That September Doomsday Comet: Be Unafraid, be VERY Unafraid!

September appears to be yet another doomsday month, so head for your shelters. Or perhaps not.

The latest doomsday prediction convincing the unwary concerns a comet that is supposed to collide with the Earth, this one with a near-future arrival date of mid-September. But what is the validity of this new prophesy?

Originating with an announcement by self-proclaimed prophet, Reverend Efrain Rodriguez, and propagated by conspiracy blogger Lyn Leahz, the prediction is that there is a 2.5 mile-wide comet that is emanating "hellish mystery sounds", that is on a collision course with the Earth, and will cause unprecedented climatological upheaval upon impact.

Leahz cites a statement by France’s Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, made during a May 13, 2014 visit to the U.S. State Department, to come to the projected mid-September impact period: “We have 500 days to avoid climate chaos." Fabius was, however, referring to the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, to be held in Paris later this year, a little more than five-hundred days after his visit.

While Leahz claims to know the name of the comet, but declines to divulge which one it is, she has posted a video that contains an edited recording of what she describes as "Chilling, Hellish Mystery Sounds and Screams", made by a mission in space. The sounds, however, appear to be an audio recording made by the Rosetta probe of the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko’s (67P/C-G) magnetic fluctuations, edited to sound more eerie.

Aside from the inclusion of a picture of 67P/C-G in the cover of Leahz’s presentational video, this comet is also 2.5 miles wide, indicating that 67P/C-G is indeed the comet in question. However, 67P/C-G’s orbit does not cross Earth’s orbit at all, with it’s perihelion, it’s point closest to the sun, falling between Earth and Mars’s orbits. As well, 67P/C-G’s orbit is well charted: with an orbital period of only 6.44 years, it has completed at least seven orbits since it’s discovery in 1969.

Leahz also cites recent movements by many countries that are re-positioning and test-firing missiles as a defensive measure against incoming debris, despite the low likelihood of current missile systems being effective against objects of the involved velocity or mass; and an increase of seismic events around the globe, despite the gravity field of the average comet being too low to affect Earth in any meaningful way.

NASA has also addressed this conspiracy, confirming that they have not charted any comets or asteroids that would be in a position to impact Earth in the near future, with the expectation that no large comet or asteroid is expected to strike Earth for the next several centuries.

Regardless of which way this pans out, we’ll see what September brings…