I'm asking for Dr. Astro's input, specially in the astronomical claims of the book, specially the claim of Gog Being at 150 AU, having a speed of 95 Km/s, being a very dark object that reflects only a 4% of the light it receives, and that it was spotted at these sky coordinates:
Right Ascencion: 21 h 42' 34"
Declination: 58º 44' 12"
Constellation: CEPHEUS.
Quoting: Red Hot Chilean Pepe Well that's a pretty silly object. It would make Oumuamua look like a slow poke by comparison. At 150 AU a velocity of 95 km/s is about 27.6 times faster than solar escape velocity. Oumuamua currently has a sun-relative velocity of only about 30 km/s and it's only about 8.7 AU away from the sun right now ( [
link to theskylive.com (secure)] ). At such an incredible velocity it would cover that 150 AU distance in just a matter of a few years. If the sun's gravity were treated as negligible for such an object, it would mean that it would be at a distance of 150 AU no earlier than about 2020 if my math is right. If the sun's gravity is included it would be at 150 AU slightly later than that in order to hit earth in August 2027. Our current detection systems for finding asteroids are generally limited to about magnitude 21 or so at best (for example, see asteroid 2018 VX1, passed earth this weekend discovered at magnitude 21 and was also observed by Cerro Tololo [
link to www.minorplanetcenter.net (secure)] ). At a distance of 150 AU, an asteroid with an apparent magnitude of 21 would have an absolute magnitude H of -0.77 by my calculations. If the reflectivity (albedo) is 4% we can solve for the diameter.
Diameter = (1329/Sqrt(albedo))*10^(-0.2*H)
In this case that equals a diameter of 9,473 km. That's not an asteroid, nor is it a comet, it's a planet midway between the size of Mars and Earth.
*I now see you mention it was magnitude 19.5 at discovery at the coordinates you mentioned? That makes the claim even more ridiculous. So I was being too generous by assuming it to be as dim as magnitude 21. So now the absolute magnitude H becomes -2.3 and the diameter becomes 19,164 km. It's now 50% wider than earth itself. I can command an iTelescope to image those coordinates down to that magnitude if you want, but I promise it will just be a waste of my money. The author claims this is real? His handwaving about deliberately adding "mistakes" sounds like a cover his ass excuse to keep claiming it's real every time an inconsistency or absurdity of his story is pointed out.
