Posted on 02/23/2009 8:12:29 AM PST by TaraP
ST. LOUIS — A green-tinged comet is now buzzing by Earth, and the best chance to see this space oddball might be Monday night.
Comet Lulin, first discovered by a Chinese teenager just over a year ago, is making its possibly first and last flyby of Earth this month, traveling from the farthest edges of the solar system about 18 trillion miles away.
Stargazers with binoculars or a telescope could get a pretty good glimpse of the frozen ball of ice and dust hurtling across the night sky. To the naked eye, however, Lulin might only look like a dim, fuzzy star.
“While comets are notoriously unpredictable, it is estimated that it should be bright enough to be seen by the naked eye after mid-month, if you are under a dark sky,” said Erika Gibb, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
“It is gradually getting higher in the sky, so that it will rise around midnight near Feb. 24," she said. "After that, it will continue along its path in the sky, getting fainter as it heads to the outer solar system.”
Lulin gets its green color from the gases that make up its atmosphere, namely diatomic carbon and cyanogen, a poisonous gas found in many comets.
“When sun shines on these molecules, they glow,” Gibb said. “Cyanogen glows green. I think it’s important to mention that this gas doesn’t pose a problem for us. When we went through the tail of Halley’s comet, a lot of people worried they were going to die from poison gas.”
A NASA satellite using X-rays shows the comet is quite active, shedding more than 800 gallons of water per second as it moves closer to the sun.
Lulin will fade out of view by mid-March when it moves to the dark depths of the outer solar system.
Around midnight Monday night, the comet will be as close to Earth as it will ever get. But don’t worry, we won’t get grazed. Lulin will still be 38 million miles away.
To check out the comet, first find Saturn and then look south, or slightly southwest.
If you can’t wait until then, click here to check out some images captured by amateur astronomer Gregg Ruppel of St. Louis that are being widely circulated in astronomy circles.
Is that the one they named after 0bama..the 0bomet? (j/k...I think..)
SOHO is back....Looks like a comet is heading for sun?
What are the odds?
COSMIC COINCIDENCE: What are the odds? On Tuesday morning, Feb. 24th, Saturn and Comet Lulin will converge in the constellation Leo only 2o apart. At the same time, Comet Lulin will be making its closest approach to Earth (38 million miles), while four of Saturn’s moons transit the disk of the ringed planet.
BFL
Damn you, Global Warming!!
Balloon flights high in the stratosphere over Antarctica detected electrons in numbers and energies much higher than what usually pours in from space, scientists on a project called ATIC reported in November.
About the same time, a separate report from Milagro, a ground-based detector near Los Alamos, N.M., described two unexpected patches of high-energy protons in the sky. A review of seven years of Milagro data revealed an unusual distribution in the energies of these cosmic rays.
Both experiments seem to show that the Earth is being bombarded with high-energy cosmic rays from a mysterious, nearby source. But scientists aren’t sure whether the results are related.
“You can’t say yes, and you can’t say no, because they’re measuring something different,” says Jordan Goodman, a University of Maryland, College Park, physicist and spokesman for Milagro. The ATIC group “is seeing an excess of electrons, and we’re at higher energies seeing the protons.”
An as yet undetected source, perhaps a pulsar, might generate both protons and electrons at these energies, he says. “If this is the case, this would be very exciting because no one has yet definitively found a source of these high-energy cosmic ray protons.”
But if the events are unrelated, they suggest an even more tantalizing possibility: dark matter.
Ping..
Doesn’t the Book of Daniel speak on these cosmic occurrences?
I forget the wording in Daniel.
Certainly Christ spoke of Signs in the Heavens.
I looked for it a few mornings ago without success--it's not very bright but may be visible with binoculars if you have a good dark sky.
Most descriptions of Nibiru illustrate that it is a brown dwarf star or a large planet. It is thought to have several satellites (planets or moons) of its own. There is also some thought that it could be a supermassive comet or asteroid. It’s a very difficult topic to research despite the vast amount of information available.
There is a great deal of speculation which is presented as fact. In reality, there are few facts pointing to its existence, although they seem to be compelling. It is a common thread in pre-historical religion, although the supposed age of the legends predate written language by several thousand years. We know that the majority of star systems are binary systems; that is, they have two stars that orbit each other. If our star has a binary twin which follows a ‘normal’ path, its counter-orbit should keep it well out of the planetary system
Revelation 8:6-13, King James version:
“8:6 And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!”
Time will tell!
There are always events like this.
Any backyard astronomer can tell you that.
Comets are rather common.
There are events of massive scale that the general public never hears about because they are so distant and only professionals or interested people are aware of.
Gamma ray bursts for instance.
You can have a “sign in the heavens” just about anytime you want to find one.
And Comet Lulin is sounding more and more like WORMWOOD in the Book of Revelation..
And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
Yes we will!
ON METEORITES:
But I thought this was intereting..
Meteroites, Impacts, & Mass ExtinctionStony Irons - Stony iron meteorites consist of a mixture of stony silicate ... Most comets have elliptical orbits which send them to the far outer reaches of ... While the asteroid belt seems like the most likely source of meteorites, .... At the boundary they found a thin clay layer. Chemical analysis of the clay ...
IN THE BOOK OF DANIEL..
2:27 Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king
43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.”
Right. It seems like folks have forgotten the unusual combination of two very bright comets in our night skies just over ten years ago — Hyakutake in 1996 and Hale-Bopp in 1997.
Lots and lots of moaning, shambling, red-eyed, brain-eating Zombies.
Be prepared ...
They said the comet will be a bit below and to the left of Saturn when it rises tonight --down here that means around 8pm local. Others can check at http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Yoursky
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