Talk:Comet Encke

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Hi, thanks for creating the page.. I thinks the comet's influences are relevent. This page is an entry on a particular comet, but wikipedia IS NOT an astronomical encyclopedia so any important cultural aspects should be fine unless of course they go into great detail - then another article or stub is needed. As for the link - if the info in the article is relevent then a link on that topic should be fine. I feel that comets, evolution and extinction-level events (although very tv-friendly) are serious, currently debated topics within science and astronomy (spaceguard etc). I think it is unrealistic to expect an article on a comet to be purely composed of cosmological or astrophysical information. I deliberatly kept it short so it wouldn't dominate the article. HOWEVER perhaps I should section it off into "Comet Encke in History" or something similar - check out Moon Solar Eclipse thunder lightning (which has a section on "Lightning in contemporary culture") for starters. I think a disambugation (spelt right?) page is unneccessary... max rspct

Ok, here is what I think in more detail. First, the question of this topic being worth WP was not meant as saying it is not. My problem is that I only see this link to a talk and I have no idea how notable this theory is. And notable to me means that is noted by other peers in the field and discussed. In case that it is too new for this to happen, we should wait with bringing it into WP (original research). If the theory is out there for decades and not discussed at all, it seems also not "good enough" for WP. Hope this clears things up a bit.

Secondly, if it is to be added to WP, I propose an extra article about the relationship of comets and the end of the Bronze Age. And then we can ref to Comet Encke were appropriate. And maybe add a "See also" section here. I feel the main purpose of this article is the astronomical facts about Encke.

Ok I insist it is worthy - I know it looks lovely and minimalist with just the cometary info .. but i feel it is important for anyone looking up this page on comet Encke should be given the chance to see information which I assure u is both revelant and seriously connected with the comet by academics. It HAS been debated for years (i'm suprised you don't think it appropriate) and there has been plenty of serious debate and peer noting/discussion .... comet master Fred Whipple had no doubts about the connections between cometary debris and destructive events. In fact he considered the Tunguska event to be linked to Encke although I have not put this in here. : "The composition of the Tunguska body remains a matter of controversy. In 1930, the British astronomer F.J.W. Whipple suggested that the Tunguska body was a small comet. A cometary meteorite, being composed primarily of ices and dust, could have been completely vaporized by the impact with the Earth's atmosphere, leaving no obvious traces. The comet hypothesis was further supported by the glowing skies (or "skyglows") observed across Europe for several evenings after the impact, apparently caused by dust that had been dispersed across the upper atmosphere. In addition, chemical analyses of the area have shown it to be rich in cometary material. In 1978, Slovak astronomer Lubor Kresak suggested that the body was a piece of the short-period Comet Encke, which is responsible for the Beta Taurid meteor shower; the Tunguska event coincided with a peak in that shower. It is now known such bodies regularly explode tens to hundreds of kilometres before hitting the ground, as military satellites have been observing such explosions for decades."................ As for Bronze age collapse i should have linked to something a bit better ... How about this one- Natural Catastrophes During Bronze Age Civilisations: Archaeological, geological, astronomical and cultural perspectives Here is an overview [[1]]and an in-depth paste up of the conference -[2] and an bit from Dr Bill Napier's abstract -[3] (does that one convince u??) ; space.com article on craters in Iraq -[[4]] - it is from around the same time as the National Geographic one that i am still trying to find in my local library and the BBC news article that has been taken down. And here is an article from Dr Benny Peiser although it doesn't directly mention comet Encke [5]

Also for the swastika bit ... please check out that swastika page (and also look at our WHAT LINKS HERE PAGE and also see how many other people are contributed on these associated themes .. lightning , solar eclipse etc) Comet Encke has been consistently cited as having a very large influence on the development of the swastika. Check out this on-line study Wilson's 1894 work on it - (u have to download Dejavu plug-in) [6] I will email Benny Peiser and possibly visit local observatory ..after festivities ....MERRY XMAS from max rspct p.s just in case your worrying (my user contributions look a bit dark) am not a nazi or conspiracy theory disseminator. addendum- consider the beau Pleiades (star cluster) article and how it has developed and please note the included folklore sections - surely there is a place for wider academic and cultural information. max rspct 29th Dec 2004