The Silicon Graybeard has the update on 3I-Atlas, and who you should (and shouldn't) be listening to. The two stories of comet 3I-Atlas
This seems to be a click-bait-heavy topic.
After telling us who to listen to, SiGraybeard takes on YouTube.
On YouTube, everyone from people I don't particularly disrespect but rarely ever looked at their channels, such as Michio Kaku, Avi Loeb, or Neil DeGrasse Tyson and over to channels I've never heard of, are railing about how dangerous it is and (apparently) making up news to back up their fear.
Pardon my skepticism, but with none of the "serious" news sources citing these things, I have to ask why. Unfortunately "click bait" is an adequate answer.
For myself, I have seen videos from self-proclaimed experts on YouTube state things about your average comet that I know are false. I'm sure some people believe them. Just like I'm sure some people believe the "it's from another civilization" crowd. Look, I enjoyed Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama somewhat, but I'm not expecting to see it play out anytime soon. (While I love 2001, a lot of Clarke's writing leaves me cold.)
There is more. click thru. SiGraybeard makes one point worth noting; it is going fast compared to stuff we make, or stuff we see in the local space, but it is not going fast on a universal scale.
Good old Wikipedia says it's moving at 58km/sec or 0.000193c.
Meters per second is the correct unit. 58,000 meters per second is not fast compared to some things. The speed of light in a vacuum (c) is 300 million meters per second. (That is accurate to 3 or 4 decimal places, but I have just remembered 3x108 meters per second since my sophomore year in college.) There is a fair bit of difference between 5.8x104 and 3x108.
Thanks, ZendoDeb.
ReplyDeleteSomeone commented to one of my posts two weeks ago with a link to an Avi Loeb video. This commenter's take was that it was either very concerning or pure BS. "There's no middle ground." I think there's always the middle ground that the person posting isn't evil, just wrong.
One of the first things that "triggered me" was referring to the comet having an anti-tail, as if that's something that's never happened. I remember for sure having seen more than one comet with what looked like a tail pointing in the wrong direction but not which comet was the best example. I even recall thinking "they all do that" at some point. They're really not that uncommon. Some places even joke about it.
(https://www.universetoday.com/articles/what-do-comet-panstarrs-and-pinocchio-have-in-common)
Look, if you're Avi Loeb and you honestly think that there's some chance, they're going to land and do the whole, "Klaatu barada nikto" thing and you want to look like you did your best to warn everyone, you've got to do what he's doing. Well-meaning but wrong.
I'm more cynical than that. I haven't seen an vids by Avi Loeb, but the few I did see were infuriating. They weren't only wrong, they were fear-mongering for clicks.
DeleteThat was my impression, too, for all of them. When you see the pictures they put on the "come watch me" still pictures, it's hard to imagine it's about anything but clickbait. I've seen pictures where they imply the comet has antennas and other stuff sticking out of it. Even what looks like lights along the long axis. I'm saying "no, you don't have enough resolution to do that."
DeleteHere's where having some experience watching a comet through a telescope comes in handy.