Comet may have narrowly missed Earth in 1883

[ThoughtCriminal]

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27264/

"Billion-Ton Comet May Have Missed Earth by a Few Hundred Kilometers in 1883"

A reanalysis of historical observations suggest Earth narrowly avoided an extinction event just over a hundred years ago.

On 12th and 13th August 1883, an astronomer at a small observatory in Zacatecas in Mexico made an extraordinary observation. José Bonilla counted some 450 objects, each surrounded by a kind of mist, passing across the face of the Sun.
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Manterola and co end their paper by spelling out just how close Earth may have come to catastrophe that day. They point out that Bonilla observed these objects for about three and a half hours over two days. This implies an average of 131 objects per hour and a total of 3275 objects in the time between observations.

Each fragment was at least as big as the one thought to have hit Tunguska. Manterola and co end with this: "So if they had collided with Earth we would have had 3275 Tunguska events in two days, probably an extinction event."

[Maccagirl]

1. My grandmother was born on June 1, 1883

Yikes!

[donco]

2. WOW

i wonder if there is a track on its next visit?

[ThoughtCriminal]

11. Doubtful

No photographic record and observations over two days from a single location. We would have no idea where it is now or even much certainty that it even happened.
Also, after passing that close to Earth, the orbit would have radically changed.

[Scuba]

3. John McCain said he saw it. n/t

[Lint Head]

4. I think Keith Richards did too.

[Scuba]

6. Hell, he and his buddy Mick wrote a song about it....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stpRIyHHw8g

[Historic NY]

5. Won't matter the worlds is ending on the 21st, they recalculated.

http://www.norcalblogs.com/post_scripts/2011/03/the-world-will-end-102111.html

[Confusious]

7. It's always after midterms or finals, never before

I think Satan had a hand in this.

A million students cried out and were suddenly silenced.

[nilram]

8. I hate it when that happens!

[Demeter]

9. On a day like this, I regret the lost opportunity

to let the cockroaches inherit the earth.

[1620rock]

10. Heh, so is the earth suppose to end on Oct 21st, 2011, or on Dec. 21st 2012?

Only the religiously insane Know....sheech.