When the comet appears. The most impressive comets that have ever appeared in the earth's sky. Analysis of the behavior of Comet Halley

I bring to your attention an overview of comet visibility for 2018. The table shows all comets that at their peak brightness will be brighter than magnitude 14 and, accordingly, can be accessible to astronomy enthusiasts. First the general table -
All comets brighter than magnitude 14 that will be observed in 2018.
Comets are given in the order in which they pass the perihelion point. The table shows: Designation, Tperig.- the moment the comet passes perihelion across Moscow, q- perihelion distance in astronomical units, P- orbital period in years for short-period comets, M max- maximum brightness in this appearance and the current state of affairs for the comet (observed/not yet found in this appearance).

Now in more detail on the visibility of each of the comets on our list:
- Periodic comet 185P/Petru observed in its fourth appearance since its discovery in 2001. When it appeared in 2018, it reached magnitude 11.5 at its maximum brightness in the first half of February. The comet was observed in the evening hours not very high above the horizon in the west. 185P/Petru moved through the constellations Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Cetus, again Pisces, again Cetus.
- Comet C/2015 O1 (PANSTARRS), discovered by the PANSTARRS sky survey at the end of July 2015, reached its maximum brightness (12.5 magnitude) at the end of March - beginning of April. The comet could be observed throughout the night high above the horizon, and by morning it rose almost to the zenith. C/2015 O1 (PANSTARRS) moved at maximum brightness through the constellations Hercules, Bootes and Ursa Major.
- Comet C/2017 T1 (Heinze) At its brightest maximum in early January 2018, it reached a magnitude of 9.3. It was visible to small instruments in mid-latitudes from the end of December 2017 to March 2018. The celestial guest moved through the constellations Cancer, Lynx, Giraffe, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Lizard, Pegasus and Aquarius. The comet was visible at the beginning of the year throughout the night, then at the beginning of February in the evening and in the morning, and from the end of February in the mornings before sunrise.
Path diagram of C/2017 T1 (Heinze) during the period of visibility in small instruments -

Every year on August 12, meteorites rapidly streak the sky throughout the night with bright fiery stripes, burning in the middle layers of the atmosphere. This fiery display is called the Perseus meteor shower. Moving in orbit, the Earth crosses a meteor shower - the trail of a comet making its way around the Sun.

What are comets?

Comets, like stone asteroids, are, so to speak, industrial waste after the formation of the Sun, planets and their satellites. Comets are composed mainly of ice with inclusions of small rocks and dust. For most of their lives, comets graze on vast desert grasslands on the periphery of the solar system.

The farthest planet in the solar system, Pluto, is located 5.8 billion kilometers from the Sun. A cluster of comets called Kuyper's Belt is located 480 million kilometers further than Pluto. Another similar cluster, the Oort Cloud, is 160 billion kilometers away from the Sun. In fact, the Oort Cloud is not a cloud, but a huge accumulation of trillions of comets, these comets roam the Universe in different directions, like cows in a grazing herd. The Oort Cloud is believed to surround solar system like a huge halo.

Interesting fact: Comets complete one revolution around the Sun on average every one million years.

Evidence of comet clusters

Proving the existence of comet clusters is very difficult. And that's why. Even if you fly in a rocket through the Oort Cloud, you may not encounter a single comet during the trip. They are separated by millions and billions of kilometers. Since comets are far from the Sun, they are very poorly lit and look almost as dark as their surroundings. space. Comets far from the Sun do not have the tails attributed to them. Their color is red-brown, their size is about two kilometers. In a word, they look like big dirty icebergs.

Related materials:

Interesting facts about space

Journey of comets

The comet's ugly face is transformed as it leaves the herd and approaches the Sun. At this moment, the comet undergoes an instant transformation. It stretches across the night sky in a long shining stripe, terrifying and delighting people. What force drives a comet out of the Oort Cloud? Naturally, gravity. This is how it happens. The sun rapidly flies through space and drags behind it an armful of planets, their satellites and comets. The path of the Sun runs among the stars of the Milky Way. A herd of comets, carried away by the Sun, sometimes flies close to another star. The force of its gravity produces a disturbance in the Oort Cloud, moving comets from their usual positions

Comets are one of the most mysterious celestial bodies that appear in the sky every now and then. Today, scientists believe that comets are a byproduct left over from the formation of stars and planets billions of years ago. They consist of a core of various types of ice (frozen water, carbon dioxide, ammonia and methane mixed with dust) and a large cloud of gas and dust surrounding the core, often called a "coma". Today, more than 5260 are known. Our review contains the brightest and most impressive.

1. Great comet of 1680

Great Comet of 1680

Discovered by German astronomer Gottfried Kirch on November 14, 1680, this magnificent comet became one of the brightest comets of the seventeenth century. She was remembered for being visible even in the daytime, as well as for her spectacular long tail.

2. Mrkos (1957)

Mrkos

Comet Mrkos was photographed by Alan McClure on August 13, 1957. The photo made a great impression on astronomers, since for the first time a double tail was noticed on a comet: a straight ion tail and a curved dust tail (both tails are directed in the opposite direction from the Sun).

3. De Kock-Paraskevopoulos (1941)

De Kock-Paraskevopoulos

This strange but beautiful comet is best remembered for its long but faint tail, and for being visible at dawn and dusk. The comet received such a strange name because it was discovered simultaneously by an amateur astronomer named De Kock and Greek astronomer John S. Paraskevopoulos.

4. Skjellerup - Maristani (1927)

Skjellerup - Maristany

Comet Skjellerup-Maristany was a long-period comet whose brightness suddenly increased greatly in 1927. It was visible to the naked eye for approximately thirty-two days.

5. Mellish (1917)

Mellish

Mellish is a periodic comet that has been observed primarily in the southern hemisphere. Many astronomers believe that Mellish will return to Earth's horizon in 2061.

6. Brooks (1911)

Brooks

This bright comet was discovered in July 1911 by astronomer William Robert Brooks. It was remembered for its unusual blue color, which was the result of radiation from carbon monoxide ions.

7. Daniel (1907)

Daniel

Comet Daniel was one of the most famous and widely observed comets of the early twentieth century.

8. Lovejoy (2011)

Lovejoy

Comet Lovejoy is a periodic comet that comes extremely close to the sun at perihelion. It was discovered in November 2011 by Australian amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy.

9. Bennett (1970)

Bennett

The next comet was discovered by John Caister Bennett on December 28, 1969, when it was two astronomical units from the Sun. It was notable for its radiant tail, composed of plasma compressed into filaments by magnetic and electric fields.

10. Seki Lines (1962)

Seki Lines

Initially visible only in the southern hemisphere, Seki Lines became one of the brightest objects in the night sky on April 1, 1962.

11. Arend-Roland (1956)

Arend-Roland

Visible only in the southern hemisphere during the first half of April 1956, Comet Arend-Roland was first discovered on November 8, 1956 by Belgian astronomers Sylvain Arend and Georges Roland in photographic images.

12. Eclipse (1948)

Eclipse

Eclipse is an exceptionally bright comet that was discovered during solar eclipse November 1, 1948.

13. Viscara (1901)

Viscara

The great comet of 1901, sometimes called Comet Vizcar, became visible to the naked eye on April 12. It was visible as a second magnitude star with a short tail.

14. McNaught (2007)

McNaught

Comet McNaught, also known as the Great Comet of 2007, is a periodic celestial body discovered on August 7, 2006 by British-Australian astronomer Robert McNaught. It was the brightest comet in forty years and was clearly visible to the naked eye in the southern hemisphere in January and February 2007.

15. Hyakutake (1996)

Hyakutake

Comet Hyakutake was discovered on January 31, 1996, during its closest passage to Earth. It was named the "Great Comet of 1996" and is remembered for being the closest celestial body to Earth in the last two hundred years.

16. Vesta (1976)

Vesta

Comet Vesta was perhaps the most exciting and eye-catching comet of the last century. It was visible to the naked eye, and its two huge tails stretched across the entire sky.

17. Ikeya-Seki (1965)

Ikeya-Seki

Also known as the "Great Comet of the Twentieth Century," Ikeya-Seki was the brightest comet of the last century, appearing even brighter than the Sun in daylight. According to Japanese observers, it was about ten times brighter than the full moon.

18. Halley's Comet (1910)

Halley's Comet

Despite the appearance of much brighter long-period comets, Halley is the brightest short-period (it returns to the Sun every 76 years) comet that is clearly visible to the naked eye.

19. Great Southern Comet (1947)

Great Southern Comet

In December 1947, a huge comet was spotted near the setting sun, the brightest in decades (since Halley's Comet in 1910).

In 2009, Robert McNaught opened Comet C/2009 R1, which is approaching the Earth, and in mid-June 2010, residents of the northern hemisphere will be able to see it with the naked eye.

Comet Morehouse(C/1908 R1) is a comet discovered in the USA in 1908, which was the first of the comets to begin to be actively studied using photography. Surprising changes were noticed in the structure of the tail. During the day of September 30, 1908, these changes occurred continuously. On October 1, the tail broke off and could no longer be observed visually, although a photograph taken on October 2 showed the presence of three tails. The rupture and subsequent growth of the tails occurred repeatedly.

Comet Tebbutt(C/1861 J1) - a bright comet visible to the naked eye, was discovered by an Australian amateur astronomer in 1861. The Earth passed through the comet's tail on June 30, 1861.

Comet Hyakutake(C/1996 B2) is a large comet that reached zero magnitude in brightness in March 1996 and produced a tail estimated to extend at least 7 degrees. Its apparent brightness is largely explained by its proximity to Earth - the comet passed from it at a distance of less than 15 million km. Its closest approach to the Sun is 0.23 AU, and its diameter is about 5 km.

Comet Humason(C/1961 R1) is a giant comet discovered in 1961. Its tails, despite being so far from the Sun, still extend 5 AU in length, an example of unusually high activity.

Comet McNaught(C/2006 P1), also known as the Great Comet of 2007, is a long-period comet discovered on August 7, 2006 by British-Australian astronomer Robert McNaught, becoming the brightest comet in 40 years. Residents of the northern hemisphere could easily observe it with the naked eye in January and February 2007. In January 2007, the comet's magnitude reached -6.0; the comet was visible everywhere in daylight, and the maximum tail length was 35 degrees.

On the eve of the new decade of the twentieth century, the world community underwent another serious shake-up. The reason was not war or another revolution. This time the threat came not from people, but directly from the sky: in 1910, the next appearance of Halley's comet was expected.

English scientist Edmund Halley early XVIII century became the first astronomer who managed to calculate the orbit of a comet and, accordingly, predict the appearance celestial body at the Sun. Bright, clearly visible from Earth with the naked eye, with a relatively short return period (75-76 years), Halley's Comet quickly became the most famous “celestial wanderer”. According to astronomers' calculations in May 1910, the Earth was supposed to pass through the comet's tail, which stretched for tens of millions of kilometers. The latest images of the comet's spectrum revealed bands of cyanogen (cyanide), a poisonous gas. It became well known to the public from crime reports: potassium cyanide was already a popular suicide poison in Europe. Therefore, never before has the return of this comet been awaited with such interest and anxiety.

About the origin and physical properties Almost nothing was known about the comet's tail; scientists and journalists wondered about the possible consequences. The comet became not just a traditional harbinger of troubles, but also their direct cause: archaic ideas were superimposed on scientific ones.

But panic in society began long before the appearance of the poisonous comet. In an atmosphere of anxious anticipation for Halley, at the very beginning of 1910, another bright comet suddenly appeared in the sky of the Southern Hemisphere, visible even in the daytime sky (Great January Comet C/1910 A1). Confusion begins in the press: no one knows where Halley is, which of the comets had poison in their tail - and in general, whether these are different comets or one. The Petersburg Leaflet stated at the end of January: “At present, the overwhelming majority of foreign newspapers state that Comet A. is precisely Halley’s Comet, which appeared a year earlier than astronomers had calculated.” Astronomers themselves, of course, have repeatedly stated that these are two different comets.

Comet and world

The news of the poisoned tail and the unexpected appearance of a second comet fueled the already heated debates and speculation that arose everywhere around the new phenomenon. Every now and then new ones were attributed to comets destructive forces- floods in France, snow storms in Ryazan region or even a tram stop.

"Correspondent" Berliner Tagebl. telegraphs an amazing phenomenon that took place near Florence. Between Valha and Sampiero it began to rain small, round, hot meteorites. Roads, fields and vineyards are completely covered with them. Most of the plantings died. After this fiery rain, the clouds opened and a shining comet was visible. The population serves prayer services in fear.”

Heavenly power is with us!
Something is wrong in the world
It's no longer pleasant for us to listen
Talk about new comet!
We were waiting for Halley's comet.
Suddenly another one appeared;
With a mysterious mysterious air,
It shines, shining in the sky.
<...>
Will we manage somehow?
Troubles are getting closer and closer.
Somewhere the earth is already shaking,
And a flood in Paris.
The Eiffel Tower has settled,
Those people walk around in anxiety;
That's right, the comet hit
Tower tail on the road!

The approach of comets became a fertile topic for the periodical press - in many ways, the general attacks of panic were provoked by the press itself. Newspapers reported on mass confessions in Parisian churches, on miners' strikes in the United States, on the growing number of madmen in Italy, and on French charlatans who began producing means to escape the poisonous gas of the comet - bottles of air, special "anti-comet" tablets and even umbrellas. Enterprising people in England offered those wishing to rent a submarine for rescue. It was all because of the comet.

Comet in Russia

One of the correspondents of the Morning of Russia newspaper later stated:

“We can proudly admit that the “Russian barbarians,” as our Western European friends like to call us, turned out to be much more cultured than our European neighbors in the case of Halley’s comet... No suicides, no prayers, no unrest - in a word, not a hint of what accompanied -the expectation of the “end of the world” was expected in other countries. Russian society and even the common people reacted soberly and calmly to all expectations, which in no way corresponded to reality. Now, everyone says, you can live in peace for another 75 years until, perhaps, new meeting comets with earth."

In fact, the January comet in Russia also caused various speculations and fits of hysteria.

“On January 16, at 5 o’clock in the evening, a comet appeared in the northwestern sky; it occupied a vertical position, its tail was narrow, facing upward, slightly curving towards the south; yellowish color.<...>The comet caused a lot of talk among the peasants: old people, especially women, consider it an omen of the imminent end of the world. Scholars argue that the Gospel still does not work out: the decrease in faith and love between people is recognized, the increase in vices and disasters is evident, but the Antichrist was not born.”

As in the West, enterprising people also took advantage of the approach of comets to own benefit. The sect of Brother John has become active again in Moscow  Brother John— Ivan Churikov (1861-1933), leader of the Churikov spiritual movement. He preached the idea of ​​spiritual salvation through giving up alcohol and smoking. He opposed the census, was repeatedly imprisoned, and founded a teetotal colony near Vyritsa. In 1929 he was arrested by the OGPU., who now preached the secret knowledge of comets. It was reported that in Tver the appearance of the comet had already been exploited by some clever entrepreneurs. On the busy streets of the city, suspicious characters are selling the brochure “Halley's Comet and the End of the World.”

​ “Brother John recently organized a crowded meeting on “vibrant topics.” For characterization, here are some excerpts from his sermon. “There was a congress about the green serpent, but nothing came of it, because green serpents gathered against it.” “Now, they say, some kind of tail comet will arrive, they assume that it will hit the Earth, but I say: themselves stupid people they touch their heads with Pushkin and Lermontov (!).”
A crowd of thousands of naive people, mostly women, sob tearfully, assenting to Brother.
Bratz’s business is apparently expanding: the premises have improved ventilation and electric lighting.”

On the other hand, many representatives of the scientific community did everything possible to reassure the population. Various public lectures gained great popularity, where a certain professor A. A. Ivanov assured listeners that the comet was safe and would fly at a respectable distance from the Earth. Often, information about the comet obtained from newspapers or public lectures had the opposite effect. For example, information about the poisonous gas contained in the tail of Halley's Comet sometimes took absurd forms.

“Yesterday and the day before, ordinary people repeatedly contacted the editor by telephone, claiming that they could smell a sort of “smell of alcohol” in the air, and fearfully inquiring whether this strange phenomenon was in connection with the approach of Halley’s Comet.
Although the smells of Halley’s comets have not yet been studied, it is unlikely that the celestial body can “smell of vodka.”
If the noses of our interlocutors on the phone are not hallucinating, then the alcoholic smell is more plausibly explained by the increased preparation of alcohol for the holiday.
In any case, celestial mechanics have nothing to do with it.”

The arrival of comets also inspired solutions to everyday problems. Thus, one young girl placed her ad in a marriage newspaper with the headline “Before the Comet,” and another, dressed as a comet, participated in a costume contest. However, the resourceful Mrs. Zhukova had to be content with only second place: the first was awarded to Mrs. Gaidarova for her pumpkin outfit.

The appearance of Halley's comet also served as a good occasion for exercises in wit. A cartoon of one of the leaders of the nationalist movement in Russia, an employee of “New Time” Mikhail Menshikov, with the caption: “If a comet collides with the Earth, you will have to write an article about the dominance of foreign elements,” has become widespread.” The feuilletonists also delighted the audience with their works. Vladimir Golikov, under the pseudonym Wega, published a number of miniatures in the newspaper “Voice of Moscow”, humorously highlighting the reaction of leading newspapers to the comet. Among them, the cadet newspaper Rech allegedly stated the following about the comet:

Appearance of a comet
Gives no illusions to the press
And it does not at all signify
Easing repression.

The more radical “New Time,” which sympathized with nationalist circles, allegedly considered the appearance of the comet a foreign provocation:

A comet is approaching...
We know these are suitable!
This is probably what our neighbors
Foreigners are to blame!
They say they have intercourse
Brought up with the vault of heaven
And Halley's comet
Poisoned with synerod.
In pre-reform times
They wouldn't be given a treat
And now, under the third Duma,
The authorities are in hibernation.

There were also texts in the spirit useful tips population, where the apocalyptic theme was surprisingly combined with a cheerful intonation:

A minute is dear to us:
The world is coming to an end!
There is a bull on the ground
For this reason.

Soon we'll have a comet's tail
Throws him onto his shoulder blades.
Don't lend money on interest
Give away the leftovers!

Writers about the comet

The news about the comet worried not only the general newspaper reader, but also the capital’s intelligentsia, so it is not surprising that not only “poems for the occasion” from humorous newspapers, but also very serious texts by famous writers were dedicated to the comet. Before 1910, the comet was already quite traditional poetically. However, until the news of the disastrous synerod spread throughout society, this image was very attractive, but still quite innocent. In most cases, the comet served, for example, as a metaphor to describe a love relationship. Thus, in Maximilian Voloshin’s wreath of sonnets “In the worlds of love, faithless comets...” (1909), consisting of 15 poems, the comet was the central image, but did not carry any threat with it:

In the worlds of love there are unfaithful comets,
Through the heavenly spheres the flickering stozhar -
Clouds of fire, restless fire,
Ecumenical storms wandering lights, -

We carry it far...

Everything changed in 1910, when rumors spread about a catastrophe threatening the Earth. The eve of the comet's return is marked by an explosion of references to it in poems. The comet became a stable sign of danger and death. In the poems of Nikolai Gumilyov, the comet appeared several times, it was either bloody in color (“Portrait of a Man”), or crimson and at the same time blue (“Adam’s Dream”); in Mikhail Zenkevich she appeared in the form of a poisonous snake (“The Shadow God”); David Burliuk’s was saturated with poison (“Stanzas”).

The symbolists perceived the approach of the comet most acutely. For them, it was not just a potential threat, but also an indisputable sign of the end of the world. Sergei Sokolov (Krechetov) described the state of a man who was preparing to meekly accept death from a comet (“The Last Man”):

The sign of a comet is like the coils of a serpent,
Crowned by the sky. So. It's time.
I lie motionless, numb,
By the cold fire...

Igor Severyanin, an egofuturist poet, despite his aesthetic differences with the symbolists, was in agreement with them on this issue. Moreover, he was convinced that the comet was not just a symbol of the end of the world, but also a punishment for people for all their sins, which he expressed in his poetry “Sextine. The presentiment is more tormenting than a comet...":

How divinely enlightened you have been in the darkness!
Prophetically-foggy signs;
They are bonfires, but those bonfires are everywhere...
A folk genius, locked in need,
One managed to realize the dream of a comet
And talk about the vengeful star.

I see death coming in a star
And if you are the evil one lost in the darkness,
Prophet poet of pagan omens,
You tell me about the horrors of a comet,
I merge with you and about need
I want to forget: why? because death is everywhere!
She is coming, she is already everywhere!..

Wing greetings to the punishing star -
She brings an end to earthly need...
Like ten suns, shine, star, in the darkness,
Blind your life and live up to the signs
A comet enchanting with oblivion!

Block and comets

Alexander Blok could not remain indifferent during these unrest in 1910. The appearance of comets corresponded to his symbolic picture of the world, in which, after the revolution of 1905, the poet and humanity were on the verge of a mystical catastrophe. Comets were both messengers and the cause of it - the embodied element. Blok was especially inspired not by Halley, but by the unexpected Great January Comet. It is about this first comet that the poet writes to his mother on January 11 (the comet is not yet visible in the St. Petersburg sky, the city is filled with rumors):

“Do you know that besides Halley’s comet (safe like Nat[alya] Nik[olaevna] [Volokhova]) there is another unknown one - a real stranger? Its tail, consisting of sinerod (hence the blue gaze), can poison our atmosphere, and all of us, having made peace before death, will sweetly fall asleep from the bitter smell of almonds on a quiet night, looking at the beautiful comet...”

In the printed speeches of astronomers dedicated to the new comet, there were no mentions of cyanide - it is this, like potassium cyanide, that smells like bitter almonds. But this is not important - Halley, according to Blok, could not be a “stranger” simply because she is familiar to everyone: her orbit is known, returns to the Sun are predicted. The January comet was much better suited to the role of an unexpected guest. Since the mid-1900s, the image of a comet in Blok’s lyrics has been associated with a female character - through Pushkin’s “Portrait” (“Like a lawless comet / In a circle of calculated luminaries”) and through Apollo Grigoriev’s “Comet” (“The comet will fly in the wrong line”). The stranger from Blok’s drama of the same name is the “falling maiden star”; The image of a comet’s tail can be seen both in the “mourning feathers” from the poem “Stranger” and in the train, “tambourine of a blizzard”, fan from “There, in the howling cold of the night...”. The image of a female comet appears especially persistently in the cycle “Snow Mask” (1907) (“You alone will rise above the entire desert / Unfold the comet’s trail”). The recipient of the “Snow Mask” itself, actress Natalya Nikolaevna Volokhova, with whom Blok fell in love in winter
1906-1907, did not accept the life-building practices of the poet, refusing to take the place of the Stranger. In a letter to his mother, Blok playfully cancels the addressing of the cycle (Volokhova = Halley’s familiar comet) and finds a new motivation for the image of the heroine through the synerod: “from here comes the blue gaze” (the poet recalls in the letter the poem “Trail spattered with stars...” from “Snow Mask” and the line “blue, blue, blue gaze”).

In February 1910, Blok would write the famous “Black Raven in the Snowy Twilight...”, in which comets and earthly passion are combined in the images of a “terrible world”:

Scary world! It's too close for the heart!
It contains the delirium of your kisses,
The dark wraith of gypsy songs,
Hasty flight of comets!

However, the Great January Comet will leave the earth's sky without any incident, and Block will greet Halley in May without much enthusiasm. On May 12 in Shakhmatovo, Blok writes in his notebook:

“This morning I got out of my warm bed at four o’clock in the morning to look at the comet. It was a gray morning, the fog was swirling...
I didn’t see the comet, but I saw how [the tenant] Yegor, who had gotten up with his pregnant wife, was hastily and stealthily filling a cart of straw... how the sheep came out and rushed unattended to our clover, unfed chickens crawled out... three unfortunate calves came out, hobbled with pregnant Olga with a bucket.”

Along with Blok’s disappointment in the comets, which did not realize their symbolic potential, the motifs in his poetry, which were united for a short time, also disintegrate. The “comet” theme sums up famous poem“Comet” (“You threaten us with the last hour...”), the first edition of which was written in September of the same 1910, when the unrest around Halley finally subsided. The comet in the poem is neutralized through comparison with human civilization - the Earth turns out to be the same comet: “Our world, with its peacock tail spread, / Like you, is filled with a riot of dreams.” Both the elements and civilization are equally overcome by the hero:

No! Death is not scary for a hero,
When a dream goes crazy!
Even if you're over your head
You will exude the sweet poison of the tail,
And menacingly falls silent behind your back
The monotonous crack of the screw.  Quote according to the first edition.

This is one of the rare poems by Blok of the 1910s, where victory over disaster and death triumphs - both “Aviator” (1912) and the opening stanzas of “Retribution” will be performed in a completely different intonation. But in 1910, the cyanogen from departed comets turned out to be harmless.