Comets


Comet

Best of the Web: Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks explodes and sprouts 'horns'


Space Weather
Tue, 25 Jul 2023 09:41 UTC
A comet with horns? Believe it. On July 20th, something on the surface of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks exploded, increasing its brightness 100-fold. Debris from the outburst looks like this:
Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks
"Here is a quick view of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks taken last night between some high clouds," reports Thomas Wildoner of Weatherly, PA. "Just in the last several days, this comet has gone from a star-like appearance to brightening by five magnitudes and now sporting a coma in the shape of two horns."

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is famous for exploding. Discovered in 1812 by Pons and discovered again in 1883 by Brooks, the bursty comet visits the inner solar system every 71 years. Since the 19th century at least 7 significant outbursts have been observed, suggesting that it might be a cryovolcanic comet like 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann.

Comment: For fascinating insight into this phenomena, and more, check out the following articles: Of note regarding the above, is the similarities between asteroids, comets, and even planets; as Pierre Lescaudron writes in Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection:
Traces of this movement can be found in the late 19th century,when Scientific American published an article stating that Professor Zollner of Leipzig ascribed the 'self-luminosity' of comets to 'electrical excitement.' Zollner proposed that:
...the nuclei of comets, as masses, are subject to gravitation, while the vapors developed from them, which consist of very small particles, yield to the action of the free electricity of the sun
Then, regarding comet tails, the August 11th 1882 issue of English Mechanic and World of Science included the following:
There seems to be a rapidly growing feeling amongst physicists that both the self-light of comets and the phenomena of their tails belong to the order of electrical phenomena.
In 1896, Nature published an article stating:
It has long been imagined that the phenomenon of comet's tails are in some way due to a solar electrical repulsion, and additional light is thrown on this subject by recent physical researches.
[...]

So, comets don't seem to be dirty snowballs after all. From the data presented above, they are glowing chunks of rock. On the other side, asteroids don't seem to be the non-glowing chunks of rocks posited by mainstream science. For example asteroids P/2013 P5 recently puzzled the whole scientific community when it started exhibiting a million miles long glowing tail. To rationalize this oddity official science claimed the asteroid was spinning so fast that it was ejecting tons of dust, while acknowledging that finally the difference between 'comets' and 'asteroids' might not be so clear-cut.1

The fundamental difference between asteroids and comets is not their chemical composition, i.e. dirty, fluffy icy comets vs. rocky asteroids. Rather, as has long been put forward by plasma theorists, what differentiates 'comets' from 'asteroids' is their electric activity.

When the electric potential difference between an asteroid and the surrounding plasma is not too high, the asteroid exhibits a dark discharge mode2 or no discharge at all. But when the potential difference is high enough, the asteroid switches to a glowing discharge mode.3 At this point the asteroid is a comet. From this perspective, a comet is simply a glowing asteroid and an asteroid is a non-glowing comet. Thus the very same body can, successively, be a comet, then an asteroid, then a comet, etc., depending on variation in the ambient electric field it is subjected to.4

Note that a comet can also exhibit the third plasma discharge mode, namely lightning or 'arc discharge mode', which is probably what happened when Comet Shoemaker-Levy entered the vicinity of Jupiter in July 1994:
Note that this comes on the heels of a discovery that Mercury was recently discovered to have a magnificent comet-like tail, and aurora.

The following article from Mr Lescaudron sheds more light on the topic: The Seven Destructive Earth Passes of Comet Venus

And check out SOTT radio's:
Live Science adds more information:
As of July 26, the comet's coma had grown to around 143,000 miles (230,000 kilometers) across, or more than 7,000 times wider than its nucleus, which has an estimated diameter of around 18.6 miles (30 km), Richard Miles, an astronomer with the British Astronomical Association who studies cryovolcanic comets, told Live Science in an email.

The unusual shape of the comet's coma is likely due to an irregularity in the shape of 12P's nucleus, Miles said. The outflowing gas was likely partially obstructed by an out-sticking lobe on the nucleus, which created a "notch" in the expanded coma. As the gas continued to move away from the comet and grow, the notch, or "shadow," became more noticeable, he added. But the expanded coma will eventually disappear as the gas and ice becomes too dispersed to reflect sunlight.

[...]

This is the first major eruption detected from 12P in 69 years, Miles said, mainly because its orbit takes it too far away from Earth for its outbursts to be noticed.
12P/Pons-Brooks comet orbit
© NASA/HorizonsOrbital path of comet 12P/Pons-Brooks
12P has one of the longest known orbital periods of any comet. It takes around 71 years for the floating volcano to fully orbit the sun, during which time it is catapulted out to the farthest reaches of the solar system. The comet is due to reach its closest point to the sun on April 21, 2024 and make its closest approach to Earth on June 2, 2024, at which point it will be visible in the night sky, Spaceweather.com reported. Earthlings could, therefore, get a front-row seat to more eruptions over the next few years.

In December 2022, astronomers witnessed the largest eruption from 29P in around 12 years, which sprayed around 1 million tons of cryomagma into space. And in April this year, for the first time ever, scientists were able to accurately predict one of 29P's eruptions before it actually happened, thanks to a slight increase in brightness, which suggested more gas was leaking out of the comet's nucleus as it prepared to pop.


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Fireball 4

Woman struck by meteorite as she sat on her terrace in Alsace, France

Léon Xu
The Connexion
Fri, 14 Jul 2023 15:42 UTC
The rock bounced off the roof of her house and hit her in the chest.
Meteors

A woman from a village in Alsace in east France has told how she was hit by a meteorite as she sat on her terrace - an incredibly rare event.

Just before the woman and a friend had heard a loud "boom" from the roof of the house as they sat outside at 4:00 on July 6, she told her local paper Dernière Nouvelles d'Alsace.

She said the stone bounced off the roof and struck her in the chest, leaving a bruise over her ribs.

Her first thought was that it was an animal, before she realised what had happened.

The woman, from Schirmeck, later had it checked out by a geologist, Dr Thierry Rebmann.
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Better Earth

Massive marine bird deaths in North America revealed by citizen science surveys

Ellen Phiddian
Cosmos Magazine
Wed, 12 Jul 2023 09:55 UTC
puffins bird die off
© Aleut Community of St. Paul Island Ecosystem Conservation OfficeTufted puffins in October 2016.
Marine heatwaves off the coast of North America cause huge seabird die-offs, according to a study published in Marine Ecology Progress Series.

The study draws on data from four citizen science projects to examine coastal birds from central California, US, to Alaska, US, between 1993 and 2021.

"This is truly a global data set that asked a global-sized question: Does a warming world significantly impact marine birds, among the top predators in the nearshore marine environment?" says paper co-author Julia Parrish, a professor of aquatic and fishery sciences at the University of Washington, US.

"We find a dramatic delayed effect," she adds.

Comment: The data is showing that Earth isn't warming, it's cooling; but there are indeed marine heatwave events occurring, alongside a variety of other unusual and rare phenomena, that reveal our planet - and the solar system at large - is undergoing a significant, and potentially catastrophic, shift:

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Galaxy

A 'captured' alien planet may be hiding at the edge of our solar system, and it's not 'Planet X', new research suggests

Joanna Thompson
Live Science
Wed, 28 Jun 2023 20:22 UTC
planet x comet meteor asteroid
© GettyA large, icy world from an alien star system could lurk in the mysterious Oort cloud, new research suggests.
In 1906, astronomer and businessman Percival Lowell launched a search for "Planet X," a hypothetical giant planet orbiting the sun beyond Neptune. Lowell was convinced that Planet X existed based on some supposed irregularities he had observed in the orbits of Neptune and Uranus. His belief eventually led to the discovery of Pluto in 1930, though scientists later determined that the dwarf planet was too small to have a gravitational impact on Neptune's orbit (let alone Uranus').

Today, the Planet X hypothesis is largely considered to be discredited. However, that hasn't stopped astronomers from looking for planets in the far reaches of the solar system. And according to a new study, they might be out there — only much farther away than Lowell could have predicted.

Comment: Other researches have demonstrated that, rather than a planet, it's likely that these observed perturbations are due instead to our Sun's twin, also known as Nemesis:


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Doberman

11-year-old boy dies in stray dog attack in Kerala, India


PTI
Mon, 12 Jun 2023 11:29 UTC
dog attack
A differently-abled 11-year-old boy, who was attacked by a group of stray dogs Sunday evening at Muzhappilangad near here, died at a hospital, police said.

Nihal, a resident of Kettinakam, was found grievously injured around 300 metres away from his house and was taken to a nearby hospital but could not be saved, they said.

"The boy with autism was missing from around 5 pm and a search party, comprising relatives, locals and the police, was looking for him in the locality. We found him around 8.30 pm near his house in a grievously injured manner and took him to the hospital," police said.
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Info

Science and an Ancient Apocalypse

Dr. Martin Sweatman
PreHistory Decoded
Mon, 22 May 2023 18:01 UTC
Gobekli Tepe
© PreHistory Decoded
The aim of science is simple. We aim to create consistent models of reality. If we can model everything perfectly (within the bounds of measurement uncertainty), i.e. explain everything, then there is no practical difference between our models and the truth. Ultimately, then, we seek the truth. Some scientist don't believe this, but this is how I see it. Religion used to be how this was achieved, but religions are not flexible enough to adapt to new information. They are too rigid. The advantage of science is that is infinitely adaptable; it changes to fit whatever the latest and best information is. Or, at least, it should (maybe even science has become too monolithic and politically motivated recently, with too much inertia in certain areas). Moreover, science uses mathematics and probability to find the most likely way forward; which explanation is most likely to be correct? Which brings us to Occam's razor.

Occam's razor is an excellent guide in developing our models. It says that if we have two models that can explain a specific set of observations equally well, the simpler one that requires least data to define it is more likely to be correct. A corollary is that if two models are equally simple, the one that can explain the most is more likely to be correct. Occam's razor is an intuitive guide. Although proofs have been attempted, to my knowledge none are completely satisfactory. It is the key scientific principle that guides me to consider the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis to be almost certainly correct, at least as far as the impact itself is concerned. The secondary effects, such as the Younger Dryas climate shift and associated megafaunal extinctions are more debatable, but still quite likely to be correct, in my view.

It is also how I approach decoding Gobekli Tepe and related symbolism. As a scientist, I am continually seeking connections, making links, simplifying explanations, using Occam's razor. There is considerable evidence now that many ancient cultures were fascinated by the sky, and their astronomical-symbolism was often linked and therefore likely derives from an earlier epoch.
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Fireball 5

Newly discovered asteroid has a 1-in-600 chance of colliding with Earth, NASA says

Brandon Specktor
Live Science
Wed, 08 Mar 2023 22:43 UTC
The newly discovered asteroid 2023 DW could collide with Earth in February 2046, although the odds of an impact are low.
Asteroid 2023 DW
© Science Photo Library - ANDRZEJ WOJCICKI via Getty ImagesAn Olympic pool-sized asteroid could collide with Earth in 2046, though the odds are very low.
A newly discovered asteroid may make a perilously close approach to Earth about 20 years from now, with a roughly 1-in-600 chance that the space rock will collide directly with our planet, officials with NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office tweeted.

While that's a higher-than-average risk level for near-Earth asteroids, it's still a "very small chance" of impact, NASA wrote — and that risk level is expected to decline as clearer observations of the asteroid become available.

First detected on Feb. 27, the asteroid dubbed 2023 DW is estimated to measure about 165 feet (50 meters) in diameter, or roughly the length of an Olympic-size swimming pool. The asteroid is expected to make a very close approach to Earth on Feb. 14, 2046; as of March 8, the European Space Agency's Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre predicts a 1-in-625 chance of a direct impact, although those odds are being recalculated daily.
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Comet 2

Main comet of 2024 named C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, could be 6 times brighter than 2020's NEOWISE


Universe Magazine
Wed, 01 Mar 2023 23:03 UTC
C/2023 A3
Trajectory of comet C/2023 A3
The Minor Planet Center (MPC) has given an official name to the comet, which is already being called the main comet of 2024. It received the designation C/2023 A3 ().

C/2023 A3 was first discovered in images taken on January 9 by the Chinese observatory Tsuchinshan (translated as Purple Mountain). On February 22, the ATLAS automated telescope located in South Africa took independent images of the object. The analysis carried out by astronomers showed that it was a comet. C/2023 A3 has a small tail and a very compact coma.

At the moment, C/2023 A3 is located at a distance of 7.3 AU (1090 million km) from the Sun, which exceeds the distance to Jupiter. But it is rapidly approaching the perihelion of its orbit, which will be passed on September 28, 2024. On this day, the comet will fly at a distance of 0.39 AU (58 million km) from the Sun.

Comment: It seems that comets 'exceed expectations' because science's explanation for the behaviour of comets is wrong: For more, check SOTT radio's:

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Info

Asteroid impact in slow motion


Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Tue, 07 Feb 2023 03:34 UTC
Researchers at the University of Jena and the German Electron Synchrotron DESY solve a 60-year-old mystery with a high-pressure study.
Barringer crater in Arizona
© US Geological SurveyBarringer crater in Arizona was formed about 50 000 years ago by an approximately 50-meter iron meteorite.
For the first time, researchers have recorded live and in atomic detail what happens to the material in an asteroid impact. The team of Falko Langenhorst from the University of Jena and Hanns-Peter Liermann from DESY simulated an asteroid impact with the mineral quartz in the lab and pursued it in slow motion in a diamond anvil cell, while monitoring it with DESY's X-ray source PETRA III. The observation reveals an intermediate state in quartz that solves a decades-old mystery about the formation of characteristic lamellae in material hit by an asteroid. Quartz is ubiquitous on the Earth's surface, and is, for example, the major constituent of sand. The analysis helps to better understand traces of past impacts, and may also have significance for entirely different materials. The researchers present their findings in the journal Nature Communications.

Asteroid impacts are catastrophic events that create huge craters and sometimes melt parts of Earth's berock. "Nevertheless, craters are often difficult to detect on Earth, because erosion, weathering and plate tectonics cause them to disappear over millions of years," Langenhorst explains. Therefore, minerals that undergo characteristic changes due to the force of the impact often serve as evidence of an impact. For example, quartz sand (which chemically is silicon dioxide, SiO2) is gradually transformed into glass by such an impact, with the quartz grains then being crisscrossed by microscopic lamellae. This structure can only be explored in detail under an electron microscope. It can be seen in material from the relatively recent and prominent Barringer crater in Arizona, USA, for example.
"For more than 60 years, these lamellar structures have served as an indicator of an asteroid impact, but no one knew until now how this structure was formed in the first place," Liermann says. "We have now solved this decades-old mystery."
To do so, the researchers had spent years modifying and advancing techniques that allow materials to be studied under high pressure in the lab. In these experiments, samples are usually compressed between two small diamond anvils in a so-called diamond anvil cell (DAC). It allows extreme pressures - as prevalent in Earth's interior or in an asteroid impact - to be generated in a controlled manner.
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Fireball

Meteorite crater discovered in French winery


Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
Wed, 22 Feb 2023 22:30 UTC
With the aim of creating an appealing brand, the name of the " Domaine du Météore " winery near the town of Béziers in Southern France points to a local peculiar: one of its vineyards lies in a round, 200-metre-wide depression that resembles an impact crater. By means of rock and soil analyzes, scientists led by cosmochemist Professor Frank Brenker from Goethe University Frankfurt have now established that the crater was indeed once formed by the impact of an iron-nickel meteorite. In doing so, they have disproved a scientific opinion almost 60 years old, because of which the crater was never examined more closely from a geological perspective.

Impact Crater
© Frank Brenker, Goethe University FrankfurtThe “ Trou du Météore ”: The crater at the “ Domaine du Météore ” winery really was caused by a meteorite impact.
Countless meteorites have struck Earth in the past and shaped the history of our planet. It is assumed, for example, that meteorites brought with them a large part of its water. The extinction of the dinosaurs might also have been triggered by the impact of a very large meteorite.

Meteorite craters which are still visible today are rare because most traces of the celestial bodies have long since disappeared again. This is due to erosion and shifting processes in Earth's crust, known as plate tectonics. The "Earth Impact Database" lists just 190 such craters worldwide. In the whole of Western Europe, only three were previously known: Rochechouart in Aquitaine, France, the Nördlinger Ries between the Swabian Alb and the Franconian Jura, and the Steinheim Basin near Heidenheim in Baden-Württemberg (both in Germany ). Thanks to millions of years of erosion, however, for laypersons the three impact craters are hardly recognizable as such.
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