Debris of 'Doomsday' Comet Elenin to Pass by Earth Sunday   
   By Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer   
       
   Mon, Oct 10, 2011...See more photos from science ¯....The moment long feared   
   by conspiracy theorists is nearly upon us: The "doomsday comet" Elenin will   
   make its closest approach to Earth Sunday (Oct. 16). Or what's left of it   
   will, anyway.   
       
   Comet Elenin started breaking up in August after being blasted by a huge solar   
   storm, and a close pass by the sun on Sept. 10 apparently finished it off,   
   astronomers say. So what will cruise within 22 million miles (35.4 million   
   kilometers) of our planet Sunday is likely to be a stream of debris rather   
   than a completely intact comet.   
       
   And the leftovers of Elenin won't return for 12,000 years, astronomers say.   
       
   "Folks are having trouble finding it, so I think it's probably dead and gone,"   
   said astronomer Don Yeomans of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's   
   Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. [Gallery: Comet Elenin in   
   Pictures]   
       
   That means it probably won't present much of a skywatching show Sunday,   
   scientists have said.   
       
   The doomsday comet   
       
   Elenin's apparent demise may come as a relief to some folks, since apocalyptic   
   rumors circulating on the Internet portrayed the comet as a major threat to   
   Earth.   
       
   One theory claimed Elenin would set off havoc on Earth after aligning with   
   other heavenly bodies, spurring massive earthquakes and tsunamis. Another held   
   that Elenin was not a comet at all, but in fact a rogue planet called Nibiru   
   that would bring about the end times on Earth. After all, the comet's name   
   could be taken as a spooky acronym: "Extinction-Level Event: Nibiru Is Nigh."   
       
   Those ideas were pure nonsense, Yeomans said.   
       
   "Elenin was a second-rate, wimpy little comet that never should have been   
   noted for anything, really," he told SPACE.com. "It was not even a bright one."   
       
   Elenin's remains will not be the only objects about to make their closest pass   
   of Earth. One day after the Elenin flyby, the small asteroid 2009 TM8 will zip   
   close by. Like Elenin, it poses no risk of striking our home planet.   
       
   Asteroid 2009 TM8 is about 21 feet (6.4 meters) wide and the size of a   
   schoolbus. It will come within 212,000 miles of Earth  -  just inside the   
   orbit of the moon  -  when it zips by on Monday morning (Oct. 17).   
       
   Say goodbye to Elenin   
       
   Elenin was named after its discoverer, Russian amateur astronomer Leonid   
   Elenin, who spotted it in December 2010. Before the icy wanderer broke up, its   
   nucleus was likely 2 to 3 miles (3 to 5 km) in diameter, scientists say.   
       
   Elenin never posed any threat to life on Earth, Yeomans said. It was far too   
   small to exert any appreciable influence on our planet unless it managed to   
   hit us.   
       
   "Just driving to work every day in my subcompact car is going to have far more   
   of a gravitational effect on Earth than this comet ever will," Yeomans said.   
       
   Elenin's supposed connection to earthquakes was just a correlation, and a weak   
   one at that, he added. Relatively strong earthquakes occur every day somewhere   
   on Earth, so it's easy - but not statistically valid - to blame some of them   
   on the comet's changing position.   
       
   Yeomans views the frenzy over Elenin as a product of the Internet age, which   
   allows loud and often uninformed voices to drown out the rather more prosaic   
   results that scientists publish in peer-reviewed journals.   
       
   "It's a snowball effect on the Web," Yeomans said. "You get one or two folks   
   who make an outrageous claim, and a bunch of others pile on. Some folks are   
   actually making a living this way."   
       
   Elenin's crumbs will soon leave Earth in the rear-view mirror, speeding out on   
   a long journey to the outer solar system. But Yeomans doesn't think the   
   departure will keep the conspiracy theorists down for long.   
       
   "It's time to move on to the next armageddon," he said.   
       
       
   Regards,   
       
   Roger   
      
   --- D'Bridge 3.64   
    * Origin: NCS BBS (1:3828/7)