{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang1033{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Verdana;}{\f1\fnil Verdana;}} \viewkind4\uc1\pard\b\f0\fs18 So, you see the concern over the companion.\par \par Because they all know, and the Vatican knows, that it was the companion that did the damage the last time. \par \par The only problem is, the companion became the planet Venus. What they don't understand is that it's a very different thing to produce the orbits for these, and NASA is learning the hard way. \par \par They couldn't keep track of Hale-Bopp; it changed on a daily basis.\par \par That was the one thing we did in The Millenium Group: track the dailing changing of its orbit on the government ephemeris pages.\par \par Martin: Was Comet NEAT a surprise? Did that come out of nowhere- or did they expect that?\par \par McCanney: No. Comet NEAT is another VERY large nucleus; planetary in size- probably the size of our moon, at least; probably larger. They probably saw it coming in years ago, as part of this entourage of things coming in -- which I think of as things that are coming in as part of the Planet X entourage. They didn't want anybody to know about it, for the simple reason they knew it was going to come in right around the Sun and it was big. They probably never expected it to become as bright as it did. But it was literally visible in the daytime sky, right next to the Sun, as it passed - over about a 12 hour period when it was coming in.\par \par Martin: The obvious question is: how many more of these companions can we look forward to ? \par \b0\f1\par }