A pair of astronomers monitoring an all-sky camera got a surprise (PDF) when they checked data from last February: a half dozen meteors all seemed to come from the same spot in the sky, indicating they all had a common origin. After doing some calculations, they found that they probably come from a parent comet with an orbit that's at least 53 years long. Moreover, the orbit of this comet crosses that of the Earth, meaning we may have a close encounter with this object sometime in the future. And because I can sense the oncoming panic on the web over this news, let me break it down for you. I'll give you the science (which is cool), how we know this unseen comet may be potentially, um, interesting, then the reason you don't need to run around in circles screaming (spoiler: it's rude to others nearby, but also unnecessary).
But just to be up front: should you panic? Nope. We know there are objects out there that could hit us in the future sometime. This comet is in many ways just another one. As I'll point out below, we pass through lots of meteor streams, so there are plenty of other comets that could hit us. I know, I know, that doesn't sound reassuring, but think about it: how often is the Earth hit by a comet? Not very often, despite having a few on the list of Potentially Hazardous Objects. So having one more we know about out there isn't great, but in reality doesn't really make things any worse for us.
