Quote:
Originally Posted by Corkey
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Just to be clear (because there's some Internet memes that are taking this pass altogether the wrong way) what is going to pass us is the debris of the comet. It's dust, rocks, little bits at this point. A solar storm broke the comet up in August so what's going to go by us is what is *left* of the comet.
Remember that comets are, essentially, large space snowballs. As they approach the inner solar system they start to melt which is why comets have tails--the tail is the melting ice and the dust that is going with it. As they exit the solar system, provided they had enough mass to survive the trip to the inner solar system, they refreeze the further they get from the Sun. Don't know what this comet will do on its way out but if anyone tells you that there is the least thing to be concerned about, you can tell them with confidence that there's absolutely *nothing* to worry about. Nothing. As one of the scientists quoted in the article said, your *car* exerts a whole lot more gravitational influence on the Earth than this comet will.
Cheers
Aj