Is It a Comet?

What IS it? The soft news media has been teasing us about a comet headed towards our solar system at a very high rate of speed. Astronomers have given it a name, “31/ATLAS,” and say it will pass between Mars and the sun then slip behind the sun about October 30.

Some are curious about this thing, whatever it is, some say that we are just getting better at detecting asteroids and comets through more detailed information share and more precise optics.

Then there are those who wonder “if.” This is from outside our solar system, or as we say down here, “It ain’t from around here.”

There are any number of things, big and small icy rocks, that loop around through the orbits of our planets, get around the sun and fly outbound again.

Halley’s Comet comes around in a predictable orbit and has been recorded since at least 240 BC when it was noticed by Chinese astronomers. It will make another visit in 2061.

A few years ago, in 2017, something entered our neighborhood from somewhere else, and it caused a lot of excitement.

This thing was discovered via a telescope in Hawaii, thus given a Hawaiian name, “Oumuamu.” ( “oh MOO uh MOO uh”) That, according to Wikipedia, is loosely translated as “first distant messenger,” with the “first” aspect as the first thing from outside our solar system. It is easier to say than it looks.

The thing was neither big nor small, about a half-mile long and generally shaped like a dog bone. Once it got past our sun, it kept on going.

The first man-made artificial satellite was launched in 1957. “Sputnik” was about the size of a basketball.

An old Ham Radio operator said that the Sputnik used frequencies that were close to those used by garage door openers at the time.

Californians were weirded out because garage doors opened and closed on 90 minute cycles.

With each satellite pass garage doors mysteriously opened and mysteriously closed. That was odd, even for California.

Earth-bound telescopes will not get a good look at 31/ATLAS, so scientists will depend upon a satellite already orbiting Mars for a few candid shots.

One astronomer suggested 31/ATLAS might have been sent by an extraterrestrial society, not that they were aggressive, just “explorers” like us, just curious about what is just beyond the beyond.

Well, that’s comforting. Maybe we should call up the Native Americans and ask how things went when European explorers dropped in on them.

joenphillips@yahoo.com