Posted on 11/20/2017 10:52:40 AM PST by epluribus_2
Full title: ESO observations show first interstellar asteroid is like nothing seen before.
For the first time ever astronomers have studied an asteroid that has entered the Solar System from interstellar space. Observations from ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile and other observatories around the world show that this unique object was traveling through space for millions of years before its chance encounter with our star system. It appears to be a dark, reddish, highly-elongated rocky or high-metal-content object. The new results appear in the journal Nature on 20 November 2017.
(Excerpt) Read more at m.phys.org ...
Ah, thank you. That explains the greater than one. I still don’t see how one gets a less than zero value.
There's always gonna be one person who has to turn on the light to go to the bathroom......
Somebody get down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and round up some whales. NOW!
Fast enough to circumnavigate the earth 3 times an hour, once every 20 minutes. It is 1/4 mile long with width and depth greater than a football field. Its speed alone would set the earth’s atmosphere on fire. A true MOAB.
We’d never know what hit us.
For those on the other side of the world from impact, there’d be no radio or TV. MAYBE a little internet.
But their time would be limited. Within a day or two the toxic gases would reach them too.
Planet extinction event.
That WOULD be interesting! :-)
HAHA!
Break up and make multiple craters such as the one in Arizona. Not in the same class as Chicxulub.
Chicxulub was a much larger object, but it was not travelling at 60,000 mph.
...and smells like Tabasco.
Chicxulub was at least 15,000 times more mass traveling at 20 km sec, which resulted in a crater 220 miles in diameter. Petroleum exploration wells and seismic work determined the total extent of that crater.
An elongated object will actually break up in atmosphere before striking the Earths surface. For creating the most devastation, compact the objects dimensions to a spherical form. Then choose an iron asteroid with an ocean impact, in a depth of perhaps 1000 meters. In exaggeration, choose the longest dimension of the object (400 meters) as the spherical diameter. Go with 27 km sec impact speed. Run the simulation, then click on the green box in each damage category for results.
https://www.purdue.edu/impactearth/
Hi.
Someone on another thread said that if it starts to slow down it will be a very big deal.
If it does slow down and they aren’t friendlies, I’m going to shoot them. Until the ammo runs out.
5.56mm
That’s the “Planet Killer” from Star Trek TOS.
And then you throw your gun at them. That's what folks did when they invaded Krypton.
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