More comet news, apparently there are THREE inbound comets.
The comets will come close to the Earth in the following order...
Comet Honda - Aug. 18, 2011 will be 0.077 AU from Earth.
Comet Elenin - Oct. 18, 2011 will be 0.232 AU from Earth.
Comet Levy - Jan. 7, 2012 will be 0.045 AU - CLOSEST OF ALL!!!
One "AU" or Astronomical Unit is equal to the distance from the Earth to the Sun or approximately 93 million miles. So, the comets will come as close as 7 million, 22 million, and 4 million miles respectively to Earth. To give you an idea of distance, the moon is 240,000 miles from Earth and Venus is 24 million miles with Mars being 36 million miles from Earth at its closest.
Here are the current trajectories:
I will update as information becomes available
The comets will come close to the Earth in the following order...
Comet Honda - Aug. 18, 2011 will be 0.077 AU from Earth.
Comet Elenin - Oct. 18, 2011 will be 0.232 AU from Earth.
Comet Levy - Jan. 7, 2012 will be 0.045 AU - CLOSEST OF ALL!!!
One "AU" or Astronomical Unit is equal to the distance from the Earth to the Sun or approximately 93 million miles. So, the comets will come as close as 7 million, 22 million, and 4 million miles respectively to Earth. To give you an idea of distance, the moon is 240,000 miles from Earth and Venus is 24 million miles with Mars being 36 million miles from Earth at its closest.
Here are the current trajectories:
I will update as information becomes available