NASA/JPL makes first statement about comet Elenin!

What did they have to say? They basically said that comet Elenin will be a non event as far as the public interest is concerned. Or in other words, you won't be able to see comet Elenin at all with the unaided eye.

Which, if you'll recall, is the exact opposite of what I said in my blog two days ago! =D And the statement isn't coming from some Joe Blow at NASA/JPL, its coming from Don Yeomans who is sort of like the Wizard Of Oz at NASA/JPL when it comes to comets. Yeomans has been associated with comets and NASA/JPL as far back as I can remember, 15 years or more.

So what's going on here? Do we really have a “wimpy” comet, as he termed it, or was he too busy to check the very latest data on comet Elenin. The data from a few weeks or so ago was showing that comet Elenin would indeed be a magnitude 8 totally boring comet. But just a few days ago that has changed. In this shot for example, that I posted a link to on my twitter @cometelenin just yesterday. I posted the link not so much because it is a beautiful shot of comet Elenin, but rather that this Australian amateur astronomer Astroswanny is stating that he thought the magnitude was about magnitude 13. Magnitude 13 IS GOOD for comet Elenin at this time!

Can't argue with the NASA/JPJ comet guru Yeomans though, if he's saying wimpy then it might very well end up being wimpy, but I'll be on the lookout for any revisions to his statement.

You can see the NASA/JPL article at the following link. Comet Elenin: Preview of a Coming Attraction

What's at stake here is whether or not comet Elenin is going to end up on this list of great comets in history. Yes, the article happens to be written by Yeomans, but for you conspiracy theorists there is no conspiracy here. Unless you think Yeomans has a FREEZE RAY and he's freezing our comet Elenin so it wont light up good! HAHAHA! =D

We may be able to see comet Elenin in the day time!

Leonid Elenin spent a great deal of time searching for a comet and finally found one! That is quite an exciting achievement these days when there are so many eyes looking for comets every night, including robotic eyes! And then even more exiting, to learn that your comet could end up being what's known as a great comet. Great comets are comets that get bright enough that it is plainly visible without even trying to look for it. Comet Hale Bopp was an example of a great comet. But, the excitement faded somewhat as software for predicting the brightness of comets was showing that we might not be able to see it at all with the unaided eye. Well that just changed! The latest calculations are now predicting a brightness of magnitude 4, which means that it will easily be visible to the unaided eye. The scale of brightness used in astronomy is a logarithmic scale from magnitude -27 for the sun to magnitude 32 for an object so dim that not even the Hubble space telescope can image it. So magnitude 4 is great considering that magnitude 6 is just barely bright enough for the unaided eye to see in optimal conditions, a moonless night and in a location far away from city lights for example.  And around the 27th of September we would normally not be able to see it because it will be between the earth and the sun, so if you looked in the direction that it is supposed to be in you would also be looking in the direction of the sun and the sun of course is so bright that only the sun can be seen. However, comet Elenin MAY get bright enough at this time that we might be able to see it in the day time in addition to the sun. A conservative estimate is that it may get to magnitude zero at this time.  Magnitude zero is very bright for a night time object, but not bright enough to see in the day.  Yet if it can get up to several magnitudes brighter at this time, say magnitude -13 for example, the brightness of the moon, you would be able to see it the same way you can see the moon in the day time.  Also, depending on how active it gets, it MAY even appear for a few days as though there are two suns in the sky! It would need to approach magnitude -20 or more for this to occur.  This is a very exaggerated suggestion, but not completely improbable.  This jump in brightness is because all of the reflected sunlight of the tail will be concentrated in one spot as we will be looking down the tail, which will be very nearly pointed in the direction of the earth. To learn more, go to Leonid's article announcing the news on his web site at the following link. Comet Elenin may be brighter than expected