🕳️ Lexell’s Comet 1770: The Closest Comet to Ever Pass Earth (and No One Noticed)

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The Comet That Ghosted Earth (Barely): 1770’s Close Cosmic Call

🪐 “Lexell’s Comet was the ultimate ‘You up?’ from space — and we almost didn’t swipe left in time.”



👀 Picture This:

It’s June 1770.
There’s no Wi-Fi. No GPS. No telescopes with AI.
Just vibes, powdered wigs, and people trying not to die of scurvy.
Suddenly… a giant glowing space rock whips past Earth like it’s late to a party.

And nobody even panics.

Why?
Because no one knew how ridiculously close it came — until years later.

☄️ Enter: Lexell’s Comet — a literal space bullet

This wasn’t your average twinkle-twinkle-little-star situation.

Lexell’s Comet zoomed past Earth at just 2.2 million kilometers away.

That may sound like a lot, but in space terms, that’s basically someone doing burnouts in your driveway.

It's still the closest known comet flyby in history.

NASA later said:

“Yeah, that thing nearly booked Earth a one-way ticket to prehistory.”

🎻 But Wait… 1770 Humans Were Just Chillin’

Here’s the wild part:
Nobody freaked out. Nobody built bunkers. Nobody said “it’s giving extinction.”

They were too busy inventing chemistry, writing sonnets, and trying not to get eaten by disease.

Meanwhile, space was like:

“Do y’all even realize how close I just came to ending your whole career?”

🤯 So… What If It Had Hit?

We’re talking an object twice the size of Mount Everest, cruising faster than your commitment issues.
Had Lexell’s Comet actually yeeted itself into Earth?

No TikTok.
No memes.
No pizza.
Just fire, smoke, and "oops we reset the timeline."

📸 Why It Matters Today

Scientists now track space objects 24/7 like cosmic stalkers, because of this near miss.
Lexell’s Comet was a giant neon sign from the universe saying:

“Y’all need to start paying attention.”

And we did.
Kind of.

✨ Cosmic Takeaway (Poetic Edition)

A rock in the dark, a near-miss sigh,
1770 blinked — and Earth walked by.
No alarms, no tweets, no final song,
Just space reminding us:
“I could’ve ended you all along.” 🌌

📍TL;DR (for the scrollers)

  • 1770: A comet called Lexell barely missed Earth.

  • It came closer than any comet ever (2.2 million km).

  • Nobody realized it until way later.

  • If it had hit = 💥 goodbye, dinosaurs part 2.

  • Moral of the story?
    Even in the 1700s, Earth was dodging red flags.

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