Posted on 06/30/2019 2:07:20 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Sunday is International Asteroid Day, commemorating the Earth's largest recorded asteroid impact while focusing on the real danger of asteroids that could collide with Earth.
In 1908, a powerful asteroid struck the Podkamennaya Tunguska River area in a remote Siberian forest of Russia.
Six years ago, an asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere over Chelyabinsk, Russia. It exploded in the air, releasing 20 to 30 times more energy than that of the first atomic bombs and generating brightness greater than the sun. It damaged more than 7,000 buildings and injured more than 1,000 people. The shock wave broke windows 58 miles away.
And it explains why astronomers and the Asteroid Day group want people to be aware.
NASA and other space organizations around the world are focused on detecting the threat of near-Earth objects or NEOs, asteroids and comets whose orbits place them within 30 million miles of Earth.
NASA's NEO program funds and relies on detection and tracking efforts from observatories across the country and in space and collaborates with observatories around the world.
Researchers modeled the Tunguska and Chelyabinsk events on computers to understand how damage can occur from asteroids entering our atmosphere, even when they break apart in the air.
The analysis provided a promising discovery. Four computer models arrived at a similar picture of what happened at Tunguska. The asteroid was probably rocky, not icy, and between 164 and 262 feet across, and entered our atmosphere at 34,000 miles per hour. This created the energy equivalent to the Mount St. Helens volcanic eruption in 1980, between 6 and 9 miles above the ground.
The researchers found that the interval between such devastating potential asteroid impacts on Earth is one of millenia, not centuries, based on the known asteroid population.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
The researchers found that the interval between such devastating potential asteroid impacts on Earth is one of millenia, not centuries, based on the known asteroid population.
The unknown asteroid population, not so much.
“...and generating brightness greater than the sun.”
Can that really be true? I do remember seeing video of that asteroid over Russia, though.
Meh. Something is going to get us eventually. I seriously have enough to worry about right now as it is, LOL! :)
I can think of a number of locations that really need an asteroid.
Four asteroids on COLLISION course with Earth
https://www.rt.com/news/463071-asteroids-collision-course-earth/
I would say CNN news is more of a threat to Earth than a potential asteroid strike.
I didn't even get my cards out this year!
S*** Happens.
Yup. Same here. If the asteroids need coordinates, I’ll give it to them..
Hell ! We’ll be toast from global warming/cooling/climate change... whatever... by then
“Happy Asteroid Day! NASA still can’t track the ones that could end civilization”
https://qz.com/1654310/its-asteroid-day-and-we-still-cant-see-the-scary-ones/
Russia - why is it always Russia?
Vast land area may have something to do with it...
Trump collusion.
bttt
Because the Russian land mass cover a fifth of the Earth’s surface.
Damned bugs!
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