of the ufology and ancient astronaut theory crowd. Honestly, there are some real kooks out there that will come up with the wildest stories and lately, one of them, is that Comet Elenin (a.k.a. C2010 X1), a comet set to pass Earth in October, is somehow going to bring about earthquakes, tidal shifts, maybe even the end of the world depending on which wacko you believe.Whenever I read these things, I always wonder for just a moment but then I immediately find myself trying to get to the source of it all. Frankly, in spite of all the conspiracy theories I believe in, I think the scientists involved in the field would have their reasons for not telling us, i.e. they don’t want to cause a panic with something that can be and probably will be diverted, or there really is no cause for alarm which is the case WAY more often than not.

Yes, big things have come barreling through our atmosphere before and you never know when a meteor is going to come falling out of the sky but facts are facts and there are a number of experts trying to put these rumors to bed. For instance, Discovery Science says that trajectory places it at about 21 million miles from Earth (more than 80 times farther away than the moon) at it’s closest pass and considering the minuscule size of the object it will have the equivalent effect on earth as a mosquito would if it hit head on with a ocean cruiser. In case you didn’t catch that, it won’t have ANY effect on Earth. It’s not going to slam into us, it’s not Nibiru, it’s not inhabited, it’s not the fulfillment of a Mayan prophecy, none of that. Even the closest fly-by’s of other comets haven’t created natural disasters historically and this one will be much farther away than many have been.

If you seem to think otherwise, I’d be glad to hear why, but I can’t promise I’ll take you seriously.

[Redcitizen]

“if you buy into the “electric theory” of the universe...
it may excite the sun...
may affect the weather....
may amplify the electromagnetic interplay with the sun.”

Too many if’s and maybes make for fanciful conjecture. This statement does not have solid footing to be plausible.

[marsh2]

The ifs are mine. I am not a scientist. However, an acquaintance work with radioastronomy and has indicated that they are concerned about affects of the tail on orbiting communication equipment.