Social media has been full of theories about an object heading toward Earth, but what is it really?
Mike Narlock is head of astronomy at the Cranbrook Institute of Science near Detroit. He says speculation about the interstellar comet started with one astronomer.
“Where it’s getting all of this undue attention is there was an astronomer — or is an astronomer — out of Harvard who, for reasons beyond understanding, suggested that some of the things that we’re seeing it do are not natural, that it’s accelerating in a way that it shouldn’t be,” Narlock said. “But all of the evidence points that everything that we’re seeing can be absolutely described by regular orbital physics.”
The comet will stay so far from Earth that only powerful telescopes will pick it up when it makes its closest approach to our planet on December 19.
Meanwhile, Narlock says some Michiganders will be able to see the Leonid Meteor Shower on November 15, as long as skies are clear.
