Articles in Dark Comets
Dark Comet: The Forgotten Threat
One of my best sources of information is Google Alerts – it lets me know all the new websites and web pages that show up for a particular key phrase. Alerts for keywords like 2012 cult or survival bunker provide so many new results each day Google only shows me the best. My alert for dark comet is particularly disappointing. Aside from results to do with what I suspect is a hacking tool with the same name, I cannot recall when I last saw information on the topic.
Two years ago there was a flurry of info, all resulting from the one scientific paper back in 2005:
Swathes of dark comets may be prowling the solar system, posing a deadly threat to Earth [New Scientist]
Comets could be the most significant impact hazard to Earth, with sky surveys underestimating the number that are potentially devastating by a factor of between 10 and 100 …
Chandra Wickramasinghe Dismissed
This totally sucks. Chandra Wickramasinghe is a superstar astronomer (in my opinion) and will most likely be acknowledged (one day) as the most progressive comet researcher of his era. He has given us the concept of dark comets, and greatly helped publicize the study of panspermia, which he collaborated on with Sir Fred Hoyle.
Now his department at Cardiff University, with a dozen staff, has been shut down to save a mere £15,000. While I’m sure their work will continue, no longer being associated with a university means their ideas won’t find as many people. This decision is seemingly political (or even religious?).
Prof Wickramasinghe added: “Most of our publications last year were in the International Journal of Astrobiology, a mainstream Cambridge University publication which is heavily peer-reviewed and is not a trivial journal.”
The professor, who appealed against his sacking, is now seeking private funding for the centre to continue as a …