Poor beleaguered Comet C2010 X1 Elanin
Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2011 5:09 pm
I heard the latest RSE teaching Internet stream topic, prseverving the state, featured poor comet C2010 X1 Elenin as a purveyor of destruction. The comet was discovered by a Russian researcher, Leonid Elanin, about a year ago using a shared telescope facility in New Mexico, US.
Somehow, C2010 X1 became the darling of conspiracy oriented radio talk show hosts such as Alex Jones and George Noory. Since then, the comet's putative rein of destruction has gone viral and there are lots of crackpot Youtube videos supposedly showing how C2010 X1 is the coming Apocolypse. Originally, C2010 X1 was supposed to deal a hammering blow on March 15, 2011 when it, "lined up," with other planets. Nothing happened, and that's not surprising. C2010 X1's orbital parameters can be entered into any amateur astronomy tracking program, and it is easy to see that C2010 X1's path is not in the same plane that roughly contains the orbits of the major planets. There is simply nothing to, "line up." Even if there were an alignment, the net change in the gravitational pull on the Earth would be so infinitesimal that at best the Earth might be displaced a few Angstroms. Trucks driving on the Earth's surface probably produce more displacement.
The 2012 Doomsday crowd are trying to weave 2010 X1 into their scenario, claiming that we aren't so sure about the Mayan calendar, so maybe it is really 2011 when all the fuss begins. October 17, 2011 is their red letter day when the comet will be closest to the Earth. Close is a relative term - that is still a separation of about 21,400,000 miles. The distance Earth's own Moon is scant 240,000 miles. The Moon is millions of times more massive than C2010 X1 and has only 1/100th the separation, which means the gravitaional pull of the Moon alone will be billions of times more potent than C2010 X1. If the Earth isn't being ripped apart as the Moon circles the earth on a monthly cycle, then there is no way in God's heavens that C2010 X1 will be able to strike a deadly blow.
RSE seems to use doomsday material that has gone viral and is being bandied about on the late night radio talk shows. This is a great strategy because the material may already be familiar to the, "students," and it saves RSE the bother of having to cook up and get traction for a story. There are already plenty of fertile scary rumor viral videos available on Youtube to pick from by the time RSE gets hold of a story. My personal barometer is that if I hear a goofy doomsday scenario on George Noory's AM Coast to Cost radio show, then it may pop up in an RSE, "teaching," about six weeks later. The History Channel cable TV network is also a breeding ground for RSE's teaching material such as the now debunked James 3 story, Soul Survivor. I have surprised my freinds who are Ramtha devotees more than once because I already know something they just got in a, "teaching." I tell them to listen to late night talk radio or check out The History channel.
I think the ultimate irony is that RSE supposedly used as a teaching aide, a free on-line tool from the Jet Propulsion Laboratoy at, "Father," Ledwith's urging. It is nice to see that RSE is using for science advisor, a guy that got kicked out of the Church over sex abuse scandals at Maynooth St. Patrick's College. It seems like RSE could find somebody with better personal and science credentials for the job. Since when did RSE start trusting the US government?
If you would like to try the JPL model for yourself it is available here: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=C ... ;cad=1#orb Note that the web brower plugin, Java, is required for the interactive model, so it may not work on all computers.
I think the best debunking of C2010 X1's doomsday potential in on Leonid Elanin's own web site: http://spaceobs.org/en
Somehow, C2010 X1 became the darling of conspiracy oriented radio talk show hosts such as Alex Jones and George Noory. Since then, the comet's putative rein of destruction has gone viral and there are lots of crackpot Youtube videos supposedly showing how C2010 X1 is the coming Apocolypse. Originally, C2010 X1 was supposed to deal a hammering blow on March 15, 2011 when it, "lined up," with other planets. Nothing happened, and that's not surprising. C2010 X1's orbital parameters can be entered into any amateur astronomy tracking program, and it is easy to see that C2010 X1's path is not in the same plane that roughly contains the orbits of the major planets. There is simply nothing to, "line up." Even if there were an alignment, the net change in the gravitational pull on the Earth would be so infinitesimal that at best the Earth might be displaced a few Angstroms. Trucks driving on the Earth's surface probably produce more displacement.
The 2012 Doomsday crowd are trying to weave 2010 X1 into their scenario, claiming that we aren't so sure about the Mayan calendar, so maybe it is really 2011 when all the fuss begins. October 17, 2011 is their red letter day when the comet will be closest to the Earth. Close is a relative term - that is still a separation of about 21,400,000 miles. The distance Earth's own Moon is scant 240,000 miles. The Moon is millions of times more massive than C2010 X1 and has only 1/100th the separation, which means the gravitaional pull of the Moon alone will be billions of times more potent than C2010 X1. If the Earth isn't being ripped apart as the Moon circles the earth on a monthly cycle, then there is no way in God's heavens that C2010 X1 will be able to strike a deadly blow.
RSE seems to use doomsday material that has gone viral and is being bandied about on the late night radio talk shows. This is a great strategy because the material may already be familiar to the, "students," and it saves RSE the bother of having to cook up and get traction for a story. There are already plenty of fertile scary rumor viral videos available on Youtube to pick from by the time RSE gets hold of a story. My personal barometer is that if I hear a goofy doomsday scenario on George Noory's AM Coast to Cost radio show, then it may pop up in an RSE, "teaching," about six weeks later. The History Channel cable TV network is also a breeding ground for RSE's teaching material such as the now debunked James 3 story, Soul Survivor. I have surprised my freinds who are Ramtha devotees more than once because I already know something they just got in a, "teaching." I tell them to listen to late night talk radio or check out The History channel.
I think the ultimate irony is that RSE supposedly used as a teaching aide, a free on-line tool from the Jet Propulsion Laboratoy at, "Father," Ledwith's urging. It is nice to see that RSE is using for science advisor, a guy that got kicked out of the Church over sex abuse scandals at Maynooth St. Patrick's College. It seems like RSE could find somebody with better personal and science credentials for the job. Since when did RSE start trusting the US government?
If you would like to try the JPL model for yourself it is available here: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=C ... ;cad=1#orb Note that the web brower plugin, Java, is required for the interactive model, so it may not work on all computers.
I think the best debunking of C2010 X1's doomsday potential in on Leonid Elanin's own web site: http://spaceobs.org/en
He's got a video clip Spaceobs.org from Russian TV where he pulls out his ID card to show that's really his name. Take that, "birthers!"