Posted on 10/19/2013 6:04:04 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Comet Encke next perihelion will be in November 21, 2013. It should become visible with binoculars, beginning in late September of 2013 in the evening skies. It will be one of the brightest comets in 2013, but will pale in comparison to Comet ISON (C/2012 S1). After Comet Encke transits the Sun, it will become visible in the morning sky in December...
Earth's position in space and the outgassing of Comet Encke are two of the factors that determine when, and if, this comet will become visible to the naked eye at some point in its path around the Sun. The comet can complete several orbits without ever being visible to the naked eye, but it can be seen regularly with a telescope.
Comet Encke appears to be getting fainter with each passing orbit, largely because it's shedding material more rapidly than comets that spend the majority of their life in the Kuiper Belt or Oort Cloud. The brightest apparent magnitude of Comet Encke on record was 3.5 in 1829. In ancient times, it was much brighter and undoubtedly had an effect on our ancestors.
The Diameter of Comet Encke
Our ancestors must have stared at Comet Encke for nights on end, wondering what Comet Encke really was, how big it was, and how far it was from the land. Although their have been great leaps in the understanding of comets, only recently have we been able to determine the size of Comet Encke. It's nucleus is estimated to be 2.98 miles (4.8 km) in diameter.
In 2000, Fernandez suggested that the nucleus is elongated with an aspect ratio of 1 : 2.6, and that it rotates once every 15.2 hours. These findings were in keeping with results determined by Luu and Jewitt, in 1992.
(Excerpt) Read more at fallofathousandsuns.com ...
Ison is on the way also. Wormwood of the bible comes to mind.
Comet Prospects for 2013
http://www.freedomslips.com/2013comets.htm
...This year sees comet 2P/Encke’s 62nd observed return to perihelion since its discovery by Mechain in 1786. The orbit is quite stable, and with a period of 3.3 years apparitions repeat on a 10-year cycle. This year the comet is well seen from the Northern Hemisphere prior to perihelion, which is in late November. The comet brightens rapidly during September and could be visible in large binoculars by the end of the month. It crosses from the evening to the morning sky through October and will sink into the morning twilight by mid November, when it could be 6th magnitude. This magnitude may however be optimistic as observations from the SOHO spacecraft in 2000 showed that it suddenly brightened after perihelion, by which time it will be at a poor elongation. A possible explanation for this behaviour is that Encke has two active regions, an old one with declining activity, which operates prior to perihelion and a recently activated one present after perihelion. There is, however, little evidence for a secular fading in the archive of BAA observations of the comet. The comet is the progenitor of the Taurid meteor complex and may be associated with several Apollo asteroids.
This thing is a killer! A piece broke off and wiped out eighty bazillion trees in Russia! Send up George Clooney and Sandra Bullocks!
Yes, every time a comet comes by.
I rather see Obama and his cronies thugs sent out there - One Way ONLY.
So does this mean I should cancel all appointments?
The Tunguska object - A fragment of Comet Encke
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1978BAICz..29..129K
Tunguska-1908 and similar events in light of the New Explosive Cosmogony of minor bodies
http://inspirehep.net/record/815792?ln=en
The Tunguska object - A fragment of Comet Encke
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/241203151_The_Tunguska_object_-_A_fragment_of_Comet_Encke
Astronomy Picture of the Day — Tunguska: The Largest Recent Impact Event
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2786613/posts
A possible impact crater for the 1908 Tunguska Event
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1854726/posts
Crater Could Solve 1908 Tunguska Meteor Mystery
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1857424/posts
When Comets Attack: Solving the Mystery of the Biggest Natural Explosion in Modern History
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2246134/posts
Sandia supercomputers offer new explanation of Tunguska disaster
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1941279/posts
Planetary science: Tunguska at 100
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2036546/posts
Tunguska, A Century Later
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2028449/posts
and from the fringe:
http://www.crystalinks.com/tunguskaevent.html
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