Posted on 02/12/2009 3:30:16 PM PST by bruinbirdman
The comets, of which there could be thousands, are not currently monitored by observatories and space agencies.
Most comets and asteroids are monitored in case they start to travel towards earth.
But Bill Napier, from Cardiff University, said that many could be going by unnoticed.
"There is a case to be made that dark, dormant comets are a significant but largely unseen hazard," he said
Scientists estimate that there should be around 3,000 comets in the solar system, but only 25 have so far been identified.
"Dark" comets happen when the water on their surface has evaporated, causing them to reflect less light.
Astronomers have previously spotted comets heading towards earth just days before they passed.
In 1983 a comet called IRAS-Araki-Alcock passed at a distance of just 5 million kilometres, the closest of any comet for 200 years, but it was noticed just a fortnight beforehand.
Tests on another comet, called Comet Borrelly, in 2001 revealed it to have large dark patches across much of its surface.
Steve Larson of the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey in Tucson, which monitors comets, said the idea of an unknown number of "dark" comets circling earth had "merit".
But Clark Chapman from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said that such comets "would absorb sunlight very well" and so could be detected by the heat they emit, reports New Scientist magazine.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Like we don’t have enough to worry about.
Sounds like they NEED some MORE MONEY for research or we are all DOOMED.
Undoubtedly it will work as well as restrictive gun laws have worked in keeping guns out of the hands of street gang members.
They always do.
Kind of the Russian Satellite of cosmic destruction, eh?
Utter hogwash. There are over 3500 known comets in the solar system.
sw
A comet strike would make everything else seem like a church picnic on a perfect spring day.
Yep, its a rough neighborhood out there
Now, there’s a threat algore could make a buck out of, what with climate change/global warming winding down and all.
I’m sure something about “dark comets” can be construed by some folks as racist. LOL
Launch all the politicians...great idea...there is no force of nature that could pass through that gas bag and cause any destruction on Earth. It may mean losing a few pols but, hey, we’ll be at a critical point and someone will have to do something, right?
Make a big dollar-stuffed mattress from the Porkulus proceeds to protect the planet from the nasty comet!!
Shouldn’t we be doing something about this?
Wormwood
Actually, a satellite with a good IR telescope to scan the Solar System WOULD help detect hazards before they strike.
Shel Silverstein?
SOLAR SYSTEM OBSERVING WITH THE SPACE INFRARED TELESCOPE FACILITY ...
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2003/pdf/1464.pdf
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