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This stuff scares the heck out of me!!! An asteroid just passed beyond our Moon and the Earth's orbit (270,000 miles away) at approximately 7:06 PM yesterday; we just discovered it barely a day earlier. It was over 70 feet across, which is more than large enough to devastate any major city on impact or even if it shattered/exploded above said city.
We would barely have ample time to even contemplate any deflective or destructive scenario to prevent a collision with Earth. In January a smaller asteroid passed within 76,000 miles of Earth...that's ONLY about 10 Earth diameters away. One time soon, we are not going to be so LUCKY!!! And I myself, trying to stay current on Science Issues, just heard about it.
I think it's TIME the Worlds' Governments/Countries Take these threats MORE SERIOUSLY!!!! .
Small asteroid to zip harmlessly past Earth | Science Headlines | Comcast.net (http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-science/20100408/US.SCI.Asteroid.Flyby/ - broken link)
Last edited by PITTSTON2SARASOTA; 04-09-2010 at 02:06 PM..
This stuff scares the heck out of me!!! An asteroid just passed beyond our Moon and the Earth's orbit (270,000 miles away) at approximately 7:06 PM yesterday; we just discovered it barely a day earlier. It was over 70 feet across, which is more than large enough to devastate any major city on impact or even if it shattered/exploded above said city.
We would barely have ample time to even contemplate any deflective or destructive scenario to prevent a collision with Earth. In January a smaller asteroid passed within 76,000 miles of Earth...that's ONLY about 10 Earth diameters away. One time soon, we are not going to be so LUCKY!!! And I myself, trying to stay current on Science Issues, just heard about it.
I think it's TIME the Worlds' Governments/Countries Take these threats MORE SERIOUSLY!!!! .
Small asteroid to zip harmlessly past Earth | Science Headlines | Comcast.net (http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-science/20100408/US.SCI.Asteroid.Flyby/ - broken link)
These things don't bother me. If we get hit by one, we get hit. I am not belittling you for being concerned, however. You know the gov't as well as I do. We won't take serious action until a major city gets turned to dust by one of the space rocks. Then, shortly after, we will forget about it as we did 911!
70 feet would likely just break up in the upper atmosphere. Get around 200 feet and you are starting to get in the serious effects range.
What may be scaring you is that when you hear of one passing close, you think there is a reasonable chance it could impact Earth. The key word is REASONABLE.
Distance from Earth to Moon - 238857 miles -round it to 240,000
Area covered within moon's orbit - (Pi R squared) 181,000,000,000 square miles
Earth's diameter - 7926.28 miles
Area of the circle described by Earth 50,000,000 square miles
3620 to 1 chance that anything that gets within the orbit of the Moon misses Earth.
These things don't bother me. If we get hit by one, we get hit. I am not belittling you for being concerned, however. You know the gov't as well as I do. We won't take serious action until a major city gets turned to dust by one of the space rocks. Then, shortly after, we will forget about it as we did 911!
Charles
I don't lose sleep over it but there are also possible ramifications that an asteroid hit "outta nowhere", could be misinterpreted as a nuclear attack within the initial hours after impact......possibly starting a nuclear exchange out of ignorance before radiation samples are taken.
70 feet would likely just break up in the upper atmosphere. Get around 200 feet and you are starting to get in the serious effects range.
What may be scaring you is that when you hear of one passing close, you think there is a reasonable chance it could impact Earth. The key word is REASONABLE.
Distance from Earth to Moon - 238857 miles -round it to 240,000
Area covered within moon's orbit - (Pi R squared) 181,000,000,000 square miles
Earth's diameter - 7926.28 miles
Area of the circle described by Earth 50,000,000 square miles
3620 to 1 chance that anything that gets within the orbit of the Moon misses Earth.
LOL...I took Statistics, but as you well know our luck is running out...MY POINT is we did NOT see this one coming until it was essentially "TOO LATE' to react appropriately; NOT the liklihood of impact!
Also I mentioned that it could very well break up/explode in the atmosphere. BUT if it were to possess a iron core the likely possibility of surviving atmospheric entry greatly increases. Asteroid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
And remember the TUNGUSKA comet event/explosion in Russia/Siberia of 1908; it never impacted the planet....was probably a lose agglomeration of ice/rock, exploded high in the atmosphere; YET DESTROYED over 2,000 square kilometers of forest.....making the trees look like flattened matchsticks.
An asteroid is FAR denser than any comet and the explosive force would be FAR greater. The TUNGUSKA event was estimated at between 10 to 15 megatons....comparable to our largest thermonuclear weapons ever detonated... and 1,000 times more powerful the Hiroshima blast.
70 feet would likely just break up in the upper atmosphere. Get around 200 feet and you are starting to get in the serious effects range.
What may be scaring you is that when you hear of one passing close, you think there is a reasonable chance it could impact Earth. The key word is REASONABLE.
Distance from Earth to Moon - 238857 miles -round it to 240,000
Area covered within moon's orbit - (Pi R squared) 181,000,000,000 square miles
Earth's diameter - 7926.28 miles
Area of the circle described by Earth 50,000,000 square miles
3620 to 1 chance that anything that gets within the orbit of the Moon misses Earth.
Thats enough math to spin my brain, but I don't see anything reflecting gravitational force of the earth -
Thats enough math to spin my brain, but I don't see anything reflecting gravitational force of the earth -
LOL...I know Statistics; but I too would have trouble doing the math; but could if necessary. I don't understand what that(Earth's gravity) has to do with the thread topic???? .
The idea is that the gravity could influence the path towards the Earth. That would be negligable if you consider it.
If the asteroid was deflected towards the Earth by Earth gravity, a near miss would make the asteroid come at us faster, but because of the shallow angle, wouldn't deflect it very much. If the asteroid was moving very slowly relative to the Earth, there would be greater deflection, but most travel at a fairly fast pace in relation to the Earth.
Tunguska is not as good a predictor of effect as the Barringer Crater in Arizona Meteor Crater
That asteroid impact was from one 150' across, which is VERY roughly 7 times more mass.
The effects of mass entering the atmosphere can vary wildly. As you'll remember, the breakup of the space shuttle had little effect on the ground other than showering down parts.
Time actually IS on our side. In early planet formation impacts were common. The solar system has been swept clean of most of the offenders by now.
I think it's TIME the Worlds' Governments/Countries Take these threats MORE SERIOUSLY!!!!
What's your suggestion? We already have the NEO Program, and there are a lot of people that want to shut down NASA altogether. They're idiots, but their vote counts just as much as yours or mine.
Will another major impact happen? Yep. The "when" is the wildcard, and the odds are very strongly in favor of "not in our lifetimes."
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but there are also possible ramifications that an asteroid hit "outta nowhere", could be misinterpreted as a nuclear attack within the initial hours after impact......possibly starting a nuclear exchange out of ignorance before radiation samples are taken.
