Posted on 09/02/2003 6:39:19 AM PDT by bedolido
Scientists monitoring an asteroid have warned it could collide with Earth in just over a decade.
The newly discovered asteroid, known as 2003 QQ47, is around two-thirds of a mile wide and has been classified as "an event meriting careful monitoring" by astronomers.
It is around one tenth fo the size of the meteor that is thought to have wiped out dinosaurs on Earth 65 million years ago.
In the event of it hitting the Earth, the rock would have the force of 350,000 mega tonnes - around eight million times more powerful than the bomb dropped at Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War.
On impact it would be travelling at 75,000 miles a hour.
Experts say the giant rock, which was first spotted by Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research Program (Linear) in New Mexico, could impact on Earth on March 21, 2014.
But they say the probability of the asteroid hitting Earth is just one in 909,000 and the risk of impact is likely to decrease as they collect more information.
With a mass of around 2,600 million tons, it has been given a "Torino hazard rating" of one. Scientists said it is likely to drop down the Torino hazard scale as more observations are made.
Its orbit calculations are currently based on just 51 observations during a seven-day period.
Dr Alan Fitzsimmons of Queen's University, Belfast, one of the expert team advising the UK Near Earth Objects Information Centre, based in Leicester, said: "The NEO will be observable from Earth for the next two months, and astronomers will continue to track it over this period."
He added that there is no cause for concern over the asteroid.
Asteroids such as 2003 QQ47 are chunks of rock left over from the formation of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago.
Most are kept at a safe distance from Earth in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
But the gravitational influence of giant planets such as Jupiter can nudge asteroids out of these safe orbits and send them plunging into the Earth's neighbourhood.
Last Updated: 14:07 UK, Tuesday September 02, 2003
Very good.
Presumably if they misplace their tracking data, the risk will go waaaay up.
Yes, I did read it. Key points...yes, one of the key points that was repeated with a straight face was the '65 million years ago' assertion. When you can be honest enough to concede that all of the dating methods yield contradictory (therefore inconclusive and unreliable) results, and are all based on certain prior assumptions (which conveniently support evolutionary timetables - which are imaginary) and that in fact several dating methods have yielded results which are demonstrably false, THEN we will have an accurate starting point for this discussion.
Your insistence that the iridium enrichment is clearly defined appears to be based on a drawing and a 'because I say it is so' mentality. This is the same mindset that evolutionary geologists apply to the so-called "geologic column" -- which has not been found to actually exist ANYWHERE ON EARTH. (It does exist in textbooks, though.)
Predictably, it didn't take you too long to launch the ad hominem attacks and cynical denials that atheists and evolutionists are noted for. I guess the idea is, if you can't refute the facts, then attack the person/messenger who is presenting those facts. Pull a Bill Clinton and attempt to discredit the witness.
Oh, and by the way...I guess 100 million dinosaur fossils found all around the world (none transitional, I might add) doesn't add up to a lot of fossils in your book?
The bottom line is, Christians have the Word of God on their side; atheists have nothing except irrational denial to stand on. That is quite simply disingenuous. Or, quite simply, wrong. And neither option inspires confidence.
Well, it exists everywhere that my oil company has drilled a well, and we've drilled tens of thousands. Maybe we're just lucky.
There are many such things. A drill core would actually be more real than, say, a mother's unconditional love for her child. Name any virtue. Can you put it on display in a box?
The fact that it didn't really occur at the same time as this particular meteorite impact hasn't discouraged many either. Ignorance is always bliss.
About that. I talked to GOD, and he said him and Jesus are a bit tired of this CHRISTIAN SUPERIORITY COMPLEX thing you all have going. It is not what Jesus intended, it has gotten way out of hand, and most of the principles and ideas he wanted used got lost to dogma and maintaining control of the populace as well as their material possessions.
God said you all have trashed the TEN COMMANDMENTS, and that the JEWS are his favored people, so all you others better watch out.
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