Comment by thescrounger on 03/07/2024 at 12:05 UTC

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View submission: What was this object

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I believe this cannot be answered as asked. Comets vary in magnitude from each other and individually depending on their distance from the sun. So we couldn't judge its distance from Earth based on the magnitude or its apparent speed in the sky. Also whether it hits Earth would depend also on its trajectory, not just the speed and distance.

However, we can infer that no comet observed in recorded history has moved this "fast" across the sky. The closest approach was in 1770 and that was more than a million miles away. It was observed moving across the sky over several days, not minutes.

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There's nothing here!