Too slow, too dim, too angular; coming from the wrong place at the wrong angle; didn't develop a coma at the right time; two unknown objects flanking it at a distance; seems to be towing a large asteroid; looked like it exploded and lost its coma, but is back with full coma now, the explosion apparently being a turn; a tetrahedron was seen to form around it at moment it turned; the sun has grown more active as Elenin approaches it, its flares packing more punch than is normal. This is clearly no ordinary comet, but that does not necessarily mean it brings catastrophe for earth.

But even more troubling is NASA's strange behavior about it: Treating it, and in fact all recent comets, as a non-event when they used to promote astronomy by exposing comets heavily in the media; they don't promote astronomy at all now; nothing but lo-res images of Elenin despite their demonstrated ability to get hi-res images; suddenly shutting down SECCHI when their claim that Elenin exploded was contra-indicated on YouTube, and the image resolution greatly reduced when it came back online so nobody can see anymore what happened; saying the comet is not blue, and altering hue and saturation to make it appear not blue, but now amateurs can see it's blue.

I won't go into all the spooky tie-ins between Elenin and movies such as Deep Impact and Knowing.

Towing a large asteroid? Forming a tetrahedron? Source please.

Can you provide reliable (not nutters on YouTube), scientific (I don't give a shit about Hopi prophecy) citations for any of this? If you can, I'd be really interested.

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Somebody with that many different claims must have at least one source, right? I don't want to prove someone else's point for them if they're not going to provide any sources.

saying the comet is not blue, and altering hue and saturation to make it appear not blue, but now amateurs can see it's blue.

Hopi prophecy?

I won't go into all the spooky tie-ins between Elenin and movies such as Deep Impact and Knowing.

You really should. I remember reading something about it...but I don't really remember much.

If you're blue and you don't know...

You will notice the camera on SECCHI gets worse the more light is in the frame, doesn't mean the image quality was reduced on purpose.

The sun is growing more active as were at the height of the solar cycle. The only guy who claimed it had exploded was a single guy in Australia, and sorry... but people trying to "cover up" things dont use soso 90s movies as references. As for tetrahedron, sounds a damn sight like a camera artifact, but thatd be obvious.

This is a horrible reply. You obviously know nothing about the subject. I logged in just to downvote it.

that's commitment

It's a small, unremarkable comet which represents zero threat to earth, will not affect weather, climate nor will it cause earthquakes or any other type of natural disaster. It's a non-event which conspiracy theorists have latched onto because NASA isn't telling everyone to look at it.

Having looked at it myself, I can understand why NASA and other scientific bodies aren't particularly interested... it's hard to see even with a decent telescope, and what you can see is small and unremarkable. Jupiter and Saturn, on the other hand, have some magnificent storms going on right now.

This is the correct answer people.

It is utterly ridiculous to suggest that this comet could be causing earthquakes etc on earth.

The comet "changed direction" because guess what, objects in orbit are constantly changing direction, that's what makes their motion circular / eliptical.

There is nothing magically unique about Elenin, it poses no threat to us and is pretty much a non-event for 99% of the population.

If you want to get excited about comet / asteroid doomsday scenarios take a look at comet Honda which is larger and is set to pass much much closer than Elenin and there actually is REAL potential for an impact scenario. You'll have to wait a few years for this one though.

I googled honda comet, and did find results. But if it's important, or known at least, why no wikipedia article?!

EDIT: I did find one wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45P/Honda%E2%80%93Mrkos%E2%80%93Pajdu%C5%A1%C3%A1kov%C3%A1

Is it related?

That's the one.

The 2017 trajectory cannot be accurately mapped. There is a chance of impact in 2017 and also 2036 if memory serves me correct.

Not sure what chance of impact exactly, but its non-zero unlike Elenin.

Isn't it apophis that is expected to come very close to earth 2029. and hit the pacific in 2036?

The 2036 close approach is by the asteroid Apophis. And Honda's closest approach in 2017 will be further from Earth than its closest approach was last month. Check this table out. 0.086 AU = is about 13 million km, or more than 30 times the distance from Earth to the Moon.

Forgive my ignorance, but why is it called the Honda Comet?

It was named after its discoverer, Minoru Honda

I posted at r/askscience. But did not get any response.

Please see this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scZAOQNopok&feature=player_embedded

Is his science correct? Who is he? What's his qualification? Is he a scientist? Is he an "amateur scientist?

He says some really scary things man.

Less than a minute in, and I can give you a solid answer: No, his science is not correct. Celestial alignments don't 'amplify' anything, not gravity, not 'energy' of any kind. Gravity doesn't work that way. Even if it did, elenin is too small to have any effect. Your car would have a far greater effect on Earth's gravity than Elenin ever will, its closest approach to earth brings it no closer to us than Venus.

Quite frankly I hope it destroys the earth so I don't have to hear anymore about the end of the world. Seriously it's getting goddamn annoying.

Wait. That would suck. I've been biding my time, waiting for the reaper, for almost 6 years, hoping to get to leave everyone else here to continue suffering. All of us dying together in a comet impact sorta takes the luster out of that dream.

Actually good point. "Hell is other people" - Jean-Paul Sartre

6 years? What you mean?

Long story involving a meth addict (not me), the murder of one of my kin, and the rape of my (then) 2 year old great niece... and related impact upon my life. You really don't want to know. Trust me. I would just be less miserable if I weren't alive.

Holy shit man, that does indeed sound very bad. Humans do some wicked shit to each other:(

http://astroblogger.blogspot.com/2011/05/comet-2010-x1-elenin-earthquakes.html

Here's a better link for laymen, and a good overview of the whole subject, from the same blogger.

Link

I think it's a cover for something else. We 'conspiracy theorists' are looking to the skies while something is being done right under our nose. I believe that's what Elenin is.

I heard it's being funded by the Federal Reserve.

And controlled by the CIA. !!!

Don't be ridiculous, don't get me started about those glory hogs at Langley.

I feel the same way, so I came to a conclusion that only time will tell. Trust no one, not even yourself because out minds are hijacked one way or another. We only have a little to wait but none the less prepare for the worse and expect nothing to happen.

I can't remember the source, but when I was looking into the whole "elenin is causing earthquakes" thing I came across a major discrepancy with that theory. Yes, there where a lot of earth quakes that mapped to an alignment with elenin. But the problem is, at those distances elenin would have had to of been much more massive than what elenin is claimed to be to have an geological effect on earth, tying into the brown dwarf theory.

Keep in mind earth quakes happen every single day, but that aside I realized there was a huge problem with that theory...if elenin is as large as it would need to be to cause quakes then it's trajectory would be vastly different, which means the alignments wouldn't align anymore.

So either elenin is massive and the published orbit is bullshit and no such alignments exist, or the published orbit and projected mass is correct and is a zero risk for impact. It's one or the other.

Personally, I'm more worried about Apothis.

But yeah, aliens and space ships presents a much more complicated conspiracy theory.

Yes, tell me about the aliens and spaceships!

Wait until it hits perihelion on 9/10 - 9/11, this weekend, and we shall see if it puts on a good show.

It's blue and may be a tetrahedron :P

And controlled by the CIA. !!!