[link to www.cometelenin.com]

The link above is an aplet for tracking the course of Comet Elenin. It is passing very close to us by space standards but will still be millions of miles away.

The concern being that the comet has a tail which will be considerably long.

Contrary to logic, a comets tail always points away from the sun. On September 24th 2011 the Earth and Comet Elenin and the Sun allign, with Comet Elenin directly inbetween the Earth and the Sun. The comets tail will be pointed directly at us.

[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Quote from link above:
"The streams of dust and gas thus released form a huge, extremely tenuous atmosphere around the comet called the coma, and the force exerted on the coma by the Sun's radiation pressure and solar wind cause an enormous tail to form, which points away from the sun."
Unquote:

[link to www.st-andrews.ac.uk]

Quote from link above:
"Comet tails can be as long as the distance between the Earth and the Sun."
Unquote:

Venus and then Mercury will pass through the path the comet has taken on 13th October and the 1st November. Mercury stays in its tracks until the 5th November and Earth shall pass through the path the comet has taken on 5th November followed again by Venus in the new year.

[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Quote from link above:
"As a result of outgassing, comets leave a trail of solid debris. If the comet's path crosses Earth's path, then at that point there are likely to be meteor showers as Earth passes through the trail of debris. The Perseid meteor shower occurs every year between August 9 and August 13, when Earth passes through the orbit of Comet Swift–Tuttle.[28] Halley's comet is the source of the Orionid shower in October.[28]"
Unquote:

These meteor showers are experienced within comet tail debris that has already dispersed considerably during the time that it takes for the Earth to reach their locations and are the result of travelling through an area that has been crossed at right angles by the comets tail.

Comet Elenin is different to the comets that we are used to in that its elliptic plane is much more alligned to our own within the solar system than other comets.

It is true that we almost passed through the tail of Comet Halley, but this comet was travelling at a right angle to earth and the paths crossed as in a plus sign scenario.

Comet Hale-Bop's elliptic took it inbetween Jupiter and Mars's elliptic plane at a cross angle and every other comet that I have researched, although passing through our solar system, does not travel actually on our elliptic plane in the same direction that we are travelling, as does Comet Elenin in September of this year

Also it has not really made the news much considering