View source for Astronomy:Comet Research Group

{{Short description|Non-profit advocacy group}}

The '''Comet Research Group''', Inc. (also known as the CRG) is non-profit organization whose members promote their research focused on cosmic [[Astronomy:Impact event|impact event]]s or [[Astronomy:Meteor air burst|meteor air burst]]s on [[Astronomy:Earth|Earth]] in the distant past,<ref name="Smithsonian"/> including events of biblical significance.<ref name="ChemistWolbach">{{cite news |last=Mathews |first=Kristin Claes |date=August 17, 2022 |title=Comet chemist Wendy Wolbach's research featured on 'Jeopardy!' |work=DePaul University Newsline |url=https://resources.depaul.edu/newsline/sections/campus-and-community/Pages/wendy-wolbach-jeopardy.aspx/ |access-date=October 13, 2022}}</ref> Archeologist Carl Feagans and [[Organization:NASA|NASA]] astronomer [[Biography:David Morrison (astrophysicist)|David Morrison]] have described the group's theories as pseudoscientific and pseudoarchaeological [[Earth:Catastrophism|catastrophism]],<ref name="ArchaeologyReview"/><ref name="Kreidler2010">{{cite news |last1=Kreidler |first1=Marc |title=Did a Cosmic Impact Kill the Mammoths? {{!}} Skeptical Inquirer |url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/2010/05/did-a-cosmic-impact-kill-the-mammoths/ |access-date=19 November 2022 |date=1 May 2010}}</ref><ref name="SweatmanCrimsonCatastrophism">{{cite web |last1=Sweatman |first1=Martin |title=Catastrophism through the ages, and a cosmic catastrophe at the origin of civilisation |url=https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/catastrophism-through-the-ages-and-a-cosmic-catastrophe-at-the-or |website=Archaeology & Anthropology |access-date=27 October 2022 |language=English |date=3 November 2017}}</ref> particularly where related to Abu Hureyra and the [[Earth:Younger Dryas impact hypothesis|Younger Dryas impact hypothesis]].<ref name="ArchaeologyReview">{{cite web |last1=Feagans |first1=Carl |title=Buzzwords, Bogeymen, and Banalities of Pseudoarchaeology: Göbekli Tepe |url=https://ahotcupofjoe.net/2020/02/buzzwords-bogeymen-and-banalities-of-pseudoarchaeology-gobekli-tepe-2/ |website=Archaeology Review |access-date=27 October 2022}}</ref><ref name="PowellPremature">{{cite journal |last1=Powell |first1=James Lawrence |title=Premature rejection in science: The case of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis |journal=Science Progress |date=January 2022 |volume=105 |issue=1 |pages=003685042110642 |doi=10.1177/00368504211064272 |pmid=34986034 |s2cid=245771840 |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00368504211064272 |access-date=27 October 2022 |language=en |issn=0036-8504|doi-access=free }}</ref> These proposals are typically proposed in opposition to what they view as [[Philosophy:Uniformitarianism|uniformitarianism]].<ref name="Marvin1999">{{cite journal | last1 = Marvin | first1 = Ursula B. | title = Impacts from space: the implications for uniformitarian geology | journal = Geological Society, London, Special Publications | date = January 1999 | volume = 150 | issue = 1 | pages = 89–117 | issn = 0305-8719 | eissn = 2041-4927 | doi = 10.1144/gsl.sp.1999.150.01.06 | pmid = | s2cid = 128610726 | url = |quote="In the final decade of that century, two books, one by Ernst F. F. Chladni of Wittenberg and one by James Hutton of Edinburgh, contributed to the rise of meteorite studies and uniformitarian geology, respectively. Although they arose almost simultaneously, these two branches of science, one of which postulated the fall to Earth of solid bodies from space while the other endorsed only strictly endogenous processes acting upon the Earth, evolved separately over the next 200 years. This paper traces the long estrangement between mainstream geology and the science of meteorites."}}</ref><ref name="Verschuur1996">{{cite book | title = Impact! | last1 = Verschuur | first1 = Gerrit L. | chapter = Death Star or Coherent Catastrophism? | date = 24 October 1996 | publisher = Oxford University Press | doi = 10.1093/oso/9780195101058.003.0014 | isbn = 978-0-19-510105-8 | url = }}</ref>

== History ==
The CRG was founded by [[Earth:Paleoceanography|paleoceanographer]] James P. Kennett and others who contend that the incidence of comet and meteoritic impacts of global significance is much higher than what is normally considered the rate. The CRG membership roster includes [[Earth:Archaeology|archaeologist]] Andrew M.T. Moore, [[Physics:Physics|physicist]] [[Biography:Adrian Melott|Adrian Melott]], and [[Astronomy:Astronomy|astronomers]] [[Biography:William Napier (astronomer)|Willam Napier]] and [[Biography:Dante Lauretta|Dante Lauretta]].<ref>{{cite web |date=10 September 2016 |title=Scientists & Members |url=https://cometresearchgroup.org/scientists-members/ |access-date=2 February 2022 |website=Comet Research Group}}</ref> It is linked to the ''Rising Light Group'', a "tax-exempt charitable organization with a clear Christian and biblical agenda," and is registered in the name of co-founder and director Allen West,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bik |first=Elisabeth |date=2 October 2021 |title=Blast in the Past: Image concerns in paper about comet that might have destroyed Tall el-Hammam |url=https://scienceintegritydigest.com/2021/10/01/blast-in-the-past-image-concerns-in-paper-about-comet-that-might-have-destroyed-tall-el-hammam/ |access-date=October 13, 2022 |website=Science Integrity Digest}}</ref> described by his attorney to ''Pacific Standard'' as "a retired geophysicist who has had a long and distinguished career". West was formerly known as Allen Whitt, and, {{As of|2017|lc=y}}, West has no academic affiliation and had been implicated in a mining scam in the 1990s.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dalton |first=Rex |title=Comet Theory Comes Crashing to Earth |url=https://psmag.com/environment/comet-claim-comes-crashing-to-earth-31180 |access-date=2023-01-10 |website=Pacific Standard |language=en}}</ref> 

== Claims ==
Members of the CRG say they have discovered that a Tunguska-sized meteor air burst destroyed the Middle-Bronze-Age city Tall el-Hammam in Jordan<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bunch |first1=Ted E. |last2=LeCompte |first2=Malcolm A. |last3=Adedeji |first3=A. Victor |last4=Wittke |first4=James H. |last5=Burleigh |first5=T. David |last6=Hermes |first6=Robert E. |last7=Mooney |first7=Charles |last8=Batchelor |first8=Dale |last9=Wolbach |first9=Wendy S. |last10=Kathan |first10=Joel |last11=Kletetschka |first11=Gunther |last12=Patterson |first12=Mark C. L. |last13=Swindel |first13=Edward C. |last14=Witwer |first14=Timothy |last15=Howard |first15=George A. |date=December 2021 |title=A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea |journal=Scientific Reports |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=18632 |bibcode=2021NatSR..1118632B |doi=10.1038/s41598-021-97778-3 |pmc=8452666 |pmid=34545151 |last16=Mitra |first16=Siddhartha |last17=Moore |first17=Christopher R. |last18=Langworthy |first18=Kurt |last19=Kennett |first19=James P. |last20=West |first20=Allen |last21=Silvia |first21=Phillip J.}}</ref> and that cosmic impact and/or airburst events destroyed the Pre-Pottery Neolithic village of Abu Hureyra in Syria around 12,800 years ago.<ref>{{Cite press release |title=Fire from the Sky |date=2020-03-06 |url=https://www.news.ucsb.edu/2020/019823/fire-sky |last1=Fernandez |first1=Sonia |name-list-style=vanc |access-date=2021-08-07 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210706231340/https://www.news.ucsb.edu/2020/019823/fire-sky |archive-date=2021-07-06 |publisher=[[Organization:University of California, Santa Barbara|University of California, Santa Barbara]]}}</ref><ref name="Smithsonian">{{cite news |first =Javier|last =Barbuzano |title=A Comet May Have Destroyed This Paleolithic Village 12,800 Years Ago |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/comet-upended-life-paleolithic-village-12800-years-ago-180974575/ |date=April 6, 2020 |work=Smithsonian Magazine |access-date=October 13, 2022}}</ref> Its members have developed and tend to favor the [[Earth:Younger Dryas impact hypothesis|Younger Dryas impact hypothesis]], which attributes climate change at the end of the [[Earth:Pleistocene|Pleistocene]] to a massive impact extraterrestrial objects.<ref>{{cite news |last=Ogden |first=Leslie Evans |date=April 1, 2018 |title=Hot Theory About Cool Event |work=Natural History |url=https://www.naturalhistorymag.com/samplings/173475/hot-theory-about-cool-event/ |access-date=October 13, 2022}}</ref> The role—if any—of comets in bringing about the end of the Pleistocene has been rejected by most subject matter experts.<ref name="PowellPremature" />

Members of the CRG have been criticized for promoting [[Unsolved:Pseudoscience|pseudoscience]], [[Unsolved:Pseudoarchaeology|pseudoarchaeology]], and [[Unsolved:Pseudohistory|pseudohistory]], engaging in cherry-picking of data based on [[Confirmation bias|confirmation bias]], seeking to persuade via the [[Philosophy:Argumentum ad populum|bandwagon fallacy]], and even engaging in intentional misrepresentations of archaeological and geological evidence. For example, [[Physics:Physics|physicist]] [[Biography:Mark Boslough|Mark Boslough]], a specialist in planetary impact hazards and [[Astronomy:Asteroid impact avoidance|asteroid impact avoidance]], has pointed out many problems with the credibility and motivations of individual CRG researchers and as well as with their specific claims for evidence in support of the YDIH and/or the effects of meteor air bursts or impact events on ancient settlements, people, and environments.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Boslough |first1=Mark |title=Sodom Meteor Strike Claims Should Be Taken with a Pillar of Salt |journal=Skeptical Inquirer |date=2022 |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=10–14 |url=https://www.unm.edu/~mbeb/Publications/Boslough_Skeptical_Inquirer_Sodom_2022.pdf |ref=Sodom}}</ref>

Many doubts have been raised about the CRG's claims.<ref>{{cite web |last=Marcus |first=Adam |title=Criticism engulfs paper claiming an asteroid destroyed Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah |website=Retraction Watch |date=1 October 2021 |url= https://retractionwatch.com/2021/10/01/criticism-engulfs-paper-claiming-an-asteroid-destroyed-biblical-sodom-and-gomorrah/ |access-date=24 November 2021}}</ref> Image forensics expert Elisabeth Bik discovered evidence for digital alteration of images used as evidence that Tall el-Hammam was engulfed by an airburst.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bik |first=Elisabeth |date=2 October 2021 |title=Blast in the Past: Image concerns in paper about comet that might have destroyed Tall el-Hammam |access-date=24 November 2021 |website=Science Integrity Digest |url= https://scienceintegritydigest.com/2021/10/01/blast-in-the-past-image-concerns-in-paper-about-comet-that-might-have-destroyed-tall-el-hammam/}}</ref> CRG members initially denied tampering with the photos but eventually published a correction in which they admitted to inappropriate image manipulation.<ref>{{Cite Q |Q111021706 |author-link19=James P. Kennett |last1=Bunch |first1=Ted E. |last2=LeCompte |first2=Malcolm A. |last3=Adedeji |first3=A. Victor |last4=Wittke |first4=James H. |last5=Burleigh |first5=T. David |last6=Hermes |first6=Robert E. |last7=Mooney |first7=Charles |last8=Batchelor |first8=Dale |last9=Wolbach |first9=Wendy S. |last10=Kathan |first10=Joel |last11=Kletetschka |first11=Gunther |last12=Patterson |first12=Mark C. L. |last13=Swindel |first13=Edward C. |last14=Witwer |first14=Timothy |last15=Howard |first15=George A. |last16=Mitra |first16=Siddhartha |last17=Moore |first17=Christopher R. |last18=Langworthy |first18=Kurt |last19=Kennett |first19=James P. |last20=West |first20=Allen |last21=Silvia |first21=Phillip J. |display-authors=8 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Subsequent concerns that have been brought up in PubPeer have not yet been addressed by the CRG, including discrepancies between claimed blast wave direction compared to what the images show, unavailability of original image data to independent researchers, lack of supporting evidence for conclusions, inappropriate reliance on young Earth creationist literature, misinformation about the Tunguska explosion, and another uncorrected example of an inappropriately altered image.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=September 2021 |title=A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea |url=https://pubpeer.com/publications/37B87CAC48DE4BC98AD40E00330143# |url-status=live | access-date=9 August 2022|last1=Bunch |first1=Ted E. |last2=Lecompte |first2=Malcolm A. |last3=Adedeji |first3=A. Victor |last4=Wittke |first4=James H. |last5=Burleigh |first5=T. David |last6=Hermes |first6=Robert E. |last7=Mooney |first7=Charles |last8=Batchelor |first8=Dale |last9=Wolbach |first9=Wendy S. |last10=Kathan |first10=Joel |last11=Kletetschka |first11=Gunther |last12=Patterson |first12=Mark C. L. |last13=Swindel |first13=Edward C. |last14=Witwer |first14=Timothy |last15=Howard |first15=George A. |last16=Mitra |first16=Siddhartha |last17=Moore |first17=Christopher R. |last18=Langworthy |first18=Kurt |last19=Kennett |first19=James P. |last20=West |first20=Allen |last21=Silvia |first21=Phillip J. |journal=Scientific Reports |volume=11 |issue=1 |page=18632 |doi=10.1038/s41598-021-97778-3 |pmid=34545151 |pmc=8452666 }}</ref> On February 15, 2023, the following editor’s note was posted on this paper, "Readers are alerted that concerns raised about the data presented and the conclusions of this article are being considered by the Editors. A further editorial response will follow the resolution of these issues."<ref>{{cite web |title=Journal investigating Sodom comet paper for data problems | first = Ellie | last = Kincaid |url=https://retractionwatch.com/2023/02/21/journal-investigating-sodom-comet-paper-for-data-problems// |website=Retraction Watch |date=February 21, 2023 |access-date=February 27, 2023}}</ref>

Members of the CRG have also supported the assertion that Indigenous people of the Hopewell tradition in the eastern United States were affected by an airburst event that occurred in the 3rd or 4th century.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tankersley |first1=Kenneth Barnett |date=2022 |title=The Hopewell airburst event, 1699–1567 years ago (252–383 CE) |journal=Scientific Reports |volume=12 |issue=1706}}</ref>

== References ==
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[[Category:Comets]]
[[Category:Meteorites]]

{{Sourceattribution|Comet Research Group|1}}