[meteorite-list] BREAK! For the love of meteorites, STOP -- COMET 73/P

From: MexicoDoug_at_aol.com <MexicoDoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon May 15 06:05:00 2006
Message-ID: <265.a90826a.3199ac42_at_aol.com>

Hola Pete, Sterling & friends

Naw, I wouldn't be too worried about "armegaddon" or however finito is
spelled, as I recall the Earth will be intersecting the region where SW-3 is
believed to have made a couple of passes in the mid 1800's and was assumed doing its
more typical comet sweating. I am not aware of any predictions leading the
Earth into the disintegration path we are fortunate to be witnessing now, though
you could dig into it a bit further. When Jupiter screws with an orbit that
has turned into a meteoroide freeway, it just would effect the pieces that
coincide with close approach, not the whole ellipse. Then you start getting
families of ellipses. So that is the sort of fortuitous play we would need to
toss a set of hot-wheels ribbon tracks to whip by our little blue dot and for
the near term I suspect the odds are pretty low.
All in all, don't hold your breath for 2022, just hope for a pleasant
surprise as meteor streams often give (though way more often they disappoint)...
Saludos, Doug

Pete P. wrote:

<< > Regarding the 2022 shower, I was wondering how different that spectacle
will
> be considering it won't be the normal dust-to-pea-sized coma debris, but
> more likely some considerable chunks included, due to the current and
nicely
> timed disintegration.
>
> Armegaddon!? What side of the planet should we be on then? (-Rhetorical
;]) >>
Received on Mon 15 May 2006 06:04:50 AM PDT