The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes:
Flood, Fire, and Famine
in the History of Civilization
by Richard Firestone,
Allen West, and
Simon Warwick-Smith
Posted on 02/12/2009 3:29:16 PM PST by SunkenCiv
The comets, of which there could be thousands, are not currently monitored by observatories and space agencies.
Most comets and asteroids are monitored in case they start to travel towards earth.
But Bill Napier, from Cardiff University, said that many could be going by unnoticed.
"There is a case to be made that dark, dormant comets are a significant but largely unseen hazard," he said
Scientists estimate that there should be around 3,000 comets in the solar system, but only 25 have so far been identified.
"Dark" comets happen when the water on their surface has evaporated, causing them to reflect less light.
Astronomers have previously spotted comets heading towards earth just days before they passed.
In 1983 a comet called IRAS-Araki-Alcock passed at a distance of just 5 million kilometres, the closest of any comet for 200 years, but it was noticed just a fortnight beforehand.
Tests on another comet, called Comet Borrelly, in 2001 revealed it to have large dark patches across much of its surface.
Steve Larson of the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey in Tucson, which monitors comets, said the idea of an unknown number of "dark" comets circling earth had "merit".
But Clark Chapman from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said that such comets "would absorb sunlight very well" and so could be detected by the heat they emit, reports New Scientist magazine.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Thats sounds like what happened to Soddom and Gamorrah just after GOD said their lifestyles were an abomination!
:’)
Small Comets and Our Origins
University of Iowa | circa 1999 | Louis A. Frank
Posted on 10/19/2004 11:13:25 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1250694/posts
The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes:
Flood, Fire, and Famine
in the History of Civilization
by Richard Firestone,
Allen West, and
Simon Warwick-Smith
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Then again, one could hit Washington DC. I’d probably be so grateful, I’d name my kid after it.
Well, you ruined all my fun, so here's what Rev. Wright has to say:
NASA would have you believe that just because a comet is dark it is evil and ugly compared to the white comet. Well, America's comets are coming home to roost.
wasn’t there a green poison comet passing?
Yeah, it’s called the Stimulus Package. /rimshot
That guy can sure tell quite a tail.
It’s kinda like sweets to the sweet in reverse I suppose...
Moscow, or Tehran, maybe.
I’d love to see us plant some kind of telemetering package on one of these that comes close, sort of like hanging a radio on a wild animal just to see where it goes, taking some kind of readings all the way. Don’t know what kind of readings, surely there are smart people that could figure that out. I just want to be able to click on the web cam beaming back from the outer reaches of the solar system, and listen to the electronic noise set to music.
Dunno, but if I see one more ad with those disgusting, nekkid, hairy tummies on it next to the news story I’m gonna start praying for a dark comet to end it all.
Isaac Asimov suggested planting a satellite on a comet for outer solar system exploration, suggesting that it would be quicker than building whatever kind of fast propulsion system we could manage. Of course, it’s pretty unlikely that we could build something that could hang on tight enough — unless it was one of these asteroids / dark comets. :’)
:’) That “Runaway Train” track is one of their best tunes ever, IMHO.
It’s like Michelangelo reborn. ;’)
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