[mc5cents]

You're traveling through another dimension -- a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's a signpost up ahead: your next stop: the Twilight Zone!

[hershey]

Who knew aliens were registered dems? Huh.

[ElkGroveDan]

Funny, every other astronomer and physicist in the world who has examined the data closely, disagrees with him. But in the world of fear, paranoia, and conspiracy that never stopped anyone.

[BelegStrongbow]

So, not a good day to go to Carolina Beach, I'd expect.

[Hatteras]

I can't believe nobody posted this graphic yet...

[R. Scott]

Comet Schwassman-Wachmann follows a five-year orbit that crosses the solar system's ecliptic plane. It has followed its five year orbit intact for centuries; but, in 1995, mysteriously fragmented.

According to Julien, this is the same year that a crop circle appeared showing the inner solar system with the Earth missing from its orbit.

Well! Crop circles don’t lie!

[SuziQ]

He concludes the May 25 event is tied in to the Bush administration's policy of preemptive use of nuclear weapons against Iran

Hey, maybe the comet fragment will hit Iran and save us the trouble of lobbing a nuke!

[Churchillspirit]

Too much vin ordinaire Eric, mon ami.

[blam]

Here's the scientific version of this story that I posted back on 4-11-2006.

Hybrid Comet-Asteroid In Mysterious Break-up

"Something substantial has broken off an icy 50-kilometre object beyond the orbit of Saturn, leaving puzzled astronomers trying to figure out why. Comets have been seen breaking up before, but only after heating when passing close to the Sun or a gravitational disturbance following a close encounter with a planet."

"However, at 1.9 billion kilometres, this object is very far from the Sun. Another mysterious feature is that much more gas and dust is escaping from the breakaway fragment than from the parent body. The disintegration has created a dust cloud more than 100,000 km across and which is several times brighter than the original object was before the event."

[GreenAccord]

I hope it hits my neighbor's house. I hate that guy.

_{This comment borrowed without permission from another poster in an earlier, unrelated, asteroid thread. It made me laugh my butt off, so I thought I'd try it too.}

[big'ol_freeper]

Five words into the first sentence I knew he was a looney.

[SoftballMominVA]

so........we are going to the beach in August. Should we cancel?

[sissyjane]

Well, my anniversary is on May 24th, so I guess the hubbie and I better make it memorable.

[Andy from Chapel Hill]

I go to settlement on my house sale on the 24th. I will deposit the check ASAP.

Thanks for the warning!

[KevinDavis]

Question, should I get a BMW with 30 year high interest loan since the world is going to end next month??

[mikrofon]

If the tourists start to leave, then we should be concerned...

[SunkenCiv]

And on May 26th, I'm sure there'll be some lame excuse as to why it didn't happen...

Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3
Tim Printy's Astronomy Web Page
http://members.aol.com/tprinty/SW3.html

[B4Ranch]

Is Mexifornia going to get knocked into the Pacific?

[Vicomte13]

Oh My GOD! We're all gonna DIE!!!

AAAAAAAAAGH!!!

Wait.
We were all gonna die anyway...

Well, then, AAAAAAAGH anyway!

When in danger, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.

And remember: eat healthy, live right...die anyway.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Somehow, I don't think I need to make preparations at this point in time.