I was fooling around with this solar system viewer thing...

http://janus.astro.umd.edu/javadir/orbits/ssv.html

...and if you click on comets and speed it up to the year 2011, it looks as though a comet called "Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova" is going to impact the earth on August 15! O_O

+ Show Spoiler +

I researched this on google and apparently the comet will miss us just narrowly (0.0601 AU). Still, kinda scary. ^_^;

Megalisk

United States6095 Posts

January 18 2010 03:48 GMT

The maya aren't even right in the first place ^^.

Icysoul

Canada254 Posts

January 18 2010 03:49 GMT

fk...dying 1 day before my birthday...

looking forward to that

Disregard

China10252 Posts

January 18 2010 03:52 GMT

My mobile home is ready on Mars, still waiting for my shuttl. Its been delayed.

Trezeguet

United States2656 Posts

January 18 2010 03:53 GMT

It is our passage to the great beyond. You guys should join me.

Jyvblamo

Canada13788 Posts

January 18 2010 03:58 GMT

0.06 AU is a prettty big margin to miss by.

LuckyFool

United States9015 Posts

January 18 2010 03:59 GMT

I need an arbiter on Mars ready to recall at a moments notice.

Kenpachi

United States9908 Posts

January 18 2010 04:00 GMT

im pretty sure scienctists already found out about this and with the media not going bonkers about this means its going to be nothing or its false.

deconduo

Ireland4122 Posts

January 18 2010 04:00 GMT

On January 18 2010 12:58 Jyvblamo wrote:
0.06 AU is a prettty big margin to miss by.

Yeah 1 A.U. is the distance from here to the sun, so 0.06AU is about 9 million Km or 700 times the diameter of the earth. Nothing much to worry about there.

ero

United States66 Posts

January 18 2010 04:12 GMT

#10

Yeah but 0.06 AU is 0.000000949 light years. We're fucked.

Spenguin

Australia3316 Posts

January 18 2010 04:21 GMT

#11

On January 18 2010 13:12 ero wrote:
Yeah but 0.06 AU is 0.000000949 light years. We're fucked.

That makes no difference, still 700 times diameter of Earth. I bet that's not close enough to do anything.

meeple

Canada10211 Posts

January 18 2010 04:26 GMT

#12

If there was any real danger I'm sure we'd have heard about it from doomsday theorists already

meegrean

Thailand7699 Posts

January 18 2010 04:42 GMT

#13

On January 18 2010 13:21 Spenguin wrote:

Show nested quote +

That makes no difference, still 700 times diameter of Earth. I bet that's not close enough to do anything.

It's still pretty close actually. Think about how big the solar system is. Hope nobody's driving the comet.

CharlieMurphy

United States22895 Posts

January 18 2010 04:42 GMT

#14

between 6000-9500 AD pluto and neptune are really fucking close to smashing (at least it looks that way on here)

Pinnacle55

Singapore173 Posts

January 18 2010 04:43 GMT

#15

Also, comets are really nothing more than a bunch of frozen ammonia flying through space.

Even if it did hit us, it would burn up in the atmosphere. At most it would stink for a couple of days.

CharlieMurphy

United States22895 Posts

January 18 2010 04:46 GMT

#16

On January 18 2010 13:43 Pinnacle55 wrote:
Also, comets are really nothing more than a bunch of frozen ammonia flying through space.

Even if it did hit us, it would burn up in the atmosphere. At most it would stink for a couple of days.

Its a lot more shit than that, there is a reason why they call them dirty snowballs. (there is a little science experiment that you can do at home to create comet makeup).

I think it's going so fast that it doesn't have a chance to disintegrate in time. Comet hit would be brutal.

CharlieMurphy

United States22895 Posts

January 18 2010 04:50 GMT

#17

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread307710/pg1

5P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova is not going to hit Earth in 2011. It will be approximately 9 million kilometres away at its closest approach, which is around 23 times the distance to the Moon !

You have to remember that the "orbital simulation" that you are referring to is being shown on a 2D screen, and is being viewed from one particular angle. Fortunately for us, all solar orbiting objects move in 3D space, and it's very easy to demonstrate that the comet will miss Earth by a comfortable margin.

I say "easy" because I have a Solar System simulator installed on my PC. It's called Dance of the Planets (ARC Science Simulations; www.arcscience.com ), and I can simulate the orbit of this (and any other) comet very accurately.