Q: Tell Me About This Comet and Brown Dwarf? - Central Coast News KION/KCBA

Q: Tell Me About This Comet and Brown Dwarf?

A: CJ from Santa Cruz asked, "is Elenin a Comet or a Brown Dwarf ? Why is there so much mystery behind this?"

Here is Norm Hoffmann, Central Coast News Chief Meteorologist:

Thank you for your question. I did have to do a little research on this one because I am a Meteorologist, not an Astrophysicist. However, I did find a lot of information on the topic when I Googled it. There are 3 theories.

I have found information that it is a Comet. If so at it closest point it will pass by the earth at 22 million miles from us and being a billionth (an estimated diameter of 2 to 4 miles) of the Moon's mass will not affect the orbit or plate tectonics on earth. Being Comet, Elenin should be at its brightest shortly before the time of its closest approach to Earth on Oct. 16, 2011. If the moon can't cause the earth to tilt and effect earthquakes then neither will Elenin.

I have found information that it is a brown dwarf star. That it will pass close to the earth and change Earths orbit. That its close proximity to our solar system is causing all the large earthquakes that have occurred in the last 2 years. There are a couple flaws in this theory as I see it, but NASA has tracked Elenin and they have developed its orbit as it approaches our solar system and when it will pass near to the earth. So they know it orbit and its size. If it is a dwarf star NASA has its orbit all wrong, but it still will not strike the earth. If we had a brown dwarf star in the outer solar system, we could see it, detect its infrared energy and measure its perturbing effect on other objects. There is no brown dwarf entering the solar system, otherwise someone in some country looking at the skies would have detected it.

I have also found information that it is a small planet and could get captured by our sun into our solar system. That sets up a whole new set of problems. However if it was a planet I would think NASA or someone else would have seen it as well.

So there are a lot of theories out there, but this web site seems to answer some of the questions. http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Comet_Elenin_Poses_No_Threat_to_Earth_999.html

There is also other information on Brightness at this location: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2010_X1

Is it a Government conspiracy? That I cannot answer because I do not know. I have known many people who work for NASA and they are Scientists. I would tend to trust them and the many Universitie Scientists out there to tell me what is going on.

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