Fire in the Sky
Now it is absolutely clear that the comet's drop in brightness, first noted by Michael Mattiazzo on Aug. 20th, was not coincidental - the decay process had already begun, and over the course of the next several days the comet changed greatly. Its pseudo-nucleus became diffuse and extended, and later vanished completely. On images from Sept. 1st in the comet's coma there was no condensation visible, and that meant the comet had already broken up into fairly small pieces, with a maximum size of not more than a hundred meters.
Such a breakup of small comets passing near the Sun is not rare, and in that is nothing surprising. I note that this is a breakup, not an explosion. All the pieces continue to move on the comet's trajectory. The large fragments are likely to continue to disintegrate into smaller ones. It is possible that in October when the comet moves into the morning sky, we will no longer be able to see what once was Comet Elenin. It is possible that something will be visible to large earth-based telescopes. The breakup of a long-period comet fairly close to the Earth (on a Solar System scale) is a rather rare event. During such a breakup we can see the interior of the comet to better understand its construction and composition.
Overall, the most scientifically interesting thing is the breakup scenario, but unfortunately right now the comet is not visible to the largest telescopes or even the Hubble Space Telescope because of its close angular distance from the Sun (small elongation). On the other hand, amateur astronomers, awaiting this comet which might have been visible to the unaided eye, will now not see it, at least visually in their telescopes and binoculars.
We will wait for Sept. 23rd when the comet is due to appear in the field of view of the SOHO space coronagraph. Any result will tell us what we can expect at the beginning of October when the comet once again should appear in the pre-dawn sky. We will wait. The end of this story is near...
Reader Comments
Since there is a theory saying that the icy nucleus (and then the tail) could be full of bacteria/virus cargo I suspect that the mentioned breakup will only make all this stuff more exposed.
...of the comet himself giving us the update on the comet!
I especially love 'We will wait. The end of this story is near...'
Makes one wonder if a new meteor shower will be occurring due to all this. Perhaps the trajectory of several small pieces would be more likely to intersect with our planet due to the gravitational pull of the individual planets.
Or maybe it will all end up as part of the growing field of space junk, referenced in the other article on the main page...
Problems I see:
1.) the image was tracked on the stars, not the comet. Proper cometary imaging requires tracking on the comet, thereby streaking the stars. The image is therfore poor proof.
2.) There is no label for the image indicating observatory, instrument or exposure time. If the image is of Comet 2000 X1, then where is the link to the FITS file that has this information. No self-respecting Astronomer would be caught doing shoddy proof.
3.) The authors name is Elenin. The discoverer is Leonid Yelenin. Oops.
If Comet Elenin is breaking up, the proof has yet to be demonstrated. I am not impressed.
On the contrary, the predicition of increased seismic activity leading up to a big one upon alignment is proceeding soundly, with 6.0+ quakes striking in a series this weekend. Perihelion is Sept. 11. Closest approach to Earth is Oct. 17 where the comet runs out ahead of the Earth.
the article at truthbehing the scenes states his name is "The name of Comet’s discoverer – Russian Leonid Elenina – " then a few sentences down states "Strong handshake, no signs of hoax. Leonid Yelenin – 29 years, did study at the Moscow Aviation Institute,"
Elenina, Yelenin, Elenin....
if its Yelenin then the comet should be called comet Yelenin..
most of Leonids work is published under the name Leonid Elenin : )
This one has that tone.
Elenin. Perihelion 9/11/2011
Last lineup with Earth/Sun was Fukushima Quake.
Next lineup is 9/26/2011
Elenina, Yelenin, or Elenin?
Answer:
All names in the Russian language have both a feminine, and masculine, form.
Elenina would be the feminine form of that name that his sister, wife, or mother might use. So "Leonid Elenina" would only be appropriate if he were a transvestite all dressed up in drag.
Leonid Elenin is the correct form in this case.
As for "Yelenin", the Cyrillic alphabet is a much better phonetic alphabet that ours. And unlike ours, every word is spelled exactly the way it sounds. To make that possible, it has additional characters for pronunciation keys, and it uses more consonants. It also has more vowels. The regular ones you're used to. As well as a set that combines the regular vowel sounds with the 'Y' sound.
When a word is transposed from the cyrillic to the english spelling, it is common to drop the Y sound from all the vowels. As well as add them sometimes when the process is reversed.
For example, when 'America' is written in cyrillic, it comes out sounding something like 'Amyericya'. It sounds a bit prettier that way I think
I haven't seen the Cyrillic spelling of his name. But 'Yelenin' is probably the correct pronunciation. Even if it isn't the correct English spelling.
What a coincidence not being able to watch this unexpected event by means of ANY of the great technologies we have...