Complex Numbers

Comet Sutra

Harbinger of Doom! The End is Nigh! Repent and follow the ways of SCIENCE!!!

PROMPT July 16th

NEOWISE comet: “Enjoy it while you can. The frozen ball of ice won’t return to the inner solar system for 6,800 years.” Talk about it! https://www.nytimes.com/article/neowise-comet.html

Officially designated C/2020 F3, Comet NEOWISE was discovered on March 27 and had until this week been visible only to committed comet viewers willing to wake up in the early pre-dawn hours.

You mean "willing to stay up until the late pre-dawn hours."

I'm actually in a crappy place to view the comet. Sight lines to the east and west are blocked by trees. Sure, I could drive somewhere, but I haven't driven my car for four months and I'm seeing how long a streak I can keep up. Damn thing probably won't start now, it's been so long. Fortunately, I have roadside assistance.

But I digress. Comet.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that I've been following along. It's all the Astronomy Picture of the Day could talk about for the last week or so. This one's my favorite:

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200714.html

You can follow the links there to more images.

Until SCIENCE!!! came along, as I'm sure you're aware, comets were considered harbingers of doom. There was good reason for this: Doom happened with astonishing frequency, so once you see a comet, some disaster would inevitably follow within days, months, years, or decades, and they could then blame it on the comet.

Okay, so that's not actually a good reason, but when did humans need a reason to be illogical?

Anyway, I could get into the science and the history, but the NYT article linked in the prompt covers it all pretty well. Except it doesn't go into the whole "harbinger of doom" thing, perhaps because it's obvious bull hockey. Still, the fact is, people believed that shit, and I think it's very important to know that the more we learn, the more we study, the further into the background superstition can recede.

I say "can," because there's a whole lot of superstition now. We call some of it "conspiracy theories," and no amount of debunking seems to nudge them off their ignorant perch.

Hopefully, I'll get a chance to see it sometime in the next few days. As the article notes, July 23 will be a high point for the comet in the sky, and I might be able to catch a glimpse from somewhere in my neighborhood.

I really wish Nerd Camp had happened this year (and in July instead of August). Then I would have been able to see it from high in the Rockies, through a professional telescope, hanging out with an actual astronomer. Specifically, this guy.   I got to meet him two years ago, and we had some great talks about science and science fiction.

He also makes even worse puns than I do.

Speaking of which, it's time to announce the winner of yesterday's Mini-Contest!

Several of you amused me. Decent pun, Fivesixer, good to see you branching out. I have to admit I didn't click on the YouTube link that bobturn provided; after I explicitly stated that I don't find pranks on my person to be amusing, I just assume any naked YouTube link is a rickroll. PuppyTales thinks she's funny, but she's not. And Elle - on hiatus pushed the boundaries of this blog's rating to near their shattering point. ForeverDreamer, your joke wasn't out of bounds. And, SandraLynn Team Florent!, I also heard someone stole all the toilets from the police station, and the cops have nothing to go on. I appreciated all of the other comments too, funny or not, but I gotta award the prize to the dark humor of:

Sumojo: The woman took her dog to the vet. He examined the dog and shook his head and sighed. “I’m going to have to put him down.” He said.
The woman was horrified, “ Why!” She asked
“He’s getting heavy.” The vet replied.

It would seem that other people agree with me, based on the number of "Likes" that one produced, but this isn't a democracy; that's just a coincidence. Sumojo, I'll send your Merit Badge in a little bit.

Thanks again for all the comments, and I'll do another one in a few days!