A Collision in Space 466 Million Years Ago Is Still Hurling Asteroids at Earth

ScienceAlert ^ | January 26, 2017 | Josh Hrala

[SunkenCiv]

Astronomers have found that the majority of meteorites that regularly fall into Earth's atmosphere today are the result of an asteroid collision that took place 466 million years ago.

Using chemical analysis from rock samples around the world, the team discovered that before that colossal collision, Earth experienced impacts from many different types of meteorite, meaning that our planet's history with meteorites is far more complex than we thought.

After examining the chemical makeup of these chrome-spinels, the team found that 34 percent of the pre-collision micrometeorites were primitive achondrites, a type of meteorite that only makes up 0.45 percent of the ones that hit Earth today.

They also traced some of the samples back to Vesta, the brightest and one of the biggest asteroids in the asteroid belt, which they say also experienced its own collision over a billion years ago.

These findings suggest that just because we experience a significant flow of L chondrite meteorites today doesn't mean that it has always been this way. In fact, the history of Earth's meteorite flux is only now becoming known.

[SunkenCiv]

About 466 million years ago, a large asteroid about 150 kilometers (93 miles) across was hit by a smaller asteroid about a tenth the size in the Solar System. The resultant debris is responsible for a third of all the 50,000 known meteorites on Earth, known as L chondrites. [Earth's Meteorites Were Very Different 500 Million Years Ago | Jonathan O`Callaghan | January 23, 2017]

Artist's impression of the space collision 466 million years ago that produced many of today's meteorites. Don Davis/Southwest Research Institute

[SunkenCiv]

---

join or quit view topics view or post blog bookmark post new topic subscribe

---

[ClearCase_guy]

Although collision is not really a crime, there is reason to think the Russians caused this. Mueller is all over it.

[SunkenCiv]

;’) Mueller was drivin’ the space bulldozer!

[cotton]

Trump:s fault of course. I wonder how they get such a precise age for the event. Perhaps they know the year and month as well. The more precise the more believable.

[Ikeon]

precise age?? Scientists requested early photographs from CNN with newspapers visible in the back ground.. Trump was heard on tape laughing at the collision..

[EagleUSA]

Junk science. It is always something that has no proof or basis.....Dr. Chicken Little.....

[Verginius Rufus]

Helen Thomas reported on it at the time. They just checked her diaries to get the date.

[SunkenCiv]

You don't know what you're talking about.

[Ancesthntr]

Getting smacked with stuff from space is one consequence of being a very large gravity well.

Of course, being a very large gravity well also led to life on this ball of dirt...so I’ll take the good with the bad, thank you very much.

Now that life has the ability to track, and shortly (by geological measurements of time) will have the ability to either shoot them down or move them out of the path of this ball of dirt.

[M Kehoe]

Any AU in those things?

5.56mm

[SunkenCiv]

The Vesta keyword:

• Massive 4 Vesta Asteroid Is Zooming by Earth, and Here's How You Can Spot It [2018]
• Astro Challenge: Spotting 4 Vesta at its Best for Decades [2018]
• New theory on origin of the asteroid belt [2017]
• Watch the Moon Occult Vesta and Aldebaran This Weekend [2016]
• Vesta Rules the February Dusk Skies [2016]
• Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution V [2016]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Vesta Trek: A Digital Model of Asteroid Vesta [2015]
• Radiation Blast Delays NASA Spacecraft's Arrival At Dwarf Planet Ceres [2014]
• Ancient Asteroid Impacts Left Serpentine Traces On Vesta: Study [2014]
• Ceres and Vesta Converge in the Sky on July 5: How to See It [2014]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Mars, Ceres, Vesta [2014]
• This Dwarf Planet Might Have More Fresh Water Than All Of Earth [2014]
• Herschel Discovers Water Vapor Spewing from Ceres [2014]
• Mystery of Huge Asteroid Vesta's Formation Deepens [2013]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Bright Jupiter in Taurus [2012]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Leaving Vesta [2012]
• Asteroid #2 down; on to Asteroid #1! [2012]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Conjunctions near Dawn [2012]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Virtual Flight Over Asteroid Vesta [2012]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Vesta Rocks [2012]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Vesta Rocks [2011]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day -- A Landslide on Asteroid Vesta [2011]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day -- The South Pole of Asteroid Vesta [2011]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Stereo Vesta [2011]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Asteroid Vesta Full Frame [2011]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Vesta Vista [2011]
• NASA Probe to Uncover Secrets of Brightest Asteroid Vesta ('Dawn' probe to orbit protoplanet) [2011]
• Vesta Ahoy! [2011]
• Giant Asteroid Vesta Revealed in NASA Spacecraft's 1st Photo [2011]
• Trips to Mars in 39 Days? [2009]
• Craters on Vesta and Ceres could hold key to Jupiter's age [2009]
• NASA's New Target: A manned mission to an asteroid sounds far-fetched... [2007]
• Dawn Liftoff at Dawn... on mission to Ceres and Vesta [2007]
• NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Begins Trek to Asteroid Belt [2007]
• NASA to embark on asteroid-belt mission (DAWN - launch set for just after sunrise Thursday 9/27/07) [2007]
• NASA delays launch of Dawn spacecraft (Cape Canaveral: Rescheduled) [2007]
• Asteroid mission postponed until July 15 (NASA's Dawn spacecraft destined for Vesta and Ceres) [2007]
• Dawn spacecraft to blast off Sunday on mission to 2 asteroids [2007]
• Just a few more days for your name to rise with Dawn (Put your name onboard a spacecraft) [2006]
• NASA Restarts Canceled Asteroid Mission - DAWN [2006]
• NASA Reviews Canceled Asteroid Mission - ("unusual move", new evidence, 'Dawn' lives?) [2006]
• NASA Asteroid [Dawn] Mission Won't Launch This Year [2006]
• Icy World Found Inside Asteroid [2005]

[Kickass Conservative]

They must have Waterboarded the Brain Bug to get this information.

[Delta 21]

Does it matter that, the ‘Science Alert’ story about a theoretical event that may/may not have happened 466 billion years ago, was written over a year ago? Has the Alert been cancelled or are we still at risk?

[editor-surveyor]

.
Absolutely no “Science” involved in this pile of fluff!
.

[editor-surveyor]

.
Laughable for sure!

“Years” were created a little over 6000 years ago.

That is how long time has existed.
.

[editor-surveyor]

.
>> “Junk science. It is always something that has no proof or basis.....Dr. Chicken Little.” <<

Just junk! - No science, just Sci-Fi hyperbole.
.

[SunkenCiv]

You know nothing about science, so sod off.

[SunkenCiv]

Hope.

[editor-surveyor]

.
Your sod is obviously off!

The hole in your head is showing.
.