For those who haven't heard, comet "Elenin" is the big event of the year, and will come extremely close to the sun (perihelion) around Sept 11, 2011, and its closest approach to Earth will be on Oct 16th.

You can find out more info about it here:

http://buzzroom.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/983/



Also check out various sources on the size & other info.

Unlike asteroids, comets are very large, and move quickly, having a "tail" due to ice & gases burning up as it travels. (The Comet Elenin will be very visible to the naked eye in the months of its passing)

They usually have a long-period elliptical orbit, coming close to the sun at perihelion.

This post was edited by Torm1 on Mar 6 2011 04:25pm

EDIT: This will be the closest approach by a comet in quite some time. I still can't seem to find proper statistics on the size of this thing.

This post was edited by Torm1 on Mar 6 2011 04:36pm

http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astrobiologist/question/?id=14416


actual facts from nasa

not no bullshit video tryin to scare people.


real facts...

nothin to be worry about lol

This post was edited by BrockGG on Mar 6 2011 04:40pm

this comet goes around the sun once eery 10 thousand years lol..

the other astroid that was close to us in 2004(forgot the name of it) which was actually really close won't be back around and have 2 worry about for a 100 years

theres another big event happening in 2017 i think which an astroid will come so close to earth that people will be watching it pass by (its not suppose to hit, but u will be able to watch it forgot all the details google it)

comets are not "very large" in comparison to asteroids

OMG WE ARE DOOMED

not sure if the 2017 one is the one we will watch closely to determine if it will collide with earth on the next pass. supposedly its like a 10% chance. yikes!

and

2012

aliens, comet, economic collapse.

what do you choose?

is it me or every time a comet comes, there is war?

Well we are getting pretty close to WW3, its at that point, and they want to have it going by 2012.