Does comet ISON have a 333 year orbit?

even you must admit those odds are more than fair.

I think we'll be okay...unless there's a McD's on the comet...

WAIT! Didn't I see that on some Mayan Codex? The 7 tailed comet with the Golden Arches on it? Which BTW was 333years ago...

the odds of that are a lot smaller than million to one!

They'll certainly serve the same fries. Those things must have half lives of some heavy elements.

Comet Encke, perihelions on the 21st Nov, at .33 AU.
Its close apporach to earth happens every 33 years.
It's orbital period is 3.33 years.

Comets love number 3

No, not at all actually.

Hahaha...yep, not sure what kind of preservative they use in those things but I sold an old car one time and got it cleaned up for the new owner...anyway, I found some old McD's fries under drivers seat that had to be ATLEAST a year old because that's how long the car was sitting...the fries *looked* fine, but the really weird thing was no bugs or critters ate them...not even ants! I haven't had them since and that was 4-5 years ago...

Did I missed the comment?
Or numbers are not welcomed.

What about the debris field? That poses a grave risk to Earth.

Someone else would need to do the math -- but (and correct me if I am wrong) ISON would need to *decelerate* in order for that to happen - something never observed before. And that would take a *lot* of force.

I'm not certain what they are estimating ISON's mass to be, but it's velocity falling toward the Sun is getting fairly ridiculous. You'd essentially need a force reducing its velocity so that ISON's eccentricity were reduced below 1. Assuming the main mass was only 3 or 4 km, that force would still need to be *massive* and applied just right to do it.

Anyone feel like crunching some numbers? I might be able to find the old 'hit Earth with a few tons of hot fudge Sundae' somewhere...

No it doesn't. No greater that the Swift-Tuttle debris field you are moving through *right now at this moment.*

Betcha you didn't know that.

you do not know what is going to happen. Your heightened interest in this is what tells more than anything.. somewhere deep inside you think something might happen.
when you get it out , you will feel better.

Mathematics and Physics always seem to get the mental midgets furious on this site

845000 mph is impressive, some quick calculations and it gives approx 2 minutes to circle earth,

I know enough to know ISON is not a threat to earth. Now you're trying to not only put words in my mouth, but in my head as well. You do NOT know what I'm thinking, let alone what is "deep inside of me."

dammit if at least ONE of all the recent 'doom' asteroids/comets/solar flares/whatevers doesn't seriously fuck us up soon i'll be most disappointed.

i'm not holding my breath.

Astro what are your thoughts on sunspot 1899?

Psychologically Doctor,it is where your obsession with Astronomy and Space comes from. Watching , hoping waiting for that one thing that will happen that will make all the difference. Your whole life was tempered by Isons ripples from the future.

now this, now that? I have never had the pleasure before.
so having attitude with me from an imagined past encounter is erroneous. Just so you know

You must not on the basis of science ensure something to happen - nothing is set in stone. However, likelihood is a moderate term.

Been meaning to start a thread on that NASA article-

[link to science.nasa.gov]

The article makes some rather startling statements. For instance-

"When NASA's Swift spacecraft observed the comet in January 2013, it was still near the orbit of Jupiter, but already very active. More than 112,000 pounds of dust were spewing from the comet's nucleus every minute.

It turns out, some of that dust might end up on Earth...

Veteran meteor researcher Paul Wiegert of the University of Western Ontario has been using a computer to model the trajectory of dust ejected by Comet ISON, and his findings suggest that an unusual meteor shower could be in the offing...

They will be hitting at a speed of 56 km/s or 125,000 mph. Because the particles are so small, Earth’s upper atmosphere will rapidly slow them to a stop.

"Instead of burning up in a flash of light, they will drift gently down to the Earth below," he says.

Don’t expect to notice. The invisible rain of comet dust, if it occurs, would be very slow. It can take months or even years for fine dust to settle out of the high atmosphere...

Wiegert notes another curiosity: "The shower is going to hit our planet from two directions at once."

When Earth passes through the debris stream, we will encounter two populations of comet dust. One swarm of dust will be following the Comet ISON into the sun. Another swarm will be moving in the opposite direction, pushed away from the sun by solar radiation pressure. The streams will pepper opposite sides of Earth simultaneously.

"In my experience, this kind of double whammy is unprecedented,"..."

What's startling about the NASA article, is that it claims particles from comet ISON will not only hit Earth's atmosphere, but "drift down to the Earth below", and that "some of that dust might end up on Earth".

I've been meteorite collector, researcher, and hunter for decades. Fact of the matter is, that while the number of meteorites numbers into the thousands, and the amount of material recovered into the thousands of tons, there has never been a meteorite found, no matter how small, that is believed to have come from a cometary origin.

Yet here is a NASA article that says that particles from comet ISON may "drift down to Earth" and end up "on Earth".

Yes micrometeorites are well known and have been studied, but none have been identified to have comet from a comet. All meteorites on Earth are believed to have come from the asteroid belt, the planets, the Moon, or of non-cometary interstellar origin.

If as the articles implies, that particles from comet ISON would drift down to Earth, and could be identified, that would truly be an unprecedented situation on this planet.

I found the wording of that NASA article very strange. They are giving us a heads up on a potentially unprecedented situation of cometary debris possibly being identified on Earth for the first time with this comet.

And if the pocket protector wearing eggheads with the coke-bottle thick glasses are wrong about the size of particles from ISON which might reach Earth? Well then, consider yourself warned.

None of this is considered an insult, merely a difference of opinion.

Overly sensitive perhaps?

Ego is not good

As a voyeur of ISON threads and seeing you in pretty much everyone I am somewhat familiar with what goes on in here, and I can confirm that you are pretty relentless with the insinuations yourself.

I still pose the question astro: Why GLP? why not some astronomy forum, why this conspiracy forum?

Also do you have a doctorate in astrophysics or akin, or do you just like to embelish yourself and if so why?

Was the picture you posted the other day really you?

Thank you for your honest answers in advance.

Please share.......

hi, would anyone have link to latest pic please?

OK, I see, I highlighted with blue color REAL data FROM JPL, just to make you easier to imagine what can happen to "small" rock in 100 years, so 1 million years perspective is unknown as much as what happened 100 years ago 100 AU from the Sun.

Be cool, use discernment, be Yourself.

I like that!!!

313 = 333 just like 666 = 616

the great comet of 1680, was 333 years ago.

the orbit of Ison and this comet are so similar, but they say it's broke into two.

2 comets, with a 333 year orbit. do the math.