- There should be a ‘Chicken Little’ alert.
Why did the chicken cross the road?
To avoid the falling asteroid.
Posted on 04/28/2014 2:50:08 PM PDT by blam
Scientists Have Underestimated The Likelihood Of City-Killing Asteroids Hitting Earth
Reuters
Irene Klotz, Reuters
Apr. 28, 2014, 2:59 PM
The chance of a city-killing asteroid striking Earth is higher than scientists previously believed, a non-profit group building an asteroid-hunting telescope said on Tuesday.
A global network that listens for nuclear weapons detonations detected 26 asteroids that exploded in Earth's atmosphere from 2000 to 2013, data collected by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization shows.
The explosions include the Feb. 15, 2013, impact over Chelyabinsk, Russia, which left more than 1,000 people injured by flying glass and debris.
"There is a popular misconception that asteroid impacts are extraordinarily rare ... that's incorrect," said former astronaut Ed Lu, who now heads the California-based B612 Foundation.
The foundation on Tuesday released a video visualization of the asteroid strikes in an attempt to raise public awareness of the threat.
Asteroids as small as about 131 feet (40 meters) — less than half the size of an American football field — have the potential to level a city, Lu told reporters on a conference call
"Picture a large apartment building — moving at Mach 50," Lu said.
Mach 50 is 50 times the speed of sound, or roughly 38,000 mph (61,250 kph).
NASA already has a program in place that tracks asteroids larger than 0.65 mile (1 km). An object of this size, roughly equivalent to a small mountain, would have global consequences if it struck Earth.
An asteroid about 6 miles (10 km) in diameter hit Earth some 65 million years ago, triggering climate changes that are believed to have caused the dinosaurs — and most other life on Earth at the time — to die off.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
It's perfecting its aim. Not easy to hit a moving target from such a distance!
Why did the chicken cross the road?
To avoid the falling asteroid.
Link hunted down with help from wikipedia; looks like the date in “Rain of Iron and Ice” is off by a day; the story is found near the bottom of the second column:
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1919-11-27/ed-1/seq-1.pdf
A Celestial Collision [June 18, 1178]
Alaska Science Forum | February 10, 1983 | Larry Gedney
Posted on 9/15/2004 12:04:28 PM by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1216757/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/601395/posts?page=77#77
and the duplicate topic (thanks blam for both):
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/925512/posts
and another old favorite (also from blam):
Did Asteroids And Comets Turn The Tides Of Civilization?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/714636/posts
Nasa video shows just how close asteroid will come to hitting Earth
DailyMailUK | UPDATED: 10:11 EST, 8 February 2013
Posted on 2/9/2013 12:15:04 PM by BenLurkin
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2986878/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/bolide/index
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/impact/index
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization collected data that shows 26 asteroids exploded in Earth's atmosphere from 2000 to 2013, registering the release of from one to 600 kilotons of energy, each.
I’m not a fan of gradualist “explanations” for glaciation, but anyway, found this while looking for information on one of the recent impacts described in the video.
Ice Ages And Their Causes (1:14 in length, no soundtrack)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoAvpTdqrfw
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