Asteroids:
Deadly Impact
National Geographic
Posted on 12/20/2007 6:27:00 PM PST by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES (Map, News) - Mars could be in for an asteroid hit.
A newly discovered hunk of space rock has a 1 in 75 chance of slamming into the Red Planet on Jan. 30, scientists said Thursday.
"These odds are extremely unusual. We frequently work with really long odds when we track ... threatening asteroids," said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The asteroid, known as 2007 WD5, was discovered in late November and is similar in size to the Tunguska object that hit remote central Siberia in 1908, unleashing energy equivalent to a 15-megaton nuclear bomb that wiped out 60 million trees.
Scientists tracking the asteroid, which is halfway to Mars, initially put the odds of impact at 1 in 350 and increased the chances this week after analyzing the data. Scientists expect the odds to diminish again early next month after getting new observations of the asteroid's orbit, Chesley said.
"We know that it's going to fly by Mars and most likely going to miss, but there's a possibility of an impact," he said.
If the asteroid does smash into Mars, it'll likely aim near the equator close to where the rover Opportunity has been exploring the Martian plains since 2004. The robot is not in danger because it lies outside the impact zone. Speeding at 8 miles a second, a collision would carve a hole the size of the famed Meteor Crater in Arizona.
In 2004, fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smacked into Jupiter, creating a series of overlapping fireballs in space. Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.
"Unlike an Earth impact, we're not afraid, but we're excited," Chesley said.
Zoom in the Hubble telescope!
:’) Thanks to the Shoemakers and David Levy, the SL-9 impact was able to be predicted, which permitted every major telescope (including the Hubble) to be pointed at Jupiter. The impacts were just over the hump, on the back side from our standpoint, but one of the first reported observations was of the plume — visible over the horizon! As one writer put it, “a million megaton bang”.
Had it not been for those three people, probably no one would have been systematically searching for all the debris out there since 1994, when the impacts took place. Eugene Shoemaker died before 2000; he and Carolyn were in Australia, looking for tektites I think, came over a hill on some lonely two track path, so did someone else. Carolyn survived, and last I knew was still kickin’ it.
Anyway, three cheers and bravo to all three of them!
images of the impacts by the various fragments of the SL-9 comet.
http://seds.org/sl9/sl9impacts.html
New Theory: Catastrophe Created Mars’ Moons
space.com | 29 Jul 03 | Leonard David
Posted on 07/29/2003 11:56:47 AM EDT by RightWhale
Nhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/954539/posts
Red Planet’s Ancient Equator Located
Scientific American (online) | April 20, 2005 | Sarah Graham
Posted on 04/24/2005 8:18:25 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1390424/posts
and, regarding a kabooma or two-na on luna:
Long-Destroyed Fifth Planet May Have Caused Lunar Cataclysm, Researchers Say
SPACE dot COM | 18 March 2002 ,posted: 03:00 pm ET
By Leonard David, Senior Space Writer
Posted on 03/25/2002 2:42:10 PM PST by vannrox
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/653287/posts
Burping Moon may solve magnetism mystery
News in Science | Jan 16 2003 | Abbie Thomas - ABC Science Online
Posted on 02/19/2003 3:55:20 PM EST by vannrox
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/847039/posts
A Celestial Collision
Alaska Science Forum | February 10, 1983 | Larry Gedney
Posted on 09/15/2004 12:04:28 PM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1216757/posts
FAQs About NEO Impacts
Responsible NASA Official: David Morrison
http://impact.arc.nasa.gov/intro_faq.cfm
http://www.nai.arc.nasa.gov/astrobio/astrobio_detail.cfm?ID=2497
Question: In the National Geographic documentary Asteroids: Deadly Impact, Dr. David Morrison states that the most likely impact scenario is ‘zero warning.’ I was wondering if this is still the case.
Answer: Yes it is, and will continue to be so for a long time. Currently we have discovered only about 3% of the small asteroids capable of doing severe damage (like the Tunguska blast of 1908). If these small asteroids are not picked up in surveys, there will be no warning. More important, however, is to take into account the risk posed by different size asteroids. The larger ones do much more damage. The NASA Spaceguard program, which has concentrated on finding the larger asteroids, has already removed more than 75% of the risk you have of dying as the result of an unexpected asteroid strike. For more information see the NASA impact hazard webpage (http://impact.arc.nasa.gov).
David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
11 October 2007
Asteroids:
Deadly Impact
National Geographic
Sandia supercomputers offer new explanation of Tunguska disaster
EurekAlert | 12/18/07 | Mark Boslough
Posted on 12/18/2007 1:12:19 PM EST by crazyshrink
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1941279/posts
It is one thing to have faith in God, but to have such faith in an atmosphere that has not 'eating' any big asteroids and comets is a sure sign of your complete lack of any basic knowledge of any science or physics.
The earth's atmosphere is not very thick and starts to really thin out above three miles high. The thickest part that 'eats' entering space dust and pebble sized asteroids is not more than 6 miles high from sea level. Now, you tell me how this is going to 'eat' any asteroid or comet that is six, seven, ten miles in diameter or bigger and moving at 100,000 miles per hour?
BTW The meteorite that caused the K–T dinosaur extinction event 65 million years ago was more than 6 miles in diameter, making the back still outside that thick 'eating' part of the atmosphere when the front was at ground level starting the mega-megaton sized explosion that would blast out a 110 mile wide crater.
We weren’t created to live in fear.
Maybe, maybe not, but we surely were not created to live in the blissful stupidity you appear to practice. Rose-colored glasses make everything look rosy, but ruby colored glass will not stop a speeding bullet any better than our atmosphere will halt or burn up any large object that intercepts earth.
People of deep and abiding religious faith have my complete heartfelt respect and admiration. Those who, like you, have blinders on that will not allow them to accept any scientific knowledge or even the slightest common sense at all have only my pity.
You have accomplished one thing, old sport. You have proven to me that any further effort on answering any future post of yours is a total waste of time. You have made up your mind and no amount of fact will lead you to knowledge nor water. You already know all you want to know.
Ciao
Nothing you promote has anything to do with ‘science.’
Earth has a very functional atmosphere, that burns up objects weighing as much as 40 tons before they reach the breathable trophosphere.
No meteorite caused any extinction at any time. This idea is science fiction at its worst. Its designed for those that are wired to search for any wisp of straw that might relieve them from their natural God-consiousness. Suckers that would make PT Barnum grin from the grave.
Oh, there’s a one in 75 chance it will hit, but if it does, it will be at the equator, near our robot.
Such precision, such bullsh3t.
Correctamundo bump.
For those morbidly interested, there is a streaming video posted online somewhere (Japanese site, as I recall) of a fair-sized asteroid, say 200-300 miles in diameter, striking the earth in the Pacific Basin, a few thousand miles west of Hawaii. I can't stream it, not enough resources, but it's carefully modeled and prettily (if that's the word) done. A metasearch will turn it up, methinks. I didn't save a link, unfortunately, since I couldn't look at it anyway. I had it crawling along one day a frame or two at a time, when someone helpfully came to the door and that was that. That was two or three years ago.
Worth a look, if only for the work someone put into it.
Good luck defending that stupidly rash proposition.
Wilful ignorance is also stupidity. Pious stupidity is still stupidity, whether you call it "God-consciousness" or not. The penalty for all stupidity is death, destruction, and disconsolateness.
Read Isaac's Storm for a fair description of the mindset I'm talking about, which you embody and which got 9,000 people killed in one afternoon in 1900.
All it takes is one event. Supernova, black hole hosing the galactic core, random ice/rock balls, and what else have we got?
Plenty of chances, but fortunately, chance is on our side on any given Sunday.
JPL is in Pasadena, Ca.
Mt. Palomar is down in northern San Diego county.
Wow, if that was two years ago, that impact must be about to occur by now. ;’) Thanks! I’ll try a web search later. Melosh (I think it is) has an impact simulator online, let’s see...
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/
Enjoy your Sci-Fi mindset.
Reality is far more productive.
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