Comet Elenin

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[[File:Elenin 1aug2011 zoom.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Comet Elenin]]
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Comet '''C/2010 X1 (Elenin)''', a.k.a. '''Comet Elenin''' to the media and everyone who doesn't know how to read the IAU's designations, was a [[comet]] discovered in the end of 2010 that reached its first known perihelion (closest point to the Sun in its orbit) in September 2011, disintegrating shortly afterwards. It's notable mostly for being the first comet discovered by a Russian in the last 20 years. Oh, and the fact that an assortment of [[cranks]], [[conspiracy theorist]]s and/or [[End Times]]/[[Rapture]] believers latched onto it for a variety of reasons. Due to the latter, it can be used as a case study in how doomsday conspiracy theories originate, develop and spread.

(The designation means that this is the first (X'''1''') not-short-periodic comet ('''C''') discovered in the first half of December 2010 ('''2010 X'''1) and the last name of the discoverer is Elenin.<ref>{{see-wp|Provisional designation in astronomy#Comets}}</ref>)

==Discovery==
The comet was discovered on 10 December 2010 by '''Leonid Elenin''' (Russian: Леонид Еленин), a Russian amateur astronomer,<ref group="note">"Amateur astronomer" means simply that the person is not professionally employed in, formally trained in, and/or personally dedicated to astronomy as a career.  It does not imply lack of astronomical knowledge or skill. (Some very fine science has been done, and notable scientific advance made, by amateurs.) Mr. Elenin is employed by the Institute for Applied Mathemathics of the Russian Academy of Science, but his work there is not directly connected to astronomy; he himself describes himself as "астроном-любитель" in the Gazeta.ru interview.  Unfortunately, the Leonid meteor shower is not named after him.</ref> using a remotely operated telescope located near Mayhill, [[New Mexico]]. 

As the circumstances are slightly unusual and part of the conspiracy claims concern Leonid Elenin's observatory itself,<ref group="note">A lot of people find it strange that a Russian used (uses) a telescope in New Mexico. There's also the claim that he couldn't be able to observe the comet from there on the date of the discovery. Or the claim that no such observatory exists.</ref> some boooring background details are necessary. The observatory's name is "ISON-NM", as it is a part of the International Scientific Optical Network<ref group="note">Their website is [http://lfvn.astronomer.ru/ here], the main page is in Russian, but there's also an English version. The network used to be called PulKON, "{{wpl|Pulkovo Observatory|Pulkovo}} Cooperation of Optical Observers" (in Russian: ПулКОН, "Пулковской кооперации оптических наблюдателей"). The up-to-date list of optical observatories is [http://lfvn.astronomer.ru/main/optic.htm here] and includes a link to the ISON-NM observatory website (under "Нью-Мексико", i.e. New Mexico).</ref> — an international network of observers that performs collaborative tasks such as looking for space debris, NEOs (near-Earth objects) and gamma-ray bursts. The observatory consists of a single telescope in a shed on the grounds of the New Mexico Skies astronomy hosting company.<ref>[http://www.nmskies.com/ New Mexico Skies] Remote observatories.</ref> The telescope itself is a Centurion-18.<ref>[http://www.astroworks.com/ Centurion-18] telescope, astroworks.com.</ref> It has an 18-inch mirror and it's fitted with an FLI ML09000-65 astronomical imaging camera in the primary focus.<ref>[https://archive.is/sxyWd FLI ML09000-65] astronomical imaging camera. Archived from the original at fli-cam.com.</ref><ref group="note">Normally, reflector telescopes have another mirror in the primary focus that diverts the image towards an eyepiece. A primary focus camera means that a telescope is dedicated exclusively to astrophotography.</ref> Its field of view is 1.65 х 1.65 degrees of arc. <!--To do: compare with other telescopes.--> The observatory saw "first light" on 21 May 2010, started test exploitation by 6 June, received a Minor Planet Center number (H15) on 7 June and discovered its first [[asteroid]] between 5 and 21 July. More information, including pictures and a description of the setup can be found on the Russian site of the ISON/PulKON project.<ref name='ison-first'>[http://lfvn.astronomer.ru/news/2010/08/0001/index.htm First Russian Internet telescope in the Western hemisphere] (in Russian), 4 August 2010. Note that one of the authors of the page is Leonid Elenin himself.</ref>

==Woo==
It seems that the wild speculation snowball was sent rolling by a series of posts on [[Laura Knight-Jadczyk]]'s blog in January 2011. In her first post about the comet,<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20120810182328/http://laura-knight-jadczyk.blogspot.com/2011/01/comet-elenin-is-coming.html Comet Elenin is Coming! ], [[Laura Knight-Jadczyk]], 12 January 2011</ref> LKJ cited [[James McCanney]]'s "electric comet" "theory" and predicted that the comet will affect the Earth, as {{wpl|Comet Hale-Bopp|Hale-Bopp}} purportedly did in the 1990s. (McCanney was one of the... individuals featured on [[Phil Plait]]'s original ''Bad Astronomy'' website and [http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/mccanney/index.html the page about him] is still online.) A couple of YouTube videos followed, spreading like a wildfire through the conspiracy forums (such as [[ATS]] and [[GLP]]), and the rest is history. The comet continues to generate forum and blog posts and YouTube videos to this day (late July 2011).

Different permutations of the following claims have been tossed around:
*Comet Elenin will impact the Earth/shower it with deadly debris from its tail - this is relatively tame, garden variety apocalypse mongering - such claims surround every comet that comes to the attention of some nut.
*Comet Elenin's appearance is a portent of doom (oh, come on, are we still in the bloody [[Middle Ages]]?)
*Comet Elenin's alignment with the Earth causes disasters, e.g. the February 2010 [[Chile]] earthquake<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95zMdTvoqcQ MARCH 11-23 EVENT?! Signs and Evidence], 9Nania, [[YouTube]], 8 March 2011. See [http://cosmoquest.org/forum/showthread.php/113532-Comet-Elenin-Cause-Of-Earthquakes this thread] at the BAUT forum for a discussion of the claims.</ref> and later, the March 2011 [[Japan]] earthquake (see [[#Alleged alignments]] below)
*Comet Elenin is being followed by alien spacecraft ([[Heaven's Gate]] redux?)
*Comet Elenin is a cover for the existence of [[Planet X]]/[[Nibiru]], no such comet exists
**Comet Elenin is actually a [[brown dwarf]]
**Comet Elenin is actually a "SUPERMASSIVE BLACK CARBON STAR"<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLIL23oz5qg "NOT ELENIN COMET, BUT A SUPERMASSIVE BLACK CARBON STAR" - HD SWEET!], debieblue, [[YouTube]], 15 July 2011. You gotta love the all-caps video description.</ref><ref>[http://lamarzulli.wordpress.com/2011/07/14/acceleration-radio-deborah-sontag-signs-in-the-heavens/ Acceleration Radio – Deborah Sontag – Signs in the HEAVENS!] and [http://lamarzulli.wordpress.com/2011/07/14/deborah-sontag-mp3-and-recap-of-show-new-feature/ Deborah Sontag – MP3 and RECAP of show!], L.A. Marzulli's Blog, 14 July 2011. And {{wpl|Variable_star_designation | ''Leonis'' is the genitive form of ''Leo'' and "translates from Latin" as "of Lion"}}, you ignorant gasbag.</ref> ([[CW Leonis]]<ref>{{see-wp|CW Leonis}}</ref>)
*Comet Elenin is "the physical form of old [[Lucifer]]"<ref>[http://spaceobs.org/ru/2011/05/25/perhaps-the-closest-approach-of-comet-elenin-to-a-main-belt-asteroid/#comment-212915614 A particularly insane comment] at Leonid Elenin's blog, 27 May 2011</ref>
*Comet Elenin is an "[[electric comet]]" and this will somehow negatively affect Earth
*Comet Elenin will eclipse the Sun and cause "three days of darkness" around 27 September.
*The [[escape hatch]]: the noise about Comet Elenin is a "[[psyop]]"/disinformation campaign covering something else/preparing the "[[sheeple]]" for a some event/trying to discredit the people who make apocalyptic predictions.

Claims that Leonid Elenin doesn't exist or that he is a NASA/someone else's [[shill]] are also thrown in.

Fallout from all the conspiracy-mongering started appearing in unexpected places, such as the comment threads of the discoverer's blog, NASA's ''Ask an Astrobiologist'' educational outreach website,<ref>All questions about Comet Elenin at ''Ask an Astrobiologist'' so far, as as a sample of the crazy: [http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astrobiologist/question/?id=11764], [http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astrobiologist/question/?id=14223], [http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astrobiologist/question/?id=14416], [http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astrobiologist/question/?id=14637], [http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astrobiologist/question/?id=14828].</ref> and Discovery News.<ref name='discovery'>
[http://news.discovery.com/space/will-earthbound-comet-fulfill-2012-prophecy.html Will Earthbound Comet Fulfill 2012 Prophecy?], Discovery News, 22 March 2011 ("Oh, no, sir, we are not using a sensationalistic headline, we are just reporting the controversy, honest!")</ref>

Among the most batshit insane are the hilarious "reports" of "[[Sorcha Faal]]". In March, the first one claimed that the comet is under intelligent control.<ref>[http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1453.htm Russian Warning Issued Over “Controlled” Comet Headed Towards Earth], WhatDoesItMean.com, 1 March 2011 ([http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.whatdoesitmean.com%2Findex1453.htm&date=2011-03-31 Archived by WebCite&reg;])</ref> In June, another "report" repeated the fake claim that Chinese scientists have seen UFOs trailing the comet and included a deceptively cropped image.<ref name='faal-ufos'/> The "reports" have been republished in several places, including the [[European Union Times]],<ref>[http://www.eutimes.net/2011/03/russian-warning-issued-over-controlled-comet-headed-towards-earth/ Russian Warning Issued Over “Controlled” Comet Headed Towards Earth] (Mar 1<sup>st</sup>, 2011) ''The European Union Times''.</ref> but Sorcha Faal is generally considered to be a crap source even by the conspiracy crowd.

===OMG, the name!===
A lot of the noise seems to have been prompted by the comet's name (or more exactly, the discoverer's name). Attempts to uncover some hidden meaning have produced hilarious exercises in verbal [[pareidolia]]:
*Someone noticed that "Elenin" contains "ELE" ("[[extinction level event]]"), the term used for the (results of the) comet impact in the movie ''Deep Impact''.<ref group="note">If you have lived in a cave in the 1990s or were not old enough at the time, the movie's Wikipedia page is {{wpl|Deep_Impact_%28film%29 | here}} and its listing in IMDB is [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120647/ here].</ref> Several other [[coincidence]]s sent the conspiratorial 
thinking
  imagination into overdrive: in the movie, the comet  is discovered by a teenager named ''Leo'' Biederman, which is similar to ''Leo''nid Elenin,<ref group="note">To make matters worse, the female lead in ''Deep Impact'' was played by Téa ''Leoni''!  ''Leoni'', ''Leoni''d!  Get it?  And ''Téa'' is almost like ''tea'', as in ''Tea Party'', which will still have members in the U.S. Congress when the comet comes to kill us!  '''''OMG!  It must be more than a coincidence!  Start building your underground bunkers before it's too late!'''''</ref> and [[Barack Obama|the president of the United States is black]].
*Someone else expanded it to "ELE NINe". Good try, but it's a pity that there are only five major mass extinctions and a dozen or so lesser ones.
*Filed under "the Universe revolves around the US" (but still uses European-style dates) is "[[9/11|ELEven NINe]]", sometimes paired with the claim that the comet will reach its perihelion or closest approach to Earth on 11 September 2011.<ref name='wikipedia-anon'/> The current scientific projection for the perihelion is 10 September 2011 (and no, even in a US timezone it's not the 11th) and for the closest approach is 16 October.
*"E [[Lenin]]". Come on, guys, the [[Cold War]] is over! And Lenin was "V.I.", not "E."
*"'''E'''XTINTION '''L'''EVEL '''E'''VENT [[Nibiru|'''N'''IBIRU]] '''I'''S '''N'''EAR"<ref name='wikipedia-anon'>[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=C%2F2010_X1&action=historysubmit&diff=420561210&oldid=420472793 Some anonymous (and quickly reverted) contribution to the Wikipedia article]</ref>
*"'''E'''XTINTION '''L'''EVEL '''E'''VENT '''N'''IBIRU '''I'''N '''N'''OVEMBER"
*"'''E'''XTINTION '''L'''EVEL '''E'''VENT '''N'''ON-AVOIDABLE '''I'''MPACT IN '''N'''OVEMBER"
*"Extinction Level Event Niburu Inbound Now"

His first name also attracted attention - a lot of 
idiots
 ignorant people connected it with the name of the Leonids meteor shower, probably because this is the first result that pops up in Google if you search for "Leonid".

In case you need reassurance, Leonid Elenin is a perfectly normal Russian name:
* "Leonid" is a perfectly legit Russian name. Wikipedia has a {{wpl|Leonid | list of notable Leonids}}.
* "Elenin" is a perfectly legit Russian family name, constructed from [http://heraldry.sca.org/paul/zgrammar.html?ref=herseybedava.info "-in" suffix] and the female name "(Y)Elena" or the less common male name "(Y)Elen".<ref>Not a terribly common name for a male, but see [http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/personal_names/14646/%D0%95%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD this] and [http://www.takzovut.ru/meaning_boynames_Elen.html this]</ref> (Russian family names are typically based on a male name, but the suffix "-in" and the name of the mother was used when the name of the father was not known.)

===Elenin's existence===
For a non-existent guy, Leonid Elenin blogs quite prolifically at the ISON-NM observatory website (initially in 
broken
 acceptable English, but later he got a volunteer to translate his posts). He also can be found posting in fluent Russian on several astronomy forums, such as [http://www.astronomy.ru/forum/ astronomy.ru]<ref>His profile is [http://www.astronomy.ru/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=16422 here], but only members of the forum can see it. Example threads: [http://www.astronomy.ru/forum/index.php/topic,55741.80.html#subject_966379 this one from 2009] about Russians "recovering" lost comets mentions congratulates him on recovering the comet P/2002 JN16 (LINEAR).</ref> and [http://www.astrogalaxy.ru/forum/phpBB2/ astrogalaxy.ru].<ref>Again, viewing [http://www.astrogalaxy.ru/forum/phpBB2/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=53 his profile] page requires registration. Apparently, he used to be a moderator there.[http://www.astrogalaxy.ru/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=3470]</ref>

As noted below, the Minor Planet Center circular about the discovery of the comet lists seven other collaborating observers.<ref name='mpec-2010X101'/> Are they fictional too?

After the wave of bullshit reached Russia and fellow Russians started to bother Elenin, he decided to put more effort in refuting it - first, with a interview for the RIA Novosty news agency,<ref>[http://rian.ru/science/20110507/371945235.html Комета Еленина породила массовую истерию в интернете], RIA Novosti, 7 May 2011; English translations were distributed by various other sites, such as [[Russia Today]]: [http://rt.com/news/comet-astronomer-first-elenin/ Online craze over looming “comet doomsday”], 12 May 2011</ref> and then, a television interview for the NTV channel.<ref>[http://www.ntv.ru/novosti/228648/ К Земле приближается загадочная комета] (video and text, in Russian), NTV.ru, 11 May 2011 (The title: "An enigmatic comet is approaching the Earth". Bloody sensation-mongers...)</ref>

After he and a friend of his bagged another comet (P/2011 NO1), they were interviewed by the {{wpl|Channel One (Russia)|Channel One}} TV channel.<ref>[http://www.1tv.ru/news/techno/181118 Удача космического масштаба улыбнулась российским ученым] (text and video in Russian), ''Первый канал'', 22 July 2011</ref>

===It's a COMET, get over it!===
To register a comet, the Minor Planet Center requires confirmation by multiple observations by several observers. The first Minor Planet Electronic Circular for Comet Elenin lists 8 different observatories/observers.<ref name='mpec-2010X101'>[http://www.minorplanetcenter.org/mpec/K10/K10XA1.html MPEC 2010-X101: COMET C/2010 X1 (ELENIN)], the Minor Planet Center, 12 December 2010</ref> Since then, the comet has been photographed by an increasing number of other amateurs - see the [[#Pictures|pictures]] section below.

===Media dis-interest===
A lot of the hysteria in the beginning was fuelled by the fact that the discovery was not covered by the mainstream media, at least in the USA. A lot of noise was made about the fact that a Google News search for "Comet Elenin" (''in English'') didn't return any results. This is true - up until June and later, the ''large'' US news media ignored the comet. The problem with the claim is that the comet was covered by the ''specialized'' mainstream media, such as ''Sky and Telescope'' magazine Observing Blog, which published a post about it in December 2010, two weeks after discovery. The comet was also covered by big mainstream media in Russia, with an interview with Leonid Elenin published in Gazeta.ru on 20 December 2010 (see [[#Media coverage|media coverage]] below), and in Europe.

===Buzz about the Buzzroom===
{{cquote|One feature of this site is to grab videos posted on YouTube - automatically - and post them on a nasa.gov webpage and add a comment feature. … At one point I found a video that had been on nasa.gov for weeks that depicted a bloody lynching and featured a non-stop stream of profanity.|||Keith Cowing<ref name='buzz-fixit'/>}}

A fun moment was the appearance of Comet Elenin conspiracy videos on the NASA Buzzroom - a poorly thought-out NASA "social network aggregator" that collected [[Twitter]] messages, Flickr images and [[YouTube]] videos.<ref>[http://nasawatch.com/archives/2011/08/nasa-buzzroom-i-1.html NASA Buzzroom is Back and it is Awful] by Keith Cowing (August 16, 2011 9:25 PM) ''NASA Watch''.</ref> It was supposed to aggregate content about NASA and/or space exploration, but the software also picked a lot of junk, including music videos and videos about [[crop circles]]. Which wouldn't be much of a problem if the site didn't lack a disclaimer that the content was not endorsed by NASA. Indeed, in the very beginning, it even lacked a description of what it did exactly. As a result, some ''people'' decided that if it is on a NASA .gov domain, this is some kind of "leak", admission or endorsement. (Despite the fact that the videos were clearly marked with the YouTube watermark and text saying "Uploaded to YouTube on ...") To be fair, the website was so minimalistic that is was not immediately obvious what was its purpose. Unless, of course, one had a ''minimal'' amount of web-savvy.

The fun ended when the space journalist Keith Cowing found out about the off-topic videos and wrote several angry posts at ''NASA Watch'',<ref>[http://nasawatch.com/archives/2011/03/genuine-pseudos.html Pseudoscience and Profane Videos Featured Online at NASA.gov], ''NASA Watch'', 3 March 2011</ref><ref name='buzz-fixit'>[http://nasawatch.com/archives/2011/03/nasa-buzzroom-i.html NASA Buzzroom Is Broken. Please Fix It. (Updated with SOMD Response)], ''NASA Watch'', 4 March 2011</ref>  resulting first in the removal of the Comet Elenin videos from the site, and then in the shutdown of the Buzzroom itself<ref>[http://nasawatch.com/archives/2011/03/nasa-finally-pu.html NASA Finally Pulls Buzzroom Offline for an Overhaul], ''NASA Watch'', 9 March 2011</ref> (as of 22 July, its home page still says "We're in the process of making Buzzroom better for our users. (...) Please check back in the future.").

Of course, the disappearance of the Buzzroom was taken by some as a confirmation that some secret had been leaked.

===Alleged alignments===
For now, see [http://cosmoquest.org/forum/showthread.php/115663-Comet-Elenin-Confirmed-to-be-causing-Earthquakes this thread] at the [[BAUT]] Forum for a discussion of the alleged alignments and their alleged connection to earthquakes. See also [[confirmation bias]], [[cherry picking]], [[correlation does not equal causation]] and the [[Texas sharpshooter fallacy]].

===The arXiv papers===
The [[arXiv]] is a large digital archive of [[Peer review|un-reviewed]] papers hosted by Cornell University. It is intended mostly as a place where scientists can upload the drafts of their papers to discuss them with other scientists. As a result, its submission criteria are very lax and a lot of [[fringe]] papers are uploaded though they have no chance of being published in a proper [[scientific journal]].

Someone decided to search for "Elenin" in the arXiv and found two draft papers.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150415084426/http://arxiv.org/find/all/1/all:+elenin/0/1/0/all/0/1 search on 'all:elenin'] ''arXiv.org'' (archived from April 15, 2015).</ref>

One of them, the older one, is about a supernova and Leonid Elenin is listed as the second author (that is, not the main author).<ref>[http://arxiv.org/abs/1003.2558 SN 2008fv: the third type Ia supernova in NGC 3147], D. Yu. Tsvetkov, L. Elenin</ref>

The newer one is by one [[Mensur Omerbashich]], a Bosnian crank who tries to use Comet Elenin to support his idea that the Earth is apparently some kind of "hyperresonator" and planetary alignments (including alignments with Elenin) cause earthquakes.<ref>[http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.2036 Astronomical alignments as the cause of ~M6+ seismicity]</ref> (His [http://sites.google.com/site/omerbashich/ website] is rather amusing.) As he claims that the influence is gravitational ("tidally induced") and caused by resonance, this contradicts directly the other attempts at linking the comet to the earthquakes - the "[[electric comet]]" claims and the claim that the comet is a [[cover-up]] for a more massive object. For comments on Omerbashich's article, see the BAUT thread linked in [[#Alleged alignments|alleged alignments]] above and posts by amateur astronomer Ian Musgrave.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20110903141402/http://astroblogger.blogspot.com/2011/05/comet-2010-x1-elenin-earthquakes.html Comet 2010 X1 Elenin, Earthquakes, Astronomical Alignments and Mensur Omerbashich]. Archived from the original at astroblogger.blogspot.com, 27 May 2011.</ref><ref>[http://astroblogger.blogspot.com/2011/07/revisiting-comet-2010-x1-elenin.html Revisiting Comet 2010 X1 Elenin, Earthquakes, Astronomical Alignments and Mensur Omerbashich]. Archived from the original at astroblogger.blogspot.com, 30 July 2011.</ref>

Links to the search results and the Omerbashich article started circulating in the woosphere, with people misreading them in various ways. Some apparently don't know what arXiv is and think that these are papers that have been submitted to or published by Cornell.<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FmeLxez3dQ Comet Elenin - Leonid Elenin Answers Questions Regarding EQ's (3rd May)], Thyalwaysseek, video at YouTube</ref>

===Other bodies?===
[[File:C2010x1 20101211.jpg|thumb|right|This was the first image of Comet Elenin available in [http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2010X1/pictures.html Seiichi Yoshida's image collection] (see [[#Pictures|pictures]] below). It was created by stacking four 300-second exposures, creating quadruple images of the stars. &copy; 2010 A. Sergeyev and [http://severastro.narod.ru/ A. Novichonok], [http://www.astrin.uzsci.net/oldweb2/eng/maidanak/ Maidanak] [http://www.astrin.uzsci.net/oldweb2/rus/maidanak/ Observatory], Uzbekistan]]

There have been several claims about other objects following or flying together with the comet. The alleged nature of the alleged objects varies from claimant to claimant, from "satellites of the 
brown dwarf
 comet" (see above) to "alien spacecraft". Such claims are eerily reminiscent of the claims about Comet Hale-Bopp and the [[Heaven's Gate]] cult suicides in the 1990s. And as one surprisingly sane poster on a conspiracy forum put it, "Most of you have been in diapers in 1997 and you don't make the connection."

A lot of the claims seem to be caused by a misinterpretation of telescope images of the comet where it is surrounded by "strings" of white blobs. The strings are actually multiplied images of the surrounding stars, a side effect of the process used to create the comet image. The process is called "image stacking" or "frame stacking" and it consists of combining several separate images of a faint object with a computer to produce a brighter image. In the case of stacked images of comets or asteroids, this makes stars appear as streaks or strings of blobs, as the comet of asteroid is moving relative to the star field in the time between each image.<ref>[http://www.ewellobservatory.com/ccd/comet.cfm Capturing a Comet], Richard A. Bennion, ''Ewell Observatory''. The article has several examples of comet images containing strings of multiplied stars.</ref>

An example is a July 2011 [[Sorcha Faal]] "report" that 
used
 abused the picture to the left, cropped to show only the comet and the two tracks of quadrupled stars.<ref name='faal-ufos'>[http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1499.htm Top US Space Expert Issues Catastrophic Warning On Comet Elenin], Sorcha Faal, WhatDoesItMean.com (and probably mirrored elsewhere), 7 July 2011 ([http://www.webcitation.org/60N25M2dG archived by WebCite])</ref> The text of the "report" stated that the eight blobs are [[UFO]]s, belonging to an extraterrestrial civilization, recycling a previously circulating claim.<!--

The "Photoshop massacre" image

Sergio Toscano / "Chinese scientists"
http://noticias.terra.com.ar/cientificos-chinos-dicen-que-detras-de-cometa-viene-un-ovni,42ed4ad9867bf210VgnVCM4000009bf154d0RCRD.html
http://thetruthbehindthescenes.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/scientists-says-comet-elenin-has-massive-ufo-fleet-following-in-formation-in-its-tail/
-->

===JPL's Small-Body Database Browser===
After the woo started rolling, a lot of attention was focused on the entry of the comet in the JPL's Small-Body Database Browser, the only immediately available source of "official" information about the comet. Its imprecise orbital visualization applet was used to claim various alignments and to "determine" the date of the perihelion. The whole page was intensely scrutinized for clues about the nature of the comet, sometimes with hilarious results.

====Date of the perihelion====
[[File:Orbit Viewer - Comet Elenin 10 September.gif|thumb|right|10 September 2011: "Sun Distance: 0.482 AU"]]
[[File:Orbit Viewer - Comet Elenin 11 September.gif|thumb|right|11 September 2011: "Sun Distance: 0.483 AU"]]
The last "official" date of the perihelion is 10 September. As the page itself says, the t<sub>p</sub> ("time of perihelion passage") is "2011-Sep-10.71849569" (as of 9 September; the "solution date" is "2011-Sep-02"). Nevertheless, some people claim that the perihelion is on the 11th of September (DUH-DUH-DUH-DUHNNN!), claiming that if the orbital visualization applet is set to 11 September, the "Sun Distance" is 0.482 AU (astronomical units), while if the applet is set to the 10th of September, the distance is 0.483 AU. (The current orbital solution on the page puts the perihelion distance (q) at 0.4824397626063921 AU.)

This is partially true - it is likely that you will get the same results - but the problem is that the applet doesn't show the digits after the third one, neither the hour (only the date). Try the following:
*Open the [http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=C%2F2010+X1;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0#orb orbit viewer for C/2010 X1] (requires Java; it may take some time to load)
*Set the date to 10 September. If the "Sun Distance" is 0.483, continue. If it's 0.482... point proven. 
*Set the step from "1 Day" to "1 Hour"
*Start advancing the time by clicking on the ">|" button and keep an eye on the Sun distance and the date.
*After a few clicks, the distance should drop to '''0.482 AU, but the date is still 10 September'''.
*Keep clicking. After a few clicks, the date should change to 11 September.
*After some more clicks (but less than those on 10 Sept), the distance should change to '''0.483 AU, but the date is 11 September'''!
*The reason people are getting consistent results when they set the date is probably because the applet sets the hour to the same fixed value (midnight? noon?) every time the date is set. Thus, the distance drops below 0.483 some hours after the beginning of 10 September, and stays there at the beginning of 11 September, though farther away than in the point of the perihelion. (If you want, you can look at the source code of the applet - it's available at the [http://www.astroarts.co.jp/products/orbitviewer/index.html Orbit Viewer page at AstroArts].)

The whole point is moot, though, for several reasons:
*The applet displays only the "two-body solution" based on the current orbital elements that doesn't correct for gravitational perturbations. It's just a tool for a rough visualization of the orbit, not a precise simulation (by the way, if you seriously think that you can download and run a meticulously accurate orbital/gravitational simulation as a Java applet in around a minute, RationalWiki suggests doing a little research into computer technology first. Oh, and it might also be an idea to look up how to cross the road safely whilst you're at it. Just a thought.). The numbers on the page, on the other hand - t<sub>p</sub>, q and the others - are the results of calculations that take into account the gravitational forces that the other bodies in the Solar System put on the comet. ({{see-wp|n-body problem}})
*The date of the perihelion is irrelevant anyway. The Universe does not revolve around the United States. [[American exceptionalism|Honestly.]]

====Otto Matic====
"Otto Matic" is a pun on the word "automatic" - it is pronounced in approximately the same way, something that may not be immediately obvious to people for whom English is not the first language. (You can check the pronunciation and hear it [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/automatic here].) It is a rather old pun and examples of it date at least back to the 1970s,<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061256/ George of the Jungle] (entry at IMDB), a 1967–1970 cartoon series featuring a villain called Baron Otto Matic.</ref> including one in ''Playboy''.<ref>[http://members.i.playboy.com/Playboy-Magazine/Apr-1970-Issue/150 Dr. Otto Matic, I Presume], Craig Vetter, ''Playboy'', April 1970</ref>

"Otto Mattic" is also the name given in the "Producer" field in Comet Elenin's entry in JPL's Small-Body Database Browser. (According to the pop-up help, this field is the "name of person (or institution) who computed the orbit".) Some perplexed conspiracy theorist Googled the name and found out that all results point to a [http://www.pangeasoft.net/otto/index.html video game] developed by Pangea Software.<ref name='faal-ufos'/><ref name='otto-glp'>[http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1555608/pg1 WTF is "producer - Otto Matic" and WTF a video game has to do with the COMET?!?], thread at [[Godlike Productions]], started 8 July 2011</ref> Apparently, the game features a robot called Otto Matic Proto, who "travels to Planet Xallamarphamandos (Planet X for short)".<ref name='otto-glp'/> As a result, some... ''people'' decided that "NASA must completely think that we're idiots... Or SEVERELY messing with our heads in a very evil way!"<ref>[http://cosmoquest.org/forum/showthread.php/117890-Comet-Elenin-Is-Of-Intelligent-Design Comet Elenin Is Of Intelligent Design], thread at the [[Bad Astronomy and Universe Today Forum]], started on 08 July 2011</ref>

There are several problems with this line of reasoning. The name probably indicates that the orbital parameters were imported or calculated by some kind of automatic process. The name is not specific to Comet Elenin, as it is used in the entries of many other objects, for example [http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2008+OO near-Earth asteroid 2008 OO], [http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=21+Lutetia main belt asteroid (21) Lutetia] and comet [http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2011+NO1 P/2011 NO<sub>1</sub>], Leonid Elenin's second discovered comet. It has been used in the SBDB at least since 2008 for asteroid [http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2007+TU24 2007 TU<sub>24</sub>].<ref>[http://cosmoquest.org/forum/showthread.php/68964-Asteroid-TU24-close?p=1151725#post1151725 A post] mentions "Otto Matic" in ''Asteroid TU24 close?'', thread at the [[Bad Astronomy and Universe Today Forum]], in January 2008</ref>

JPL's programmers are not the only ones with a taste for "automatic" jokes. Many of the Minor Planet Center's Minor Planet Electronic Circulars (MPECs) are signed by "A. U. Tomatic", for example [http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K11/K11P07.html MPEC 2011-P07], [http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K10/K10O34.html MPEC 2010-O34] and [http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K07/K07N12.html MPEC 2007-N12].

===Game Over, Man!, Game Over!===
In 19 August 2011 when it was very close to the Sun, Elenin was hit by a coronal mass ejection<ref>[http://spaceobs.org/en/2011/08/24/interaction-between-comet-elenin-and-coronal-mass-ejection-from-the-sun/ Interaction between Comet Elenin and CME from the Sun]</ref> and shortly after began disintegrating<ref>[http://astrobob.areavoices.com/2011/08/28/comet-elenin-tired-of-too-much-pr/ Comet elenin tired of too much PR]</ref>, along with the credibility of cranks and woo lovers ''again''. By October 2011, it was just a cloud of dust<ref>[http://www.global-rent-a-scope.com/gras-news/2011/10/24/a-dust-cloud-once-called-comet-elenin.html And so the story ends]</ref>.

==Pictures==

[[File:Comet Elenin NASA 2011.jpg|thumb|right|350px|In August 2011, NASA posted the first official photograph of comet Elenin approaching from space.<ref>[http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/item.php?id=selects&iid=154 Comet Elenin as seen by HI1-B on Aug. 6, 2011.] stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov, 19 March 2018.</ref>]]

There were a lot of false claims that amateur astronomers could not find the comet and that all pictures were provided only by Elenin. These claims are easily dispelled. 

*The Comet Elenin page on Seiichi Yoshida's comet website collects images of the comet by amateur astronomers. It was one of the first picture sources found when the conspiracy theories started to circulate, which prompted some of the conspiracy theorists to dismiss it as a part of the conspiracy.<ref>[http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2010X1/2010X1.html C/2010 X1 (Elenin)] (Updated on January 7, 2012) ''Seiichi Yoshida's Home Page''.</ref>

*Various amateur astronomers posted their comet images to the now defunct Comet Images Yahoo Group.<ref>[https://archive.is/X1dUQ Search results for "C/2010 X1"] on Yahoo Groups Comet-Images]. Archived from the original at tech.groups.yahoo.com on 7 July 2013.</ref>

*Southern Comets, Michael Mattiazzo's page, has some pictures of Comet Elenin from June and July 2011, made with an 11-inch Celestron 11GPS.<ref>[http://members.westnet.com.au/mmatti/webpage/2010X1_Elenin.htm Comet Elenin] at the Southern Comets page, 2011.</ref>

===Non-pictures===
A photo showing blue stars and a large blue comet with distinctive tail labelled "COMET ELENIN" with blocky white letters is '''not a picture of Comet Elenin''', but unfortunately it is one of the top results for "Comet Elenin" in Google Images and it was used in the Discover News article.<ref name='discovery'/> It is actually a photo of the comet 81P/Wild that was used as an illustration in an early article about Elenin.<ref>[http://www.suite101.com/content/comet-elenin-observe-a-jewel-of-the-night-skies-septembers-2011-a324612 Comet Elenin, Observe a Jewel of the Night Skies September 2011], Suite101, 25 December 2010. The full photo is attached to the article: [http://www.suite101.com/view_image_articles.cfm/2683306 Comet 81P/Wild] and can be seen also on [http://www.cometary.net/tzec_maun_images the Tzec Maun page of the Red Barn Observatory's website].</ref> Apparently the author thought that an article about a comet should contain an image of a comet even if it's not the same one. The original version, like most astronomical images, was "black-and-white" (grayscale). The blue-colored version with the incorrect label seems to originate from a January post in the blog of a conspiracy theorist who thought that it could hit Earth.<ref>[http://reinep.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/comet-elenin-could-hit-earth/ Comet Elenin Could Hit Earth!], Ray Alex Website, 18 January 2011</ref>

==External links==
*{{wpa|C/2010 X1 (Elenin)|Comet Elenin}}
*[http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=C%2F2010%20X1 C/2010 X1 (Elenin) data] at JPL's Small Body Database browser, including a Java-based interactive [http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=C%2F2010%20X1;orb=1 orbit diagram]
*The Minor Planet Center (their data often is somewhat fresher than the JPL's):
**[http://scully.cfa.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/returnprepeph.cgi?d=c&o=CK10X010 Orbital elements and ephemeris for C/2010 X1 (Elenin)], inlcuding a KML file for Google Sky
**[http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=C%2F2010+X1&commit=Show Database page for C/2010 X1], including orbit solutions and downloadable list of the observations used to calculate the orbit
*[http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/09100/09189.html International Astronomical Union Circular 9189: C/2010 X1; P/2010 V1], 17 December 2010, announcing the discovery of the comet

===Leonid Elenin===
Sites by or about him:
*[http://spaceobs.org ISON-NM observatory site], including a blog written by Leonid Elenin himself (in English and Russian; the Russian part used to be more informative before he got a volunteer to translate his posts into English)

===Media coverage===
*[http://www.gazeta.ru/science/2010/12/20_a_3471201.shtml «Кометы могут представлять серьезную угрозу» Интервью с первым российским астрономом, открывшим комету за последние 20 лет], Газета.Ru (interview with Leonid Elenin in Russian, passable Google Translate machine translation [http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gazeta.ru%2Fscience%2F2010%2F12%2F20_a_3471201.shtml here]), 20 December 2010
*[http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/skyblog/observingblog/112431829.html Bright Prospects for Comet Elenin?], ''Sky & Telescope'' magazine Observing Blog, 24 December 2010
*[http://astroblogger.blogspot.com/2011/03/from-super-moons-to-comet-elenin-we.html From Super Moons to Comet Elenin – we will NOT get killer earthquakes from the sky], Astroblog, 16 March 2011 ([http://astroblogger.blogspot.com/2011/03/comet-2010-x1-elenin-its-just-lump-of.html previous coverage] in the same blog; see also Supermoon)
*[http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/119704774.html So-So Prospects for Comet Elenin], ''Sky & Telescope'' magazine Observing Blog, 12 April 2011
*[http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch/newsfeatures.cfm?release=2011-135 Comet Elenin: Preview of a Coming Attraction], [[NASA]]/JPL's ''Asteroid Watch'' blog, 4 May 2011
*[http://astroblogger.blogspot.com/2011/05/comet-2010-x1-elenin-earthquakes.html Comet 2010 X1 Elenin, Earthquakes, Astronomical Alignments and Mensur Omerbashich], Astroblog, 27 May 2011
*[http://astroblogger.blogspot.com/2011/06/comet-elenin-is-not-satellite-of-brown.html Comet Elenin is NOT a satellite of a Brown Dwarf Star], Astroblog, 3 June 2011
*[http://www.space.com/12194-comet-elenin-planet-nibiru-doomsday-2012.html Believers In Mysterious Planet Nibiru Await Earth's End], ''Space.com'', 7 July 2011. Later republished as [http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/07/24/believers-in-mysterious-planet-nibiru-comet-elenin-await-earths-end/ Believers in Mysterious Planet Nibiru, Comet Elenin Await Earth's End] at the [[Fox News]] website on 24 July.
*[http://astroblogger.blogspot.com/2011/07/revisiting-comet-2010-x1-elenin.html Revisiting Comet 2010 X1 Elenin, Earthquakes, Astronomical Alignments and Mensur Omerbashich], Astroblog, 29 July 2011
*[http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-255 Comet Elenin Poses No Threat to Earth], NASA/JPL's News and Features, 16 August 2011
*[http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/comet_elenin.html NASA Answers Your Questions About Comet Elenin], short "feature" at the Solar System section of the main NASA website, 3 August 2011
*[http://podcast.sjrdesign.net/shownotes_004.php Exposing Pseudoastronomy Podcast #4 - Comet Elenin Special], Stuart Robbins, 10 September 2011
*[http://www.space.com/13045-comet-elenin-skywatching-curiosity-nasa.html The Curious Case of Comet Elenin: A Weird Skywatching Tale], Geoff Gaherty, Space.com, 22 September 2011

===Nutters===
The anti-science self-promoter [[Richard Hoagland]] spoke at a woo conference on 24 September 2011 for 3h 20m on the subject of Elenin. He then spoke for another 2h on [[Coast to Coast AM]], 16 October. On both occasions, using pseudo-statistical data that was breathtakingly wrong,<ref group="note">For example, he stated that the odds of a cometary orbit having a certain inclination are "1 in (365 divided by the inclination in degrees)". This means that the odds of an orbit of zero incination are... er.... oh, never mind.</ref> he "calculated" that the odds of Elenin being a natural object were 45,000,000,000 against. 

A few very gullible people believed this; however, Hoagland's very obvious failures over both Elenin and the asteroid YU<sub>55</sub> lost him a great many fans.

Just enter "Comet Elenin" in the search engine of your choice. A taste of the crazy:
*[http://www.webcitation.org/5xb2FMN9N Comet Elenen: The Story So Far…] (archived copy)
* TerralO3 is one of the major fear-mongers on YouTube and elsewhere (see this [http://sites.google.com/site/eledwarfstar/ 
website
 link dump], [http://www.webcitation.org/5zqd24d6c archived by WebCite])
* [http://www.calleman.com/content/articles/Comets_Honda_Elenin.htm Comets Honda and Elenin fulfill Mayan, Hopi and Christian Prophesies as the Mayan calendar approaches its end on October 28, 2011], Carl Johan Calleman, 23 June 2011 ([http://www.webcitation.org/60GTYDtnh Archived by WebCite&reg;])
* [http://eleninandbankers.webs.com/ Elenin and Bankers], an amusing single-page site connecting Comet Elenin with an international banker conspiracy ([http://www.webcitation.org/60Le5Vxja Archived by WebCite&reg;])
*[http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=326893 Comet races toward Earth at peak of God's holy days: Pastor asking: 'Will there be some type of magnetic pull? Will the poles shift?'], Joe Kovacs, [[World Net Daily]], 31 July 2011 (yes, that WND - they are covering the "fulfils Biblical prophecy" angle)
*[http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/comet_elenin.html NASA Answers Your Questions About Comet Elenin]

Places to mine for more examples:
* [http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/searchresults.php?cx=010913664321846374563%3Afzhl_cfnikq&cof=FORID%3A9&q=%22Elenin%22+&sa=Search#1031 List of all threads] on [[Above Top Secret]] mentioning "Elenin" (Google custom search)
* [[Godlike Productions]] helpfully has created an automatically-generated [http://www.godlikeproductions.com/topics/Science/Comet_Elenin "topic" about Comet Elenin] containing all threads with certain keywords in their title

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elenin, Comet}}
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Pseudoastronomy]]
[[Category:End of the world]]

Categories: Astronomy, Pseudoastronomy, End of the world