Posted on 03/03/2009 7:31:32 PM PST by SunkenCiv
University of Arizona scientists have uncovered a curious case of missing asteroids. The main asteroid belt is a zone containing millions of rocky objects between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The scientists find that there ought to be more asteroids there than researchers observe. The missing asteroids may be evidence of an event that took place about 4 billion years ago, when the solar system's giant planets migrated to their present locations. UA planetary sciences graduate student David A. Minton and UA planetary sciences professor Renu Malhotra say missing asteroids is an important piece of evidence to support an idea that the early solar system underwent a violent episode of giant planet migration that might possibly be responsible for a heavy asteroidal bombardment of the inner planets. The scientists are reporting on their research in an article, "A record of planet migration in the Main Asteroid Belt," in the Feb. 26 issue of Nature.
(Excerpt) Read more at sse.jpl.nasa.gov ...
Something one should not miss. I used to get them when I was younger but not in decades.
No problem. To my perception, chance is sort of immaterial, granted that the Earth has been hit countless times in the past. We’ve collectively won that lottery again and again over time, and will again in the future. It’s just a matter of when, and how large of a jackpot. That’s where odds enter into the picture, I suppose.
Who would claim that buying four tickets out of a million would leave you with a one in four chance of winning?
It would leave you with a (4 / 1,000,000) change of winning, which is exactly four times more than one ticket (1 / 1,000,000).
I just want the winning lotto numbers. Is that too much to ask?
Unless your talking astronomical and geologic scales. The difference in those odds in that range could mean the difference between the developement of lower and higher organisms on an otherwise habitable world...
Don't look at me, I didn't take 'em.
I was merely trying to use large numbers as examples since they are representative of the large numbers applied to astronomy. Yet my example is still insignificant. Our galaxy is 100,000 light years across, and yet that is still a speck in the universe.
It's mind numbing wonderful, awe-inspiring.
Those inflatable doughnuts really work.
Not Nibiru (although that would be an amusing name for any newly-discovered outer planets, should that happen), but something created the “Kuiper cliff”, just as something (else) produced these “missing asteroids”. In the latter case, the asteroids may be missing because they’re not really missing at all — this could point to the non-reality of the commonly accepted models of solar system origin.
;’)
A Celestial Collision
Alaska Science Forum | February 10, 1983 | Larry Gedney
Posted on 09/15/2004 9:04:28 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1216757/posts
this one?
Surprise Asteroid Makes Near-Miss of Earth (Missed by 40,000 miles)
Fox News | 3-2-09
Posted on 03/02/2009 10:10:14 AM PST by puffer
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2197381/posts
Mystery solved?: The asteroid belt is a ring of rocky debris between Jupiter and Mars, thought to have been created when Jupiter's mass made the area too unstable for planet formation. [Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltch/T.Pyle]
Note: this topic is from 03/03/2009. This is pertinent to the current topics of discussion.
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Note: this topic is from 03/03/2009. This is pertinent to the current topics of discussion. I was going to add you to the X-Planets ping just now, but the phone rang, and the idea went flying like the insides of a pinball machine.
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