ALERT: COMETS ARE SWARMING OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. MACHHOLZ2 PASSES CLOSER THAN ANY KNOWN COMET TO DATE?

IT’S BEEN A FEW DECADES SINCE TAKING AN ASTRONOMY LECTURE.  STILL, I REMEMBER PEOPLE WAITING A YEAR OR EVEN TWO IN ORDER TO CATCH A RARE GLIMPSE OF ANY COMET.HECK EVEN HALLY’S WAS NOTHING BUT A SMUDGE OF SLIGHTLY GLOWING COTTON BALL. WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT.

SO HOW MANY COMETS ARE VISIBLE TODAY? WELL,  I’VE LOST COUNT AS TWO SEPARATE COMETS ARE CURRENTLY VISIBLE ON TWO DIFFERENT SATELLITES.

EVERYOINE KNOWS WHY SO MANY COMETS HAVE STREAMED IN TOWARDS THE SUN. THEY WERE OBVIOUSLY BROUGHT HERE.  BY WHAT?  AHEM!  A LARGE TRANSNEPTONIAN OBJECT MOST LIKELY!

HERE IS A TECHNICAL VIDEO THAT EXPLAINS WHAT WE ARE SEEING.  ALSO HERE IS A LIST BELOW THE VIDEO OF ALL THE COMETS WE ARE TRACKING.

IMPACT CONCERNS ARE NOT BEING VOICED REGARDING COMET MACHHOLZ2,  HOWEVER, IT IS SET TO PASS CLOSER TO EARTH THAN ANY OTHER COMET IN RECENT HISTORY. ORBITAL DIAGRAMS AND TECHNICAL ARTICLES DO NOT AGREE ON EXACT ORBIT. THAT’S WIERD. FRAGMENTS SHOWERING EARTH ARE QUITE POSSIBLE IN SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.

NASA HAS MACHHOLZ2 PASSING BEHIND THE EARTH WHILE ESA DIAGRAM HAS IT PASSING IN FRONT OF EARTH.  ALL DIAGRAMS SHOW THIS COMET PASSING ALMOST DIRECTLY UNDER OUR SOUTH POLE.  PERIHELION DATES FOR EARTH DISAGREE BY A DAY OR TWO,  SOME EARLIEST REPORTS HAVE ITS PERIHELION IN JANUARY BUT BY THESE DIAGRAMS THAT IS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE AS THIS COMET CROSSED   VENUS’S ORBIT ABOUT A MONTH AGO.  WE WILL BE TRYING TO FIND MACCHOLZ2 IN THE SKY O ER THE NEXT FEW DAYS AND WILL REPORT IF IT IS VISIBLE.  THE ONE MAJOR CONCERN ABOUT MACHHOLZ2 IS THAT IT HAS KNOWN FRAGMENTS.  CLAIMS THAT IT FRAGMENTED ON PREVIOUS APPROACHES ARE NOT SUBSTANTIATED AS THIS COMET NEVER CAME CLOSER THAN  VENUS TO THE SUN.

HERE IS THAT VIDEO AND MOST ORBBITAL ELEMENTS FOR THESE CURRENT COMETS. THE RESEARCHERS HAVE A SCIENCE CHANNEL ON PATREON PLATFORM THAT UPLOAD DAILY UPDATES REGARDING COVID AND THE SOLAR SYSTEM. WWW.PATREON.COM/HIGHERTRUTHRISES.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y59_G_lmWIg

Ma* C/2020 S3 ( Erasmus )
It brightened up to 5.6 mag in early December (Dec. 9, Marco Goiato). Now it is not observable. It will appear in the morning sky again in April. But then it will be fainter than 15 mag.

* C/2020 M3 ( ATLAS )
Now it is very bright as 8.5 mag (Dec. 9, Marco Goiato). In the Northern Hemisphere, it stays observable in excellent condition for a long time. In the Southern Hemisphere, it stays locating extremely low after this.

Date(TT)  R.A. (2000) Decl.   Delta     r    Elong.  m1   Best Time(A, h)  
Dec. 12   5 19.57   35 39.2   0.471   1.447   167    8.8  23:53 (180, 89)  
Dec. 19   5 16.36   40 13.2   0.532   1.498   161    9.2  23:23 (180, 84)  

* 88P/Howell
Now it is 10.0 mag (Dec. 9, Chris Wyatt). It stays observable in the evening low sky while it will be getting fainter gradually, until early January in the Southern Hemisphere, or late February in the Northern Hemisphere.

Date(TT)  R.A. (2000) Decl.   Delta     r    Elong.  m1   Best Time(A, h)  
Dec. 12  21 15.87  -19 27.5   1.922   1.586    55   10.6  18:19 ( 39, 25)  
Dec. 19  21 37.41  -17 37.8   2.000   1.624    53   10.9  18:22 ( 42, 26)  

* 141P/Machholz 2
It brightened very rapidly in early December. Now it is very bright as 13.5 mag (Dec. 7, Michael Jager). In addition, Michael Jager observed two more components of 17.5-18.0 mag. It stays observable for a long time in this apparition.

* 156P/Russell-LINEAR
Brightened rapidly. Now it is very bright as 10.3 mag (Dec. 9, Chris Wyatt). In the Northern Hemisphere, it stays observable in good condition for a long time. In the Southern Hemisphere, it will be extremely low after January.

* 398P/2020 P2 ( Boattini )
First return of a new periodic comet which brightened up to 13 mag in 2009. Now it is bright as 12.8 mag (Dec. 9, Chris Wyatt). It will brighten up to 12 mag and will be observable in excellent condition in winter.

* C/2019 N1 ( ATLAS
It brightened up to 13.5 mag in summer (July 31, Ken-ichi Kadota). It is expected to brighten up to 12 mag from autumn to winter. In the Southern Hemisphere, it will appear in the morning sky in December, then it stays observable in good condition. In the Northern Hemisphere, it will be observable in the extremely low sky only from November to December.

Date(TT)  R.A. (2000) Decl.   Delta     r    Elong.  m1   Best Time(A, h)  
Dec. 12  14  8.44  -28 21.4   2.300   1.710    42   12.4   5:28 (317, 11)  
Dec. 19  14 15.90  -32 58.2   2.229   1.720    47   12.4   5:32 (324, 11)  

* (3200) Phaethon
It will approach to Sun down to 0.14 a.u. on Dec. 7, and will brighten up to 11 mag. But it is not observable at the high light.

Date(TT)  R.A. (2000) Decl.   Delta     r    Elong.  m1   Best Time(A, h)  
Dec. 12  17 50.71  -20 34.8   1.154   0.227     8   12.9  18:19 ( 72, -9)  
Dec. 19  19  8.31  -14 38.4   1.166   0.429    20   14.8  18:22 ( 70,  3)  

* 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1
Now it is 13.8 mag (Dec. 9, Chris Wyatt).  

* C/2017 T2 ( PanSTARRS
It had been observed as 8-9 mag for a long time in 2020. Now it is not observable. It will appear in the morning sky at 14.5 mag

* C/2019 L3 ( ATLAS )
Now it is 14.2 mag (Nov. 23, Thomas Lehmann). It will brighten up to 11 mag in winter in 2022. In the Northern Hemisphere, it stays observable in good condition for a long time. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is not observable until 2021 November.

Date(TT)  

* C/2017 K2 ( PanSTARRS )
 Now it is 14.3 mag (Nov. 12, Toshihiko Ikemura, Hirohisa Sato). It is expected to be observable at 5-6 mag for a long time from 2022 to 2023. In the Northern Hemisphere, it is not observable at the high light from 2022 summer to 2023 summer. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is not observable now. But it will be observable in good condition at the high light.

* 11P/Tempel-Swift-LINEAR
It approached to Earth down to 0.5 a.u. in November, and it brightened very rapidly. Now it is very bright as 14.5 mag (Nov. 21, Michael Jager). It is observable in excellent condition. But it seems to fade out very rapidly after this.

* 246P/NEAT
It stays 13-14 mag from 2020 to 2021. It is not observable until January.

Date(TT)  R.A. (2000) Decl.   Delta     r    Elong.  m1   Best Time(A, h)  
Dec. 12  16 12.90  -16 55.7   3.823   2.891    16   14.3   5:28 (289, -2)  
Dec. 19  16 24.72  -17 42.2   3.789   2.886    20   14.3   5:32 (293,  1)  

* C/2019 F1 ( ATLAS-African
Now it is 14.8 mag (May 14, Toshiyuki Takahashi). It will brighten up to 13 mag in 2021. In the Southern Hemisphere, it becomes too low to observe temporarily from mid October to mid December. In the Northern Hemisphere, it is not observable until July in 2022.

Machholz 2,  set to pass very close to Earth. Only nobody can agree on how close.