The Comet Research Group, Inc. (also known as the CRG) is

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

whose members promote their research focused on cosmic

impact event An impact event is a collision between astronomical objects causing measurable effects. Impact events have physical consequences and have been found to regularly occur in planetary systems, though the most frequent involve asteroids, comets or ...

s or

meteor air burst A meteor air burst is a type of air burst in which a meteor explodes after entering a planetary body's atmosphere. This fate leads them to be called fireballs or bolides, with the brightest air bursts known as superbolides. Such meteoroids were o ...

s on

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surf ...

in the distant past, including events of biblical significance. Archeologist Carl Feagans and

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

astronomer David Morrison have described the group's theories as

pseudoscientific Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claim ...

and pseudoarchaeological

catastrophism In geology, catastrophism theorises that the Earth has largely been shaped by sudden, short-lived, violent events, possibly worldwide in scope. This contrasts with uniformitarianism (sometimes called gradualism), according to which slow incrementa ...

, particularly where related to Abu Hureyra and the

Younger Dryas impact hypothesis The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis (YDIH) or Clovis comet hypothesis is a speculative attempt to explain the onset of the Younger Dryas (YD) as an alternative to the long standing and widely accepted cause due to a significant reduction or shut ...

. These proposals are typically proposed in opposition to what they view as

uniformitarianism Uniformitarianism, also known as the Doctrine of Uniformity or the Uniformitarian Principle, is the assumption that the same natural laws and processes that operate in our present-day scientific observations have always operated in the universe in ...

History

The CRG was founded by paleoceanographer

James P. Kennett James P. Kennett is an American paleoceanographer. Kennet has a PhD from Victoria University of Wellington, with a thesis on the Kapitean Stage in New Zealand. In 1986, Kennett became the founding editor of Paleoceanography, and in May 2000 ...

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

multidisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...

CRG membership roster lists at least sixty

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosophica ...

s from fifty-five colleges and universities (both

accredited Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...

and unaccredited), as well as several non-scientists, in sixteen countries. Its members include archaeologist Andrew M.T. Moore,

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate ca ...

Adrian Melott, and

astronomers An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either obser ...

Willam Napier and

Dante Lauretta Dante S. Lauretta (born 1970) is a professor of planetary science and cosmochemistry at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. He is currently serving as the principal investigator on NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission. Educatio ...

. 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.

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 Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Ri ...

and that cosmic impact and/or airburst events destroyed the

Pre-Pottery Neolithic The Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) represents the early Neolithic in the Levantine and upper Mesopotamian region of the Fertile Crescent, dating to years ago, (10000 – 6500 BCE).Richard, Suzanne ''Near Eastern archaeology'' Eisenbrauns; il ...

village of Abu Hureyra in Syria around 12,800 years ago. Its members have developed and tend to favor the

, which attributes climate change at the end of the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the '' Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed ...

to a massive impact extraterrestrial objects. The role—if any—of comets in bringing about the end of the Pleistocene has been rejected by most subject matter experts. Members of the CRG have been said to promote

pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claim ...

pseudoarchaeology Pseudoarchaeology—also known as alternative archaeology, fringe archaeology, fantastic archaeology, cult archaeology, and spooky archaeology—is the interpretation of the past from outside the archaeological science community, which rejects ...

, and

pseudohistory Pseudohistory is a form of pseudoscholarship that attempts to distort or misrepresent the historical record, often by employing methods resembling those used in scholarly historical research. The related term cryptohistory is applied to pseudoh ...

, engaging in

cherry-picking Cherry picking, suppressing evidence, or the fallacy of incomplete evidence is the act of pointing to individual cases or data that seem to confirm a particular position while ignoring a significant portion of related and similar cases or data th ...

of data based on

confirmation bias Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values. People display this bias when they select information that supports their views, ignorin ...

, seeking to persuade via the bandwagon fallacy, and even engaging in intentional misrepresentations of archaeological and geological evidence. For example,

Mark Boslough, a specialist in planetary impact hazards and

asteroid impact avoidance Asteroid impact avoidance comprises the methods by which near-Earth objects (NEO) on a potential collision course with Earth could be diverted away, preventing destructive impact events. An impact by a sufficiently large asteroid or other NEOs ...

, 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. Many doubts have been raised about the CRG's claims. Image forensics expert Elisabeth Bik discovered evidence for digital alteration of images used as evidence that Tall el-Hammam was engulfed by an airburst. CRG members initially denied tampering with the photos but eventually published a correction in which they admitted to inappropriate image manipulation. 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. Members of the CRG have also supported the assertion that Indigenous people of the

Hopewell tradition The Hopewell tradition, also called the Hopewell culture and Hopewellian exchange, describes a network of precontact Native American cultures that flourished in settlements along rivers in the northeastern and midwestern Eastern Woodlands from ...

in the eastern United States were affected by an airburst event that occurred in the 3rd or 4th century.

References

{{reflist Comets Meteorites