http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ mirrored file For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== Some considerations with regard to large comets: */by Bob Kobres/* ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A major difference in possible damage to the biosphere across the potential physical size range of Earth-orbit-crossing objects?EOCOs?is the increased capacity for larger EOCOs to produce adverse effects without a direct impact. In other words, an EOCO 1 km across, with sufficient relative velocity to avoid being captured by Earth?s gravity, could come within 1,000 km of Earth?s surface and cause no problem; a 100 km across EOCO with the same velocity is not apt to make such a clean get away. For one thing, a 100 km diameter EOCO is most likely to be a structurally weak comet-type object. If the object is still active, the space around it is going to contain pieces of various size that have been decoupled physically, but not gravitationally, from its surface. These loosely bound satellites are not likely to be tidy aerodynamic spheres; initially they would be more apt to retain some of the surface geometry of the object that spawned them. What this implies is that the weakly attached debris traveling along with an active comet-type EOCO could deposit a great deal of energy into the biosphere by way of interacting with Earth?s atmosphere over a large area . This, I suspect , is the type of event that produced the Carolina Bays . Allowing that the Carolina Bays could have been formed by such a debris shower, there are some further observations that are pertinent. The west to east orientation of the elliptical Carolina Bay features suggests that the fireball phenomenom was traveling in the direction of Earth?s spin?counterclockwise as viewed from above the North Pole. This means the hypothetical large comet had to have made a close approach in one of four ways: * 1. As the comet was headed toward perihelion it passed in front of Earth?s direction of travel,which is counterclockwise as viewed from above the north pole of the Sun. * 2. As the comet was leaving perihelion it passed behind Earth?s direction of travel. * 3. A comet in a prograde orbit reached perihelion right at Earth?s orbital position and passed by Earth on the side away from the Sun. * 4. A comet in a retrograde orbit reached perihelion right at Earth?s orbital position and passed by Earth on the side facing the Sun. Of the four possibilities, I favor the second?a near miss to the rear?as a potential producer of Carolina Bays. This seems more probable for three reasons: * 1. The environment around the nucleus of a large comet is going to be most littered with debris soon after perihelion and will likely be more heavily littered if the comet comes closer to the Sun than Earth?s orbit, which is at 1 AU (149,604,970 km). * 2. The nucleus could come closer to Earth?s surface without impacting than scenarios one or three would allow. * 3. There is no contemporary evidence that there has been a large retrograde comet with a perihelion at Earth?s orbit. Another factor to consider with a large comet-type object coming deep within Earth?s gravity well is the likelihood of the object being pulled apart in a fashion similar to the Shoemaker-Levy 9 event. It is even conceivable that a close pass could occur which would produce some fragments with too little velocity left to leave Earth?s gravitational influence and so these pieces become short lived satellites of Earth. Objects captured this way would be unlikely to fall into stable orbits and so would eventually either collide with the Earth or Moon or be tossed out of Earth orbit by combined gravitational influence. The point I attempt to make here is that we do not presently know enough about the range of interaction possibilities to rule out impact related phenomena as the cause of Carolina Bays. There are known comet-type objects with diameters greater than 100 km, Chiron for an example. Unless we discover a law that prevents objects of this size from swinging by Earth, we must assume it is a possible situation. Having pondered this potential for some time now, I personally feel fortunate that we indeed have the opportunity to investigate what caused the Carolina Bays. bobk 97 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Home C-Bay menu Fire and Water /The content and opinions expressed on this Web page do not necessarily reflect the views of nor are they endorsed by the University of Georgia or the University System of Georgia./