It will be interesting to see how much or how little is left of the debris trail after it magically exploded August 23rd. We may have some very pretty meteor showers (I hope) when it passes by in the next few weeks depending on how long it's debris trail is.
When is earth expected to actually PASS through it's debris trail??
Quoting: Pa resident1 Elenin has no debris tail.
It is no longer a Comet.
The debris and rubble field is 22M miles from earth.
Quoting: gdwk 1405311 Where is your source of information on this?
According to science.com we will pass through the debris tail on Sunday.
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link to www.space.com]
Just because the comet broke up doesn't mean that the tail that already existed magically disappeared.
One thing that could happen when earth passes through the tail of the comet is that the debris could knock out satellites. If that happens, communications could be severely affected. Cell phones won't work, GPS won't work, and the Internet could be severely impaired, if not entirely knocked out.
The implications are that banking, and therefore businesses, could be brought to it's knees. What will people do when they can't use their ATM and credit cards? Will banks even allow you to withdraw cash from your own accounts? This could lead to a world-wide collapse in the economy.
This is not fear-mongering, it's just simple fact.
Let's hope that the satellites survive this intact.