Back in 1883, Mexican astronomer José Bonilla observed over 400 dark flying objects cross in front of the sun. Most of the scientific community at the time dismissed his findings as a hoax or as a high-flying flock of geese. Despite having photographic proof, no one believed it was anything nefarious.

In 2011, a new study looked at his photos and found something pretty scary. The dark objects weren’t birds or anything friendly, but the fragments of a billion-ton comet that had passed within 5,000 miles of us.