Halley's Comet to hit Earth in 2061? THIS IS BS! MODS PLEASE DELETE!

[fredinno]

http://nationalreport.net/halleys-comet-hit-earth-2061-experts-warn/

 

Not sure if this is some misguided repurposed bovine waste, or actually real. In 2061, Halley's Comet has an 80 Percent Chance to hit Earth, causing another mass extinction- this is because of a perturbation from Uranus, whose gravitational impact was the strongest due to the "Puck Effect". Not sure if this is actually a thing, but the "Puck Effect" is a effect that occurs when Puck, a moon of Uranus, gets a lower orbit, and increases Uranus' net gravitational influence.

 

And this is not a conspiracy website either, reporting this. The Guardian reported on this too.

Edited December 29, 2015 by fredinno

[Kerbart]

14 minutes ago, fredinno said:

And this is not a conspiracy website either, reporting this. The Guardian reported on this too.

One look at their front page reveals that it's equivalent to The Onion at best, and The Inquirer at worst. The fact that The Guardian took over their reporting says more about The Guardian than about anything else.

[Windspren]

Add that to the fact that at the end it turns into a climate change warning, and you get a prank/troll.

[legoclone09]

1 minute ago, Laythe Dweller said:

Add that to the fact that at the end it turns into a climate change warning, and you get a prank/troll.

Yeah, but if it is true (which it won't be, probably), we always have Elon Musk and/or NASA.

[Windspren]

1 minute ago, legoclone09 said:

Yeah, but if it is true (which it won't be, probably), we always have Elon Musk and/or NASA.

And Jeb. Always remember Jeb.

[fredinno]

I thought this was BS too. Was just checking.

[Rakaydos]

2061? An 80% chance? No way.

We cant even tell if a meteor is going to hit us a week out, let alone 45 years out. I call BS.

[Windspren]

Plus, one of Uranus's moons? Really? Those things are TINY!

[Shpaget]

"Puckering"? A 160km pebble causing a significant increase in gravitational pull of a gas giant?

The very first sentence of the article should be enough to realize this is nonsense.

"Astrophysicists at MIT have made a startling prediction this weekend, claiming that if their math proves accurate, Halley’s Comet is on a collision course with the Earth, an event they say would be classified as a “global killer” that could theoretically wipe out all life on our planet."

[Findthepin1]

Astrophysicists at MIT claiming that if their math proves accurate, Halley’s Comet is on a collision course with the Earth, a “global killer” to wipe out all life on our planet, yada yada yada

A. *Formerly* at MIT, if there's any justice

B. They pulled this on us. See that and the next 4 posts.

 Merry Holidays

Edited December 29, 2015 by Findthepin1

[Shpaget]

I checked and there apparently is/was somebody called Markus O’Neil at MIT, or at least M. Greg O'Neill.

http://seari.mit.edu/alumni.php#oneill

So I wanted to send him an email, but then I realized the article was posted a year ago. I checked what other science news they have and I found this:

http://nationalreport.net/sarah-palin-rescued-coast-guard-climate-change-denial-video-shoot/

http://nationalreport.net/nestle-send-rover-steal-water-mars/

http://nationalreport.net/donald-trump-wants-stick-flag-uranus/

 

So, it's just like Onion News, only not funny.

 

EDIT:

Nope. It's  Michael Gregory O’Neill

Edited December 29, 2015 by Shpaget

[legoclone09]

Yeah, that site seems really BS.

[cubinator]

Puck is not only small, it's one of Uranus's smaller moons. And at the distance at which the comet passed, the influence of the moons blends so much with the planet itself that any effect, especially that of a puny asteroid like Puck, would be negligible. I believe the "Puckering" they speak of is a rather warped understanding of the increased gravity near periapsis. In a binary system where both bodies have elliptical orbits this is very important, but in the case of gas giant vs. asteroid this is hardly noticeable. Besides, Uranus has several much larger moons which cause a lot more gravitational influence than any of those small inner moons. Puck is totally negligible in this situation. A quick Wikipedia search and a minute of Universe Sandbox^2 shows that this claim is either BS or totally misguided. They would have been better off claiming it was Nibiru.

[Elthy]

Where did the Guardian report this?

[problemecium]

inb4 inevitable actual thread lock: LOL

[YNM]

Make these kind of things sticky maybe (but locked) ? Probably helps some poor chaps for a while.

[Thiagobs]

20 hours ago, Findthepin1 said:

Astrophysicists at MIT claiming that if their math proves accurate, Halley’s Comet is on a collision course with the Earth, a “global killer” to wipe out all life on our planet, yada yada yada

A. *Formerly* at MIT, if there's any justice

B. They pulled this on us. See that and the next 4 posts.

 Merry Holidays

Looks like we found who's the Astrophysicist who double checked the math... Gary!! (all rights reserved to tater)

Edited December 30, 2015 by Thiagobs

[Kerbart]

C'mon, when you read the article and come across gems like “and Uranus Puckering at that moment” or “will most likely collide with the Earth on May 10th, 2061, probably at around 10:15 pm EST.” you seriously think that they were completely serious when writing it?

[legoclone09]

I've... I've found something even STUPIDER than this. It's on the same website, snd the article was saying the Hubble disproved that water is on the Martian surface. It really is that for maybe 2 sentences and them dialogue of two engineers arguing about it. 

http://nationalreport.net/hubble-telescope-reveals-mars-water-just-mirage/

[Kerbart]

8 minutes ago, legoclone09 said:

I've... I've found something even STUPIDER than this. It's on the same website, snd the article was saying the Hubble disproved that water is on the Martian surface. It really is that for maybe 2 sentences and them dialogue of two engineers arguing about it. 

http://nationalreport.net/hubble-telescope-reveals-mars-water-just-mirage/

I start to like them. They seem to be a bit more clever about their jokes than The Onion. Mars water... a mirage...? Very well played!

[legoclone09]

Yeah, they do look like a joke. I saw an article about Nestle charging for people breathing, not to mention the other ones on the other thread relating to National Report, there is one that says Nestle is helping fund a Mars rover to steal water from the surface?!?!? and return it to Earth to sell.

I was looking through it and it is really sad. I'm conservative (please don't discuss), but this bias is INSANE, and half of the stuff is made up likely. I saw something about Ted Cruz wanting to make a huge fridge to cool the Earth, and how researchers are supposedley making something like that. I don't want to ever go there again. Ever.

Edited December 30, 2015 by legoclone09

[Sanic]

*facepalm*

[magnemoe]

On 29.12.2015 at 4:32 AM, Rakaydos said:

2061? An 80% chance? No way.

We cant even tell if a meteor is going to hit us a week out, let alone 45 years out. I call BS.

How? we are able to predict the movement of astroids and comets very well, so well we can intercept and land on them. 
yes errors grow as time passes so its often hard to know if something becomes an impact or not especially after an close pass with another planet something who is not happening here. 
 

[Shpaget]

34 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

How? we are able to predict the movement of astroids and comets very well, so well we can intercept and land on them. 
yes errors grow as time passes so its often hard to know if something becomes an impact or not especially after an close pass with another planet something who is not happening here. 
 

Not 40 years in advance. We can land on them only using real time data, not guesses made decades ago. And even if we could predict with such accuracy, what do we do after we land on one such asteroid that is about to hit us?

[PB666]

6 hours ago, Sanic said:

*facepalm*

Right? and all caps in the title also.