http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/comet/ en-us Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:08:29 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2361358/posts No evidence of an extraterrestrial impact 13,000 years ago, studies say. An independent study has cast more doubt on a controversial theory that a comet exploded over icy North America nearly 13,000 years ago, wiping out the Clovis people and many of the continent's large animals.Sediments at the San Jon site, in eastern New Mexico, contained very low abundances of magnetic spherules said to be evidence of an impact.Vance Holliday Archaeologists have examined sediments at seven Clovis-age sites across the United States, and did not find enough magnetic cosmic debris to confirm that an extraterrestrial impact happened at that time,... Nature http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2361358/posts#comment Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:08:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2342815/posts Like a mushroom shooting out spores, a well-known comet was seen firing multiple "mini comets" that went sailing away at up to 280 miles (451 kilometers) an hour, astronomers have announced. The fragments were recently revealed in high-resolution images of comet Holmes, a relatively small body discovered in 1892 that mysteriously erupted in 2007, when the above images were taken. (Black-ringed dots moving in the images are background stars.) Over several days astronomers using the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope on Mauna Kea watched the 2.2-mile-wide (3.5-kilometer-wide) cloud of dust surrounding the comet swell to become larger than the sun. Later, closer looks... National Geographic News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2342815/posts#comment Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:08:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2318455/posts "Showing that the ingredients for life in the universe may be distributed far more widely than previously thought, scientists have found traces of a key building block of biology in dust snatched from the tail of a comet. Scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., have uncovered glycine, the simplest amino acid and a vital compound necessary for life, in a sample from the comet Wild 2. The sample was captured by NASA's Stardust spacecraft, which dropped it into the Utah desert in 2006. "By detecting glycine, we now know that comets could have delivered amino acids... LA Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2318455/posts#comment Tue, 18 Aug 2009 04:39:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2318419/posts The amino acid glycine, a fundamental building block of proteins, has been found in a comet for the first time, bolstering the theory that raw ingredients of life arrived on Earth from outer space, scientists said on Monday. Microscopic traces of glycine were discovered in a sample of particles retrieved from the tail of comet Wild 2 by the NASA spacecraft Stardust deep in the solar system some 242 million miles (390 million km) from Earth, in January 2004. Samples of gas and dust collected on a small dish lined with a super-fluffy material called aerogel were returned to Earth... Reuters.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2318419/posts#comment Tue, 18 Aug 2009 03:26:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2299740/posts Researchers have found shock-synthesized hexagonal diamonds on one of California's Channel Islands, which they say is the strongest evidence yet that a comet exploded in the atmosphere above North America, causing widespread extinctions there around 12,900 years ago... In 2007 researchers theorized that a comet set off continental fires that led to the mysterious disappearance of the Clovis people and the extermination of 35 mammal genera, including mammoths, mastodons, ground sloths and camels. The team documented a "black mat" of charcoal throughout North America that contains high levels of iridium, magnetic spheres, and nano-diamonds, which are consistent with such an... Scientific American http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2299740/posts#comment Fri, 24 Jul 2009 02:00:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2297700/posts "These findings are inconsistent with the alternative and already hotly debated theory that overhunting by Clovis people led to the rapid extinction of large mammals at the end of the ice age, the research team argues in the PNAS paper." Science News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2297700/posts#comment Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:09:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2192005/posts Its green, gassy, has two fins. A vintage Cadillac? No, it's Comet Lulin coming Monday tonight - astronomers, astrologers and George Noory all watching The Washington Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2192005/posts#comment Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:06:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2188392/posts An odd, greenish backward-flying comet is zipping by Earth this month, as it takes its only trip toward the sun from the farthest edges of the solar system. The comet is called Lulin, and there's a chance it can be seen with the naked eye — far from city lights, astronomers say. But you'll most likely need a telescope, or at least binoculars, to spot it. The best opportunity is just before dawn one-third of the way up the southern sky. It should be near Saturn and two bright stars, Spica and Regula. On Monday at 10:43 p.m. EST, it... Fox News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2188392/posts#comment Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:12:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2188059/posts WASHINGTON – An odd, greenish backward-flying comet is zipping by Earth this month, as it takes its only trip toward the sun from the farthest edges of the solar system. The comet is called Lulin, and there's a chance it can be seen with the naked eye — far from city lights, astronomers say. But you'll most likely need a telescope, or at least binoculars, to spot it. The best opportunity is just before dawn one-third of the way up the southern sky. It should be near Saturn and two bright stars, Spica and Regula. On Monday at 10:43 p.m.... AP on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2188059/posts#comment Wed, 18 Feb 2009 03:46:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2179828/posts During the next few weeks, a fine comet bright enough for observation in binoculars and possibly even with the naked eye will provide a fine skywatching target when weather permits.Comet Lulin will be closest to Earth on Feb. 24 and will occur than and on surrounding nights. For sharp-eye viewers with dark, rural, skies, the comet is expected to be visible as a dim, fuzzy star.People living in cities and suburbs are not expected to see the comet with the naked eye, but binoculars and telescopes will reveal its cloudy head and perhaps a striking tail, too. Comets are unpredictable,... Yahoo (Space.com) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2179828/posts#comment Fri, 6 Feb 2009 18:17:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2160839/posts Comet Lulin (C/2007 N3), discovered in 2007 by a Strait-bridging team of astronomers from Taiwan and China, is swinging around the sun and approaching Earth. Astronomer Karzaman Ahmad sends this picture taken Jan. 7th from the Langkawi National Observatory in Malaysia: Spaceweather.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2160839/posts#comment Thu, 8 Jan 2009 12:27:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2157721/posts Abundant tiny particles of diamond dust exist in sediments dating to 12,900 years ago at six North American sites, adding strong evidence for Earth's impact with a rare swarm of carbon-and-water-rich comets or carbonaceous chondrites, reports a nine-member scientific team. These nanodiamonds, which are produced under high-temperature, high-pressure conditions created by cosmic impacts and have been found in meteorites, are concentrated in similarly aged sediments at Murray Springs, Ariz., Bull Creek, Okla., Gainey, Mich., and Topper, S.C., as well as Lake Hind, Manitoba, and Chobot, Alberta, in Canada. Nanodiamonds can be produced on Earth, but only through high-explosive detonations or... www.physorg.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2157721/posts#comment Fri, 2 Jan 2009 18:44:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2157352/posts Comet may have exploded over planet, causing fires, die-offs, researchers say A meteorite colliding with the Earth 65 million years ago is considered to be the most likely reason dinosaurs vanished from the planet. Now a team of scientists says it has found new evidence that an object from space caused a similar extinction event only 13,000 years ago. In an article to be published Friday in the journal Science, researchers present what one author calls the "smoking bullet"—proof that an exploding comet triggered the sudden, thousand-year freeze that killed off mammoths, saber-toothed tigers and other large mammals that used... Chicago Tribune http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2157352/posts#comment Thu, 1 Jan 2009 22:09:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2142213/posts A comet orbiting our Sun may be an interloper from another star system. Comet Machholz 1 isn't like other comets. David Schleicher of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, measured the chemical makeup of 150 comets, and found that they all had similar levels of the chemical cyanogen (CN) except for Machholz 1, which has less than 1.5% of the normal level. Along with some other comets, it is also low on the molecules carbon2 and carbon3. Schleicher suggests three possible explanations. The simplest is that Machholz 1 could have formed in an extremely cold region of the solar system.... New Scientist http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2142213/posts#comment Wed, 3 Dec 2008 17:41:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2099016/posts The transit method — observing a distant planet as it moves in front of its star as seen from Earth — is a prime tool for exoplanet detection. But transits are hardly limited to planets around their primaries. The Taiwanese-American Occultation Survey (TAOS) is demonstration of that, an attempt to find tiny Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) in the range between 0.5 and 28 kilometers. As you would imagine, at a distance like this such objects cannot be seen directly, but an occultation — the dimming of a star when one of the KBOs passes in front of it —... Centauri Dreams http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2099016/posts#comment Mon, 6 Oct 2008 22:22:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2087113/posts Scientific Scenario Of A Comet's Impact With Earth And The "Wormwood Star" Prophecy by Marshall Beeber An Introduction In the First Century AD, the Apostle John wrote an apocalyptic book called "Revelation" in which he described among many "end-time" events the collision of a star called Wormwood with Earth. Revelation states: Rev. 8:10-11: The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water-- the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people... The Messianic Literary Corner http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2087113/posts#comment Sun, 21 Sep 2008 16:24:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2010276/posts Sun's Movement Through Milky Way Regularly Sends Comets Hurtling, Coinciding With Mass Life ExtinctionsA large body of scientific evidence now exists that support the hypothesis that a major asteroid or comet impact occurred in the Caribbean region at the boundary of the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods in Earth's geologic history. Such an impact is suspected to be responsible for the mass extinction of many floral and faunal species, including the large dinosaurs, that marked the end of the Cretaceous period. (Credit: Art by Don Davis / Courtesy of NASA) ScienceDaily (May 2, 2008) — The sun's movement through the Milky... Science Daily http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2010276/posts#comment Fri, 2 May 2008 15:53:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1949722/posts Meteors' mysterious origin traced to 1490 event 15:50 07 January 2008 NewScientist.com news service Stephen Battersby Last week's Quadrantid meteor shower was probably debris from a deep-space explosion that went off in the late 15th century, new observations reveal. The meteors, which return every January, were observed more closely than ever before when a group of 14 astronomers tracked them for nine hours on a flight from California, US, to the North Pole. They found that the shower peaked at around 0200 GMT on Friday, matching a prediction made by Peter Jenniskens of NASA. He based his prediction on the... New Scientist http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1949722/posts#comment Mon, 7 Jan 2008 18:28:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1940430/posts The sun is no longer the largest object in our solar system. At least for a while anyway. Comet 17P/Holmes suddenly exploded on October 23, making it a million times brighter within a few hours and causing its gas and dust cloud to expand until it was measured at 0.9 million miles across by November 9 by Rachel Stevenson, Jan Kleyna and Pedro Lacerda of the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy. And it's still growing. The sun's diameter is about 864,900 miles. The comet should begin to shrink back to a more normal size in the near future. The... CNET NEWS http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1940430/posts#comment Mon, 17 Dec 2007 00:15:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1929074/posts Did a Comet Cause the Great Flood?The universal human myth may be the first example of disaster reporting. by Scott Carney11-15-2007 The Fenambosy chevrons at the tip of Madagascar. Image courtesy of Dallas Abbott The serpent’s tails coil together menacingly. A horn juts sharply from its head. The creature looks as if it might be swimming through a sea of stars. Or is it making its way up a sheer basalt cliff? For Bruce Masse, an environmental archaeologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, there is no confusion as he looks at this ancient petroglyph, scratched into a rock by a... Discover Magazine http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1929074/posts#comment Wed, 21 Nov 2007 22:17:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1926776/posts The notion that Comet Holmes is bigger than the Sun has been making the rounds on space-related websites of late. But is it true? According to a statement on astronomer Dave Jewitt's website, it is. "Formerly, the Sun was the largest object in the Solar System," the statement reads. "Now, comet 17P/Holmes holds that distinction." Jewitt works at the University of Hawaii, and is certainly an authority on icy denizens of the solar system, having co-discovered the first Kuiper Belt object. But what the statement is referring to is not the "body" of the comet, called the nucleus, which... New Scientist http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1926776/posts#comment Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:39:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1925933/posts All right, that title is a little misleading. In fact, when I first read the original press release, my skepticism alarms went off. But it's true, the amazing Comet Holmes now has a halo that's larger than the Sun. Not bad for a comet that, until three weeks ago, was just a tiny dim dirty snowball orbiting near Jupiter. Comet Holmes made its spectacular outburst on October 24, 2007. Formally dim enough to only be visible in the most powerful telescopes, it quickly brightened up to be seen with the unaided eye - even in light-polluted cities (like my very... Universe Today http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1925933/posts#comment Thu, 15 Nov 2007 03:06:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1916450/posts Comet brightens mysteriously by a factor of a million 22:04 25 October 2007 NewScientist.com news service Maggie McKee A comet usually too faint to be seen with the naked eye has brightened by a factor of a million since Tuesday, suggesting its surface may have cracked open and expelled clouds of dust and gas. Astronomers are scrambling to observe the strange object, which is likely to fade in the coming days and weeks. Comet 17P/Holmes, which orbits the Sun every seven years on a path that takes it from the distance of Jupiter's orbit to about twice that of Earth's,... New Scientist http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1916450/posts#comment Thu, 25 Oct 2007 21:39:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1908525/posts Editorial Reviews Review Allen West, coauthor of The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes : “Graham Phillips argues persuasively that Earth encountered a massive comet 3,500 years ago around the time of the Exodus from Egypt. The object appeared twenty times larger than the full moon and was by far the largest comet sighting ever recorded by ancient historians. The worldwide consequences for mankind were devastating. Our own scientific research confirms that the author’s theory is completely credible.” Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, authors of The Templar Revelation and The Sion Revelation : “an extraordinary tour de force . . . ”... amazon http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1908525/posts#comment Tue, 9 Oct 2007 06:47:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1908036/posts Site provides evidence for ancient comet explosion JOEY HOLLEMAN; McClatchy Newspapers Published: October 7th, 2007 01:00 AM COLUMBIA, S.C. – For the second time in less than a decade, a South Carolina river bluff holds evidence pointing to a theory with history-rewriting potential. Microscopic soil particles from the Topper site near Allendale might hold a tiny key to a big theory: that comet-caused explosions wiped out the mammoths and mastodons, prompted the last ice age and decimated the first human culture in North America about 12,900 years ago. The comet theory first began generating a buzz at an international meeting... The News Tribune http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1908036/posts#comment Mon, 8 Oct 2007 05:07:52 GMT