SMALL COMETS - NAKED-EYE VISIBILITY

We investigate an obvious consequence of the small-comet hypothesis. W e find that the 30-ton cloud of water-ice particles formed by a small comet would survive long enough to be an unmistakably bright object. T he visual magnitude of such clouds would be between that of a bright s tar and the full Moon. A whole-Earth small-comet flux of 20/min implie s the sudden appearance of at least two bright patches of light every five minutes. The two-hour periods after sunset and before sunrise oug ht to produce the most spectacular sightings - intermittent punctuatio ns of bright rapidly-moving points of light. Because such events are n ot reported, we conclude that this class of object does not exist in d etectable numbers.