The giant comets, termed centaurs, move on unstable orbits crossing the paths of the massive outer planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The planetary gravitational fields can occasionally deflect these objects in towards the Earth.
Centaurs are typically 50 to 100 kilometers across, or larger, and a single such body contains more mass than the entire population of Earth-crossing asteroids found to date. Calculations of the rate at which centaurs enter the inner solar system indicate that one will be deflected onto a path crossing the Earth’s orbit about once every 40,000 to 100,000 years. Whilst in near-Earth space they are expected to disintegrate into dust and larger fragments, flooding the inner solar system with cometary debris and making impacts on our planet inevitable.
Known severe upsets of the terrestrial environment and interruptions in the progress of ancient civilizations, together with our growing knowledge of interplanetary matter in near-Earth space, indicate the arrival of a centaur around 30,000 years ago. This giant comet would have strewn the inner planetary system with debris ranging in size from dust all the way up to lumps several kilometers across.
A decade ago, Stephen Hawking observed that one of the major factors in the possible scarcity of intelligent life in our galaxy is the high probability of an asteroid or comet colliding with inhabited planets. This week, a team of astronomers from Armagh Observatory and the University of Buckingham reported that the discovery of hundreds of giant comets in the outer planetary system over the last two decades means that these objects pose a much greater hazard to life than asteroids.
The team, made up of Professors Bill Napier and Duncan Steel of the University of Buckingham, Professor Mark Bailey of Armagh Observatory, and Dr David Asher, also at Armagh, publish their review of recent research in the December issue of Astronomy & Geophysics (AandG), the journal of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Because they are so distant from the Earth, Centaurs appear as pinpricks of light in even the largest telescopes. Saturn's 200-km moon Phoebe, seems likely to be a Centaur that was captured by that planet's gravity at some time in the past.
Indeed, there is a lot going on above our heads at the moment.
Let’s take a look at the latest news across the web.
Huge Comet Making a Headlong Plunge in the Solar Corona.
On December 9, 2015, a huge comet disintegrated in the Solar Corona as seen by the SOHO solar spacecraft. Some reports describe this comet as 10 up to 50 meters small fragment. This is not just 50 meters in size but a very big comet that we were not aware that existed in our neighborhood. In the video you can clearly see this large space visitor making a headlong plunge in the solar corona. This comet must be over 500 m in size.
Mega asteroid so BIG 'it could trigger earthquakes and volcanoes on Earth is set to skim past us on Christmas Eve.
The 1.5-miles wide mega space rock known as 2003 SD220 is on a NASA list of "high priority" asteroids for close observation because of the potential threat to the planet.
A smaller group of six, also including 2003 SD220, are also considered potentially hazardous to Earth due to their sizes and orbits.
A team made up of NASA and staff from the Arecibo observatory in Peurto Rico are preparing to carry out specialist radar observations of 2003 SD220 as it nears us from mid December. A NASA report seen by Express.co.uk explained the importance of carrying out radar observations on the celestial object. Read More.
Christmas full moon to arrive for 1st time since 1977.
This year, when you look up at the sky on Christmas morning, you'll get a Christmas treat that no one has had since the year the original Star Wars movie was released — a full moon. The next Christmas full moon is isn't expected until 3:54 a.m. ET in 2034, according to the U.S. Navy Astronomical Applications Department's moon phases predictor. Read More.
Comet Catalina on Christmas too.
Not only will there be a full moon to enjoy, there will be a comet visible with binoculars. Comet Catalina will be visible in the early morning hours in the eastern sky.
If you have a strong enough telescope you may get to see "two tails." Brian Ottum, owner of a telescope in New Mexico, says comet Catalina has two tails. One tail is from the sun blasting the vapor back and the other tail from dust trailing behind the comet's movement. Read More.
Geminid Meteor shower.
The Geminid meteor shower will be in full swing the nights of Dec. 13 and Dec. 14, and experts are saying it's going to be the best meteor shower of 2015. Earth is entering a stream of gravelly debris from "rock comet" 3200 Phaethon, source of annual Geminid meteor shower.
Forecasters expect peak rates to occur on Dec. 13-14, when dark-sky observers in both hemispheres could see as many as 120 meteors per hour. Observing conditions will be nearly ideal because the shower peaks just a few days after the New Moon. Read More.
And if that is not yet enough, it seems a large object has entered our solar system.
Image left: Large unknown object (labelled U) as seen by ALMO. Credit: R. Liseau, et al.
Astronomers using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) a powerful telescope located in the high desert of Chile have found a distant object in the direction of Alpha Centauri. The object appears to be in the outer region of our solar system.
Whether dwarf planet, super-Earth, a small star or even Planet X, it seems clear that something is lurking on the outer edge of our solar system.
And the latest news on this subject, last Tuesday, a group of astronomers said they’d found not just one such presence, but two of them. Read More.
OK, so far the news on celestial bodies, astronomical objects.
But what about the advanced extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy?
Well, according to Bulgaria-born Baba Vanga, was born Vangelia Pandeva Dimitrova, who died in 1996 aged 85 and known as “Nostradamus from the Balkans” thanks to a purported 85 percent success rate, predicted that in 2130 with the help of the aliens, civilisations will live underwater.
Baba Vanga led an ordinary life up until the age of 12, when she mysteriously lost her eyesight during a massive storm. She was flung into the air and then dashed to the ground by a powerful gust of wind. Vanga later stated that she had experienced her first vision during the days she was missing and believed she had been instilled with the ability to heal people and predict the future.
So, if Baba’s prediction for 2130 comes true, there is a possibility the aliens have already made contact with us in the years before 2130.
But before we arrive in 2130, according to Baba Vanga’s predictions, a lot of things are going to happen in space and on earth between 2016 and 2130.
2023: The Earth’s orbit will change. 2028: Mankind will fly to Venus, in hope of finding new sources of energy. 2033: World water levels will rise as the polar ice caps melt. 2084: Nature is reborn. 2100: Man-made sun illuminates the dark side of the planet.
Yet her predictions for 2016, 2025, 2043, 2066 and 2076 which I only can describe as the rise and fall of Gog and Magog.
They are coming our way and they will contact us, but for the coming years, they are just watching us as they want to see if we can handle our earth/space problems before they get involved.
A huge fireball has been spotted in the skies over the Russian city of Chita near the border with China. An unidentified flying object, most probably a meteorite, made three extra bright flashes before burning out, according to eyewitness accounts.
Witnesses described the incident as an unusually bright flash that illuminated the skies just after midnight on November 12. The falling object left long tail of light behind it.
“It resembled a fall of some kind of a space object,” Zvezda TV channel said, citing an unnamed witness. The phenomenon was also allegedly clearly visible from neighboring cities.
The Russian military said that no drills were conducted in the region last night reported RT.
The fireball comes several days after a second mysterious black 'UFO' ball has been crashed into a spanish field.
For the second time in just five days, on November 8, 2015, a mystery cylindrical object weighing about 20 kilos has fallen into fields in Calasparra, an area of Murcia with 9,700 inhabitants just a stone's throw from the site where the first black 'UFO'ball has been found on November 3, 2015.
Once again the Civil Gaurd was called in, the area sealed off until investogators could initiate the protocol known as "NRBC (nuclear, radiological, bacteriological and chemical)" to avoid any potential dangers.
It is worthy to mention that also on November 3, 2015 a similar mysterious 'UFO ball" object has been crashed on the beach of Karusa, one of the Black Sea coastal town's of Sakarya in Turkeye.
Today, Friday 13th another unidentified space object (WT1190F) is about to crash off the coast of Sri Lanka. Scri Lanka has issued a NO FLY warning and the impact is expected at 11.49 am Sri Lanka time.
Where are these objects coming from and can we expect more unidentified objects falling from the sky?
On September 7, 2015 a huge meteor exploded in the sky over Bangkok, yet again another strange and suspected fireball made a close approach and was seen streaking across the night sky in several parts of the country, including Bangkok on November 2, 2015 at around 20.38 pm local time.
Below two short videos of the latest fireball as it blazes across the sky in Bangkok on November 2, 2015 and a third video of the strange fireball in slow motion.
It's only a matter of time before one comes in and makes a direct impact.
A huge blue fireball streaks across the night sky in Poland on October 31, 2015.
According to unconfirmed reports residents in Copenhagen, Denmark have seen similar huge blue fireballs at about the same time. A resident in Copenhagen said that the blue lights were very bright and lasted for about 4 or 5 seconds.
NASA on alert as huge Asteroid 2015 TB145 named Spooky set to pass Earth with Highly Uncertain Orbit.
The asteroid was first observed on 10 October 2015 by Pan-STARRS at an apparent magnitude of 20 using a 1.8-meter Ritchey–Chrétien telescope. On 31 October 2015 the asteroid will pass about 0.0019 AU (280,000 km; 180,000 mi) from the Moon and then pass about 0.0032 AU (480,000 km; 300,000 mi) from Earth.
Astronomers estimate the diameter of 2015 TB145, which is also known as "Spooky," to be between 950 feet and 2,130 feet (290 to 650 meters). The Halloween flyby will mark the closest known encounter with such a big asteroid until August 2027, researchers said.
The asteroid is on an extremely eccentric and a high inclination orbit,' NASA explained.
4 days after its discovery NASA gave it a code 9 condition and today, October 22, 2015, it still has a code 8 condition (With 0 being good and 9 being highly uncertain), because of its erratic orbit, NASA isn't sure where it will go, but the space agency says it's confident it will not hit Earth.
Latest update from Goldstone Radar Observatory: The asteroid is on an extremely eccentric (~0.86) high inclination (~40 deg) orbit. It has a Tisserand parameter of 2.937 indicating that it may be Cometary In Nature. The encounter velocity is 35 km/s, which is unusually high.
Note: Cometary orbits hint at a large undiscovered object.
Intrigued by the fact that long-period comets observed from Earth seem to follow orbits that are not randomly oriented in space, a scientist at the Open University in the UK is arguing that these comets could be influenced by the gravity of a large undiscovered object in orbit around the Sun.
An asteroid the size of 2015 TB145 would do major damage if it were to slam into Earth. For example, the near-Earth object (NEO) that caused the famous "Tunguska event," which destroyed 800 square miles (about 2,070 square km) of Siberian forest in 1908, is thought to have been just 130 feet (40 m) or so in diameter — about 10 percent as wide as 2015 TB145
