Comet Elenin is hurtling toward Earth — and will usher in the end of the world on October 16, say astronomy observers.

October 16 is pretty darn close to the Rev. Harold Camping’s revised doomsday prediction. If you recall, this spring his followers plastered the U.S. with billboards while he thundered warning from his California radio network. The world didn’t end, so he reset it for this fall.

October 16 is also suspiciously close to the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012 … well, OK, a year off. But that’s pretty close, eh?

“It’s nearly 300 million miles away and barreling toward us,” writes Ray Villard for Discovery News. “The intruder from deep space, called Comet Elenin, crosses Earth’s orbit on its inbound leg and again on its outbound swing around the sun later this year.

Russian astronomer Leonid Elenin discovered the innocuous little comet on Dec. 10, 2010, at International Scientific Optical Network’s robotic observatory near Mayhill, New Mexico.

Presently the comet is a faint smudge of light in deep sky exposures. By late August comet Elenin should be visible to the naked eye as a dim “fuzzy star” with a tail. Over a few weeks the visitor will speed across the spring constellation Virgo and toward Leo on its outbound leg.

A dizzying collection of doomsday predictions have been linked to comet Elenin. The hysteria was inevitable as anxiety grows over the approach of 2012 — that is supposedly a game-changing year for life on Earth.

Indeed, the rumors are flying. Dr. Mark Sircus, Contributing Writer on the website “Activist Post,” warns:

This is going to be the most extraordinary communication so fasten your seatbelts; we are in for a rough ride.

Back in January, while investigating the underground city that is alleged to have been built under the new Denver Airport, reported on by the former governor Jesse Ventura, I put the puzzle together and came to the conclusion that a planetary event was in store for us in 2012.

Today I am presenting rock solid information.

What you are about to read and see is happening. Last night, looking at a NASA mathematical model of comet Elenin, I found out that a large celestial body has already penetrated the solar system and is on course for a near and possibly horrific encounter with the earth in the fall of 2011.

I am truly sorry to have to be the bearer of such grave and threatening news but the source, NASA, is impeccable.

We have an incoming mass (what might possibly be a neutron star) coming in and it will do a hard turn around the sun like any comet would.

Every time this celestial body comes into alignment with the earth and sun we have a huge earthquake.

The last three alignments produced the Japanese 9.0 quake, the one in New Zealand and before that the one in Chile.

David Morrison, Astrobiology Senior Scientist at NASA, in an official communication on March 1st acknowledged no threat from Elenin.

Ten days later Elenin came into alignment with the earth and the sun . . . and Japan was almost destroyed.

We have to acknowledge and accept that there is a danger and a possibility that part of our civilization and the people in it will be lost.

Indeed, “It’s coming!” thunders Paul Begley, a preacher from Knox, Indiana, on a YouTube video. “It’s on its way and right in the middle of the Feast of the Trumpets, it is going to come through and get in between the Earth and the sun.”

The Feast of the Trumpets is a Jewish holiday. Here’s his video. Warning: Turn down your volume before it starts. He yells.

Begley notes that October 16 is during another Jewish festival, the Feast of Tabernacles.

Villard for Discovery News observes:

If you believe the gobbledygook on numerous websites and YouTube videos, this is a “renegade comet” that just couldn’t wait for 2012 to mess with the Earth.

Though it’s now over twice as far away from Earth than the sun is, comet Elenin has already been blamed for triggering earthquakes and shifting Earth’s rotation axis. The comet has also been accused of melting ice on Mars and stirring up a storm on Saturn. It’s predicted to flip Earth’s magnetic field.

And that’s just the beginning. There are numerous “Cometgate” allegations of news media and government cover-up, and the existence of hidden comet shelters for U.S. officials.

Indeed, the UFO website TheTruthBehindTheScenes warns that the comet’s approach may usher in an exterrestrial invasion:

Based on reports published by China’s space agency, Sergio Toscano, director for Astronomical Research in Missions, said that behind the comet Elenin could be an approaching UFO.

Behind the comet, discovered in December last year, Chinese scientists say is something they called cluster, which means globular cluster, or perhaps alien spacecraft …

Actually, many alien ships, the website goes on to say, noting that, it “looked like it was coming from an extraterrestrial civilization.”

This phenomenon was corroborated by NASA, the website claims, but the information had to be kept secret. 

“When NASA began to make calculations and projections of orbit of the comet, they realized that something was wrong and the first thing they did was remove the website which provided information on this issue.”

Officially, NASA says Elenin is a small comet, very much like other comets that come and go. It will come no closer to Earth than 21 million miles.

But, of course, the websites point out that this is all a cover up.

On October 16, a comet will be bringing not only the end of the world, but also a hidden UFO fleet. Red Chinese intrigue is involved. And an underground city near Denver airport.

And officials are covering it up. And Beliefnet is probably part of the conspiracy since we’ve now poked fun at the whole thing.

Don’t forget the Jewish holidays.

There has been no comment yet from Harold Camping.