Comments on: Did a fragmenting comet nearly hit the Earth in 1883? Color me very skeptical

By: Jonathan Jones

Jonathan Jones — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:52:38 +0000

Well the first thing thats fishy is its 1883 who knows what really happened? No one does, 1883 were there telescopes? Not like todays they were made out of glass lenses that magnified the image, so he could of saw a number of different things. For all we know they could of seen god and everyone would believe him. In short People are stupid and ignorant, and not to mention very closed minded but if you look at alignments of Comet elenin the earth and surronding planets, It could be just luck but damn, I hope it 2012 happens cause people need to pull their heads out of their A** and start working together to fix not the U.S (because soon China WILL own us) but the world cause it will start a domino theroy of countires going bankrupt and losing control but just a thought… Love you guys! -Jonathan Jones

By: David Dickinson

David Dickinson — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:35:18 +0000

Another possibility: the “transiting objects” observed could have been the early autumn seasonal migration of Monarch butterflies. The timing is about right, and the Zacatecas Observatory lies right along the migration path.

By: More Junkmail from Bob, #221 « xpda

More Junkmail from Bob, #221 « xpda — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 05:12:30 +0000

[...] http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/… [...]

By: John

John — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 09:56:39 +0000

Dos it have something to do with these observations that Krakatoa volcano erupted in very same year 1883? Would it be that some material was blown out from Krakatau to higher hemisphere that might explain these visual observations?

By: El interesante caso del cometa de 1883 » Teleobjetivo

El interesante caso del cometa de 1883 » Teleobjetivo — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 07:00:35 +0000

[...] embargo, en Bad Astronomy se muestran escépticos con el análisis de Manterola; sus objeciones se basan en tres [...]

By: Puppetmistress

Puppetmistress — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:49:35 +0000

The TYPEFACE is not Georgia, Jeff. This is Georgia.

http://speckyboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/georgia.png

By: Instapundit » Blog Archive » CLOSE CALLS: Billion-Ton Comet May Have Missed Earth by a Few Hundred Kilometers in 1883: A reanal…

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 02:40:07 +0000

[...] ANOTHER UPDATE: Some skepticism on the comet claim. [...]

By: Mexican astronomers suggest Bonilla sighting might have been a very close … | Alkaon Network

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:16:04 +0000

[...] via TechnologyReview, Discover [...]

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:24:40 +0000

Jeff (43) said:

FONT IS GEORGIA! not comic sans

Georgia is a serifed font. The paper is most certainly in a sans serif font, and Comic Sans seems at least pretty close, and certainly a far better match than Georgia.

Perhaps you should have checked your claim before you called anyone a retard.

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:21:29 +0000

Jeff (43) said:

retards lol

Do they?

By: Did a doomsday comet almost end life on earth? | SmartPlanet

Did a doomsday comet almost end life on earth? | SmartPlanet — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:01:06 +0000

[...] Discover, [...]

By: reidh

reidh — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 07:30:32 +0000

It didn’t hit, no one can prove anything. Its just Bull Crop.

By: Mark Hansen

Mark Hansen — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 06:12:37 +0000

Jeff, did you check the font settings of the document? 4 are listed, Comic Sans among them, and not one was Georgia. Care to retract your retards statement?

By: George William Herbert

George William Herbert — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 01:37:44 +0000

SL9 was broken apart by a much more severe gravitational tidal environment, Jupiter’s gravity well. The Earth doesn’t have enough tidal force to do that much damage, per se.

The more significant factor is that even if it breaks up into a linear arc, then there will be outgassing and fragments spread off to the sides. Phil’s generalizing a lot, but the basics (that even at 60k km away, you’d get hit by a lot of cm scale pebbles) are pretty hard to refute. Comets are not point sources, they’re clouds of debris around a main reservoir object. The cloud is not one-dimensional, it’s spreading out in all directions.

There would have to have been meteor activity along with something like this…

By: Dan Arles

Dan Arles — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 01:37:34 +0000

Could it have been sunspots??

By: Nerd Nightly News - TDW Geeks

Nerd Nightly News - TDW Geeks — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:48:24 +0000

[...] Astronomer Phil Plait is skeptical of claims that thousands of comet fragments narrowly missed Earth in the [...]

By: Peter B

Peter B — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:40:10 +0000

Stevez @ #37 said: “I think the point of the theorists is that the comet broke up as a result of EARTH’S gravity as it narrowly missed the planet and was observed immediately after closest approach, which I find at least plausible. When objects in space spread out after breaking up, it’s true they spread out across a very long trail. EVENTUALLY. But not “instantly”.”

I think the BA’s problem is that the astronomers’ article requires the comet fragments to disperse greatly in one dimension only.

By: Old Geezer

Old Geezer — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:53:00 +0000

If they really weren’t comet fragments maybe they should have used Comet Sans.

By: Did A Comet Almost Slam Earth In 1883? | BNewsworld

Did A Comet Almost Slam Earth In 1883? | BNewsworld — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 21:33:42 +0000

[...] like Discover Magazine, find it particularly odd that such a large event happening so close to Earth was only observed by [...]

By: JEFF

JEFF — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 21:17:33 +0000

FONT IS GEORGIA! not comic sans….. retards lol

By: Jason Goemaat

Jason Goemaat — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:12:10 +0000

I like how they mention the objects were surrounded by a mist and left a misty trace. Is that how comets would look? The solar wind normally points the tail away from the sun independent of the direction of motion, which means straight towards the observer. What would the effect be inside the Earth’s magnetic field? Wouldn’t the ionized particles that make up the coma be stripped by our magnetic field?

By: Ian S

Ian S — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:48:11 +0000

@14 Peter,
Halley’s comet is now observable throughout its entire 70 odd year orbit using current large telescopes so yes it would be visible several months out.. However back in the 1800s they didn’t have continuous all sky surveys or the Hubble space telescope so it is conceivable that a comet could escape detection until much closer but a comet, even a fragmented one passing that close to the earth would be very obvious, bright and huge to the naked eye for many days if not weeks.

By: Doomsday Comet? | Our IUSB days

Doomsday Comet? | Our IUSB days — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:49:11 +0000

[...] of that size passing that close to Earth would have been observed by a good number of people. Meteor showers from this comet entering the atmosphere could have even been seen during the day. Yet, nobody [...]

By: Meteors, comets and why we're lucky to be alive | Sync™ Blog

Meteors, comets and why we're lucky to be alive | Sync™ Blog — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:03:05 +0000

[...] quick to criticize the team’s interpretation of the historical observations, one astronomer, Phil Plait, stating that “When a comet breaks up, it spreads out. Even when intact, the material [...]

By: Torbjorn Larsson, OM

Torbjorn Larsson, OM — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:11:51 +0000

The wet collodion process used at the time was known for its many defect sources in its many critical manual steps.

I have seen what is claimed to be one of Bonilla’s plates, and the fuzzy streak correlates with the upper left-lower right diagonal. This is exactly the pour direction that a right handed individual would use in the standard pour back of excess collodion into the bottle as illustrated on historical sites.

Perhaps Bonilla didn’t even take the time to observe the sun by eyeball (say through sooted glass). He may have made up an a posteriori just so story to explain his results, whether unwittingly or to cover for problems with 2 days hard and (I think) expensive work.

This is a testable hypothesis if one has access to enough raw photos or copies, you don’t even need to know Bonilla’s handedness to invalidate it if wrong.

The comet idea didn’t look testable, but it seems BA made a good argument for why it is invalid. But before that, I would say that it looks suspiciously like the standard fare of untestable unscientific archaeoastronomy. Comic sans suits perfectly for that!