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Don Davis
Artwork by Don Davis shows a meteor streaking over Chelyabinsk. More of Davis' art is on his website.
Now that they've worked out the orbital path of the meteor that blew up over Russia last month, scientists are saying that the asteroid behind the blast crossed Earth's orbit regularly for thousands of years. Two weeks ago, it looked as if the 1.1 million residents of the city of Chelyabinsk had been hit by a cosmic stroke of bad luck — but now they're talking about turning the most powerful asteroid impact in more than a century into a tourist attraction.
The Feb. 15 aerial explosion and the shock wave it set off caused an estimated $33 million in property damage, much of it in the form of shattered windows and weakened walls. It also injured about 1,200 people, with most of them hurt by the flying glass from those windows. Authorities started the cleanup work almost immediately, while researchers rushed to figure out the scale of the explosion.
Based on the readings from infrasound sensors stationed all over the world to monitor nuclear-weapons tests, NASA said the energy release was equivalent to 500 kilotons of TNT, or roughly 30 times the energy released by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II. That translated into an object about 17 meters (55 feet wide), weighing 10,000 tons. The space agency said it was the biggest cosmic impact recognized since the 1908 Tunguska asteroid blast that leveled millions of trees in Siberia.
Less than a week after the blast, Colombian astronomers worked out a rough orbital path for the Chelyabinsk asteroid, based on an analysis of the videos captured by dashboard cameras and traffic cams in the area. On Friday, NASA produced a more definitive orbital track, based not only on the videos but also on the readings from the federal government's space sensors. The report took advantage of a recently signed agreement with the Air Force Space Command for the public release of previously hush-hush data.
Sizing up a superbolide
Friday's assessment is the first entry in a new NASA database for fireballs and bolide reports, which classifies the Chelyabinsk meteor as a "superbolide."
The latest readings confirm the conclusion that the object's orbit ranged from the main asteroid belt, beyond the orbit of Mars, to well within Earth's orbit. They also show that the Chelyabinsk asteroid's approach couldn't have been detected by ground-based optical telescopes because the space rock was hidden in the sun's glare.
P. Chodas et al. / NASA / JPL-Caltech
An orbital diagram shows the pre-impact orbit of the asteroid that blew up over Russia on Feb. 15, based on the track of its atmospheric entry. The asteroid came at Earth from the sunward side.
"The impactor had likely been following this orbit for many thousands of years, crossing the Earth's orbit every time on its outbound leg," NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office said in Friday's assessment.
The fresh readings tweaked previous estimates of the object's size and brightness as well: NASA said the meteor was 17 to 20 meters wide (55 to 65 feet wide), and reached peak brightness at an altitude of 14.5 miles (23.3 kilometers), when it was traveling at a speed of 41,760 mph (18.6 kilometers per second). There's also quite a bit of discussion about the energy release — and why the new estimate for impact energy (440 kilotons, which includes energy lost during atmospheric entry) is so much bigger than the fireball's radiated energy (90 kilotons, which applies only to the blast).
From the get-go, astronomers have said that the Russian meteor was not connected with the close flyby of a much bigger asteroid, known as 2012 DA14, which took place later on the same day. Friday's assessment confirms that lack of a connection — not only because the two orbital paths were markedly different, but also because the two asteroids had different compositions.
NASA said a spectral analysis of 2012 DA14, conducted by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, suggests that the asteroid is a relatively rare carbonaceous chondrite "with abundant calcium- and aluminum-rich inclusions."
"On the other hand, meteorite fragments being recovered from the fireball event are reported as silicate-rich ordinary chondrites, a completely different and unrelated class of meteorites," NASA said. "About 80 percent of all meteorite falls are in the ordinary chondrite category."
Andrei Romanov / Reuters
A local resident shows a fragment thought to be part of a meteorite collected in a snow-covered field in the Yetkulski region, outside the city of Chelyabinsk.
Taking pride in a superbolide
Scientists may classify the Russian meteorites as an unremarkable kind of space rock, but they're extra-special to the folks in Chelyabinsk. For one thing, such meteorites could be worth more than their weight in gold on the collectors' market. Some have estimated their value at $2,200 per gram. For another thing, the region's residents are now talking about capitalizing on the international interest generated by the impact.
"Space sent us a gift, and we need to make use of it," Natalia Gritsay, head of the region’s tourism department, told Bloomberg News this week. "We need our own Eiffel Tower or Statue of Liberty."
Among the ideas being debated: building a "Meteor Disneyland" theme park that re-creates the glass-shattering event, or organizing a cosmic music and fireworks festival, or erecting a beacon-tipped pyramid at nearby Chebarkul Lake, where meteorite fragments have been found. Tourist companies are already starting to sell group tours to Chelyabinsk at $800 a person, Bloomberg News reported.
When the meteor exploded, many of the region's residents feared that it was a plane crash, or a missile strike, or even the end of the world. Now it's starting to look as if the superbolide is the best thing to hit Chelyabinsk in years.
“Nobody had heard about us, and now all the world knows,” the region's governor, Mikhail Yurevich, told Bloomberg News. “We can earn some dividends on that."
Yekaterina Pustynnikova / Chelyabinsk.ru via AP
Click through scenes from Russia's Chelyabinsk region, where a huge meteor fireball set off alarms, injured hundreds of people and caused a factory roof to collapse.
More about the meteor:
- Experts get set for the next asteroid
- How to 'hear' the Russian meteor
- NBCNews.com archive on asteroids
Tip o' the Log to space illustrator Don Davis and Spike MacPhee.
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
For some reason the meteors love Russia!!!
The Tunguska Event at 7:14 a.m. on June 30, 1908 and then this one a week ago...must be a warning sign by the Aliens for Russia to change its evil ways or else....
Scary!!!
Get back on your anti-paranoic meds, please.
more are lurking
now ask your self How does a species avoid a mass die off event? Inhabit the total planet and breed like there is an end coming. When one of these big rocks strikes this planet like it has done for ever, the species that lives on every part of this planet will have a better chance to survive then one that only lives in a limited area. It is in our DNA to move around. After a big impact, we go back to the stone age
Or Russia could occupy the majority of the largest continent on Earth, making it many times more likely to be hit than any other country...
Thanks for pointing out the most logical explanation, PaleBlue.
I just keep thinking about Steve Martin in 'The Jerk' and how ''Asteroids must hate Russia!!!"
But seriously folks - this is neat. It's fascinating to see an event like this, where it's both big enough and close enough to be so significant, and yet far enough in the atmosphere so that millions weren't killed (with all due respect to any of the 1200 who may have been injured seriously).
It really does bring the need for continued mapping, tracking, and the need for a defense system to everyone's mind. It's been argued that the chance of a planet killer is remote - but these city killers are expected about every 100 years or so on average. If they can potentially kill millions at a time, we need to have plans in place before the next impact.
Well. The bottom line here is, if our telescopes can't see a incoming rock because or our suns bright glare, then we must find a better way to detect what is about to hit our planet. This bad news means, right now we haven't a chance of see a big rock until the last few minutes before it hits, just like the one in Russia. Or so they say, if we can believe anything they say. A remote telescope in deep space might see what we can't see on our planet.
There is already a telescope in space called Hubble but as you say one may be needed in deep space where a wider view may be available. The next meteor that may hit we may not be as lucky.
Hubble has a very narrow field of view (high magnification) which is suitable to most kinds of astronomical research but not to finding previously unknown asteroids (or comets). Telescopes in "deep space" inside the orbit of Earth have been proposed to help find asteroids approaching the Earth on the sunlit side. Those telescopes would be smaller than Hubble but have a much wider field of view as you suggest.
One is due to bump our orbit in 2029 and will come back around in 2036, twenty times the size of this one.
That's Scary, not Russia
I'm not quite sure I'd want advanced notice . . . or maybe, if only to smoke some good Mary Jane and down a quart of 100-proof vodka before my extinction.
I'm no expert but I tend to think some kind of scanning radar system would be better for finding rocks than an optical telescope wouldn't it? Am I missing something?
Large radio telescopes (which can transmit a beam similar to a radar) are very useful for precise tracking of already-known objects, but can't scan large areas of sky for new objects. Radars can scan, but don't have the power to reach out millions of miles. So for now using either reflected sunlight or perhaps IR thermal emissions is still the best option.
It sounds like the Air Force defense systems did pick this up, but travelling at over 40,000 mph, I doubt that they had any real warning time. Pretty likely that they aren't looking out into deep space either unless they know something they aren't telling us. I reality they are looking down on Earth which is where our potential enemies are. Even then, you have to realize that just 24 hours earlier, this thing was about a million miles away. (Over 4 times the distance to the Moon)
The Ionosphere plays havoc with radar frequencies and could be a problem for any ground based systems. There are some techniques to compensate, but a small object potentially get lost in the noise. At a high enough orbit you can probably avoid that issue but then you are also power limited on a satellite. To be able to scan all of space to great distances would be a pretty complex task. I don't think impossible is the right word, but when you consider the size of the object and the great distances you pretty much would need to know exactly where to look and stay focused on that spot in order to detect it.
ya know,this would have really helped Chicago had it impacted downtown.
Yea but then we'd have to think about imposing meteor bans and who knows how long that would take our goverment to decide
I was thinking Detroit.
On another topic, where are all the paranoid links between the asteroid and the pope retiring? Crazies, get to your keyboards!
Lol, almost as bad as Vladimir Zhirinovsky blaming America for the meteorite impact. Crazies come out from all over the place when pretty much anything happens.
Jake:
The Pope was scared by the asteroid and the meteor so he quit. He figured he needed to dedicate more time to getting right with God.
How's that?
Good article.
How does the 1908 asteroid knock down million of trees, but was a smaller blast. And this recent one knocked down how many trees?
I would assume angle of attack is the big dif. Tunguska was a direct overhead hit, whereas this one nearly skipped the atmosphere.
The 1908 Tunguska blast was much bigger than the Chelyabinsk blast. Estimated energy release was 2400 kilotons as opposed to 440 to 500 kilotons for Chelyabinsk. Tunguska was also estimated at about 50 meters wide rather than 17 meters.
MSNBC needs to hire a few new proof readers. Read the very first sentence in the article. Basic third grade grammar mistakes show poorly in the public domain.
Look it up on Google. Read about it. There have also been numerous science TV shows about it. I'd bet there's even something on YouTube ... imagine that. We live in an age when information is so easy to acquire and people still want to be spoon fed. Seriously, Alan, if you're smart enough to get on the computer and ask questions, you're smart enough to research the Tunguska event. It is very interesting, but the scope of the information is too large for simplistic answers in this format. So, there's a little insult and a little help ... go for it.
Now there's a typo I appreciate hearing about, thanks. Got it fixed ("they've" instead of "they're"). Also, here's more information about Tunguska:
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/25455896
And of course Tunguska ranks among the 12 most memorable asteroid hits and misses on my list:
http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/14/16954270-asteroids-close-shave-ranks-among-earths-biggest-hits-and-misses?lite
Russia might get a LOT more chances to pick up some more asteroid fragments--from Mars no less--if the event of the EON occurs and Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) does impact Mars as is currently possible.
http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/26/17107085-comet-just-might-hit-mars-in-2014?lite
Check out it's expected path at this NASA site (you need Java installed to view it):
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2013A1;cad=1;orb=1;cov=0;log=0#orb
Right now NASA only has 74 days of data and cannot plot the orbit with the certainty required to rule out an impact. But if it hits Mars it will be the story of the EON because it's so big (30 miles diameter--a volume of 113,457 CUBIC MILES) and traveling so fast (126,000 mph).
This is nearly 34 times larger than the largest Shoemaker 9 Comet which was 9.3 miles in diameter and was travelling at about 45,000 mph at impact. Thus it carry's 400 times more energy at impact (roughly) or about 20 billion megatons.
Or said another way--it's 400 times the energy of the Asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. That created a crater 180 miles across (Chixilub). This if it hits mars would create a crater over a 1000 miles wide and tens of miles deep. That's unbelievable.
JPL labs is pulling out all the stops to get more and better data on this Comet which is a planet killer.
If it hit's Mars--or one of it's moon--it would create a swarm of Martian asteroids flung out into space and you guessed it Earth, Venus and Mercury could be targets because Earth will be coming around the Sun 6 months after the collision and could be in the path of thousands of asteroids.
So of course--Russia will get it's share again.
So might we all.
Actually, it would have around 250 times the energy of Shoemaker 9. There is a squared relationship between speed and energy and a direct one between mass and energy. This means 2.8 times the speed gives a factor of 7.84 times the energy times 34 times the mass = 266.6 times the energy.
The estimated orbital path for Comet Siding Spring has gone back and forth as more observations come in, but right now it's projected to miss Mars by tens of thousands of km. However, the size estimates are so mindbogglingly big (10 to 50 km?) that there may be cometary debris hitting Mars. I can hardly believe the thing is going to turn out as big as the biggest estimates.
Siding Spring is going to encounter Mars very near its perihelion as well. That sucker's gonna be movin' as fast as it can when it gets there!
Wouldn't it be great if the Mars rover Curiosity captured the impact of this Comit Siding Spring as it hit Mars? Now that would be worth the money spent on it :)
I take issue with descriptive words like "lurked" and "stalked". I guess that thinking implies the meteor was a sentient being AND suicidal.
It's definitely true that the Comet being so large it could be about the same size as the Shoemaker Comet before Jupiters mass tore it apart into 9 separate Comets? If something similar to this happens to this Comet headed towards Mars (estimated 63,000 mile miss) such as 'burnoff' from it's orbit around the Sun and a possible breakup as it nears Mars--it could have some massive portions that would actually hit Mars.
If a big chunk about 6 miles (same as dino killer) were to hit that would be awesome for the orbiters to record things before getting buried. And probably visible from Earth if it happens during night time hours. In any event we may get to witness something never before seen and it's still possible of a Martian meteor swarm here on Earth resulting from even a dino-sized impact due to the speed this thing is traveling at.
So Russians should be happy to pick up the pieces since they seem to have their number lately.
Does it have the velocity to escape the solar system, or is it going to swing back?
My thoughts are it's quite possible there's a swarm of smaller bodies in orbit around this one. If so, then Mars will be quite interesting to watch. I wonder if the Mars rovers can capture pictures looking up. In addition, depending on the size of the barrage, and how far away one lands, they might be able to examine a new crater in real-time. Which implies some amount of worry about what might happen to them, as well.
Yeah your right about the energy being squared for the velocity. Oops.
But the point being is that if this thing hits it will be massive and here are some more official energy numbers:
Dino Killer--6.2 miles, 44,640 mph (est. 12.4 miles/second); total energy 100 teratons of TNT (4.2×1023 J); source Wikipedia.
Shoemaker 9--9.3 miles, 134,000 mph (estimated); total energy 6,000 teratons of TNT (600 times the world's nuclear arsenal) or 600 times more powerful than the dino killer. source: Wikipedia.
Siding Spring -30 miles, 126,000 mph (fairly accurate); total energy estimated 29.7 times larger than the Shoemaker 9 Comet (assuming equal density, .884 velocity squared difference, mass difference of 33.5 difference); 178,200 teratons of TNT. or 178 petatons of TNT.
So Shoemaker 9 was 600 times more powerful than the dino killer, and Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) is about 1782 times more powerful.
Hey I hate to exaggerate but this thing is incredibly powerful and a planet killer. Well, maybe not if it hits Jupiter but if it hits Mars, Earth, Venus or Mercury or any of their moons then it's history.
Think of that 1800 times more energetic than the dino killer or almost 30 times more energetic than Shoemaker 9.
And the dinosaurs thought they had seen it all!!!!
More2bits: Another oops for you...
The formula for the volume of a sphere is 4/3 times pi times the radius cubed. Not the diameter. If the diameter is 30 miles, the radius is 15 miles. The volume would be 14,137.167 cubic miles or so.
I guess this is just not your day.
there is no-way in hell a meteor 55 feet wide would weigh 10,000 tons go back and do your calculations again you morons
mrbeeffy,
A diameter of 17 m (55 ft) and a mass of 10,000 tons (9,072,000 kg) implies a density of 3,530 kg per cubic meter. This is near the middle of the commonly accepted range of densities for meteorites of ordinary chondritic composition ( meteorites.wustl.edu/id/density.htm , 3.53 gm per cubic centimeter = 3,530 kg per cubic meter).
I hope you are now better able to accept the values given in the above article.
Thanks, Astropreneur... Some folks seem awfully quick to call other folks morons. And usually the folks doing the name-calling lack the most solid information. Good lesson for anyone thinking of calling anyone else a moron. You'll jinx yourself if you do.
Sorry you need to work on your math skills mrbeeffy.
well If thats the case then the weight density of this material is as heavy as lead
Are you saying it's too high or too low? Pretend it's a sphere and iron/nickel. 4/3 pi X radius cubed X the mass of iron/nickel ...
mrbeeffy,
The density of lead is 11.34 gm per cubic centimeter. This means that lead is 3.21 times as dense as a typical ordinary chondrite meteorite.
Ordinary chondrite meteorites are denser than most rocks we encounter on the surface of the Earth because the ordinary chondrites typically contain more metal than terrestrial rocks. This is because ordinary chondrite meteorites are from asteroids that were too small to experience enough heating during their formation to separate the metal and non-metal elements into a metallic core and non-metallic crust, as we have here on Earth.
The metals we need to lead our modern lives have their origins, broadly speaking, as either igneous intrusions from beneath the Earth's surface ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushveld_Igneous_Complex ) or were delivered by asteroid/comet impacts long ago ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vredefort_crater ).
By the way, osmium (chemical symbol Os) is the element with the highest density, viz. 22.59 gm per cubic centimeter. Iridium (Ir) is a close second at 22.56 gm per cubic centimeter.
So while ordinary chondrites are denser than most of Earth's crustal rocks, ordinary chondrites are not as dense as lead.
the amazing thing about this is that the asteroid was actually pulled to the ground from space because of the gravitational pull of the planet -now we can assume that the planets it came close to did not have a strong enough pull to attract it
to track these asteroids we could spot gravitational pull and gravitational anomalies because they would occur in a snake like pattern not a straight shot-where did it come from
so now using that think of all the planets lined up in a row
now imagine that it is one of the exercise tests where you run in and out of the cones turn at the end and go back through in the shape of a snake
now think about the fact if we used the gravitational pull of each planet to sling shot a ship to the other side of the galaxy using the pull and spinning time of the planets it would save fuel and the centrifugal force would propel the ship faster
between the journey there and back the route path would be similar to the shape of a dna strand or connecting circles like beads on a string
now you would have to make sure that you do it using the direction the planet spins because the spin and gravitational pull of each planet would create a drag affect you want to be at the point where the pull occurs like surfing a wave
why not try compressed steam to propel the ships less pollution and it would increase the amount of h2o in the atmosphere almost like steam cleaning the atmosphere
for all of my suggestions and theories which I know some are good and work-still no has come or contacted me
I didn't even get one tree hugger for my tree of life theory although is a different subject
interesting as it's been over a year since I started this expedition to get into space
If you say so sheldon
Have you contacted Stephen Hawking and discussed this with him?
Huh! May want to see someone about this a doctor maybe.
Based on some of the earlier posts, I will conclude that this is not the best time to use the word "moron" in reference to another poster, athough I'm tempted.
I know a nation of capitalists when I see one. - RC
Dark light speed design by morgan cadle
Basics not complete minor details left out
Decide I would like to become part of American history
A cooling system similar to the atmosphere of space
Then create a tornado that spirals down which we make
electromagnetics-2 spirals on either side
We create these by shooting the dark light spectrum through
the black diamond’s which all have to have equal angles –this meets causing
fusion of colors as well
We shoot positive electrons and negative and the same from
the other side
In the middle an affect much like the Jacobs ladder affect
occurs where the electrons collide in a cool atmosphere
Then we can adjust the speed of the tornedo’s using
electromagnetics to increase or decrease
The collisions of the protons create a power source-this is
directed through a ball made of mirrors
on the inside which deflects the power out
Hover craft
We can also as I told the pressure cleaner if we use the
spinning principle of the brush electromagnetics to push down on the ground and
push against gravity the spinning motion much like a jet engine will allow the
craft to float if we use steam or water pressure it is less polluting
We can use this principle close to the ground and be pushed
along using rebounding electrons much like a sail
Crops
3 circle crop rotation based on Mayan principles to get past
drought we can build basins and reservoirs if we make the tropical we can fish
farm by the more water we evaporate we can guide the vapor up a ski lift and
then use electromagnetics like tin and zinc to heat and cool wires causing
precipitation + snow
All year round skiing
I would like to join with trump to develop hotels and
entertainment in west palm beach and bring life back to the space program
I have ideas for ships but I would like to work with spacex
and nasa –space x should buy Kennedy so that both commercial and government
projects work together even up at coco beach and patricks afb
Coal creates a crystal that can be used for solar power
Cancer
grows in dark areas
so light treatment should work through water like a pool will shine and reflect
light in the body so shaded areas are exposed
If cancer grows in the dark then white light will kill its
development – also by disrupting a tumors magnetic field the mass will be
weakened for white light to penetrate
K2 should cause blood clotting for hemophiliacs
Just a couple of thoughts
Just a thought
Can I have some of what you're on?
Morgan: Stop.
"They also show that the Chelyabinsk asteroid's approach couldn't have been detected by ground-based optical telescopes because the space rock was hidden in the sun's glare."
I guess that means we won't know its coming?
We won't know such asteroids are coming unless B612 gets the funding for its Sentinel Space Telescope:
http://www.b612foundation.org
You tell'um Alan.
Alan its unlikely B612 will get any funding in this political environment.. Ive been an SGF member for years, would be nice if they did and we added more scopes around the world ..
First we have to convince most Republicans that the Earth is not flat, and it's more than 6,000 years old.
If it has been "lurking" for thousands of years, and has crossed Earth's orbit every time on its outbound leg, we may have had a previous chance to see it "going" as it went by, moving away. At that time we could have charted its course and we would have known it was coming.
Sure, easy, unless of course we (the Earth) was millions of miles away in a different part of our orbit at the time it crossed Earth's orbit.
This rock was substantially smaller than we have the technology and resources to detect unless conditions are perfect - perfectly positioned, perfectly lit, and perfectly lucky to happen to have a scope looking in that particular direction.
We could build a system to find these rocks; are we ready to spend the money to do so?
2012 AD14, the substantially larger asteroid that whizzed over our heads on the same day as the Chelyabinsk event, is approx 4x larger than the Chelyabinsk bolide; some 20 years ago or so we would likely not have detected THAT sized rock.
With extremely limited funding (and a LOT of volunteer work by serious amateurs) we're making some progress. It's time to get serious about these mountain-sized rocks and fund them.
The speed these things move and their small size will be extremely difficult to pick up by sight without much better equipment. Not like anything could be done about it anyway.
What I'm trying to understand is how the verimeter of the meteor went from an acolyde perimeter to a solotype without the hubris interfering with the sentinel contrast that so slows down the rectangular venclave needed to perform an austrism angle in the performatory path of the comet, even though the supository speed went from nanos to kanos in mandriatic time.
Can someone please explain that one to me?
I think it was the kanometric reversal of the veeblefetzer, which cracked it in the process. Look it up. ;-)
A scientist with a sense of humor....and isn't afraid to talk to non-geeks.....pretty cool!!!! Can't wait to use the word "veeblefetzer" in a sentence.
Olias: Ask morganllcadle. I'm sure he can explain it to you.
ok so I proposed the other day on here for a company or nasa to orbit 6 satellites equipped with fan shaped filters like a lens to
1)stop harmful rays and to prevent heat rays
2)they will cast a shadow over the area
put them in a triangular formation 3 and 3 so that the interchange positions so the correct balance of lighting occurs you still need photosynthesis
I don't think it would be that hard and do you know the company that saves the world will never have a problem getting funding
I think it's a sound and easy solution combined with others
but you think someone would think about doing it
SAVING THE ARCTIC WOULD BE A BIG DEAL I WOULD IMAGINE
Save it? What is there to save? A barren, lifeless tundra? Let it melt instead. It would soon be covered with vegetation and provide wildlife with another place to flourish. It would also provide Republicans with yet another excuse for a war as other nations would have the audacity to think that they were entitled to harvest some of the natural resources there-- a privilege granted exclusively to America by the will of God.
Hopefully, the next impact will be a thirty-mile-wide comet. The virus "mankind" is long overdue for extinction.
J.P. You do understand that that includes you correct?
JP +1
J.P. is a dog. Look at the picture. Me, I'm just a cuddly teddy bear, but it would take us ALL out.
And I am the Earth. Please don't throw things at me...
To: Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News.... YaThink?? Well Duh... And dont forget to remind folks to stay tuned in October and November as COMET ""ISON"" and it Seven Dwarfs will be lighting up the sky day and night... Possibly all with Tails, at one time, now thats a show....
Now the scientists are called experts?!
They didn't even no it was coming until they seen the light.
I'm an expert on the truth, this article was not truthful.
Bump, we cant see the ones coming from the sun, and there are more people working a McDonald's at Midnight in the whole world than there are Astronomers working this issue. Suggest you get your Degree updated Your missing some points...
You may be an expert on the truth, but you sure are not an expert on the English language.
They didn't even no it was coming until they seen the light.
no = know and until they seen the light, until they SAW the light.
Earth to scientists.. 1 hiroshima bomb or the meteor? Hmm. I think I will take my chance with the "power of the meteor" , you can go sit under a mushroom clowd. Idiots. Why not come up with something that is "real people thinking" comparison.
It is difficult to tell what you're complaining about? Are you objecting to the comparison of the explosive power of the meteor to the Hiroshima bomb? Some people do find that offensive, but it is a comparison that many can relate to. The traditional measure of "tons of TNT" is really meaningless because how many people understand the power of a "ton of TNT"?
What has me deeply worried is the comet which is stalking Mars right now. It almost seems that its path is being adjusted even while we are updating our tracking of it. If this thing is under intelligent control then we had better put it under intelligent opposition FAST !!! We should have black ops capabilities which can potentially do this, but we really need to act fast if we are going to succeed. Once this thing hits Mars or one of the moons of Mars, all bets are off downrange, and the Earth is potentially in the line of any debris field !!! - Rick Carter
Hint: I am thinking MIRV. - RC
It's path gets updated because further observations of its motion makes our understanding of its orbit more accurate.
From a practical standpoint (especially in regards to guidance), the only realistic option is to retro this comet with multiple MIRVs, so Mars is no longer there by the time that this comet arrives. If it misses Mars, then this thing (supposedly) is not headed for Earth. The only chance this comet has to impact the Earth is if it shatters AND deflects off of Mars or one of Mars moons in the direction of Earth. But if you are going to do this, you need time on your side. This means that we really need to get moving at maximum speed if we want to succeed. - RC
Yes, PaleBlueDot, you would like to think so. Unfortunately, this whole thing seems to be getting too improbable the longer that it goes on.
I already blew the gig on their primary plan. Right now I have to assume this is their fallback plan (Plan B). They are not stupid enough NOT to have a fallback plan. (I wish I could have CLEARLY seen this one coming, but I am a limited (human) being.) - RC
(I have known I would potentially have to 'match wits' with them ever since the 4th grade (NPB, FL.))
Pale ... please stop applying logic here on the forums. It gives the denizens headaches.
Just so everyone knows, there are approximately 600 Clovis Comets (3 mile wide) inside of this 30 mile wide comet which is approaching Mars, and over 400 MILLION Tunguska comets, to use a smaller unit of measure. If this thing deflects off of Mars (or one of the moons of Mars) on October 19, 2014, when it intersects with the orbit of Mars (right now they are predicting WITHIN 23,000 miles of Mars), then the resulting cloud of comets and asteroids from this collision could potentially annihilate all complex life here on Earth a few months later. But go ahead and have your "hee, haw" everyone, just like you all have done with everything else I have personally tried to alert you all to. Just let it be recorded that I warned you all in time to potentially avert total disaster here on Earth. - Rick Carter
Actually, I have just redone my calculations, and the above estimation is actually an understatement by a factor of 0.5. So start thinking 600 million Tunguska comets potentially coming your way, humanity. Have fun, everyone! - RC
(Now you all can see how monumentally problematic this thing potentially becomes if you let this massive 30 mile wide comet collide with Mars (or one of the moons of Mars) on October 19, 2014 (next year). Maximum effort should be used by mankind to prevent this catastrophic collision.) - RC
(If you all really want to know the truth, before this comet potentially hits Mars (or one of the moons of Mars), it actually has the mass of over ONE BILLION Tunguska comets. But I am trying to allow for some significant loss in the course of the impact. So I am only estimating about 600 MILLION Tunguska comets potentially headed our way if this comet deflects off of Mars or one of the moons of Mars.) - RC
Even if we could somehow 'nudge' one of those things out of it's predicted trajectory.........( and I'm referring to the ones like Apophis that's expected to make a couple of close passes in the next...is it 23 years? ) For all we know, while it's somewhere way the hell out there....and off of our radar....it could get another couple of 'nudges' by some other asteroids......that we don't know about......altering it's course just enough that it COULD eventually have a direct impact on Earth. Interesting stuff.......
The scientists, have estimated there are over a million asteroids out in space that we know about, and each has a different orbit, and or an elliptical orbit. No one knows how many times any one of them has come closer to Earth at each orbit. So, any one of them could be on the one orbit that will put it on a collision course with Earth. It's just a matter of time.
This is not good news. If a meteor or asteroid several miles across is coming straight at us or in the sun's glare, we will never know what hit us. We didn't see this one coming; thank goodness it was small. Between asteroids, over population, and nuclear weapons, there is no way the human race is going to last another 100,000 years. Was nice while it lasted.
Luke! It's still nice! It's still lasting! Lighten up, man!
We may have several days left! We may have weeks! Who knows? We could go on for months!
Don't give up yet!
Smash up the rocks in the fire place, Ivan. We're going to sell them as meteorite fragments on Ebay.
Asteroids have to hit earth to do damage. Comets can pass by thousands of miles away and affect earth.
ok so a meteor hits Russia which has to be a large thud now noise does not just travel through the air-depending on the type of rock and how close to a continental plate the vibration from the hit would reverberate through the earth now the impact would be felt 360 around the area pushing wind out and sound through the earth
now you have a sink hole appear in florida -I would look at the plate formations and it's relation to the area in Russia remember the earth is a sphere so every line is curved so it would not be a straight line
just a thought on the sinkhole -it's getting bigger that means the soil has to go somewhere down which means a fissure opened up and the soil is draining into it
would the soil draining move much like a tornedo or water going down a plug
now florida is made up of canals and lakes which form grids for drainage as we are so close to see level-I live in lantana florida by palm beach
now some are man made but there will be some that are natural water ways which means these areas are prone to erosion meaning a weakness in the rock
are there any canals that link that are natural that cut the state in half
how big will the sink hole get-where's the soil going-and is there a fissure or lies on a plate that would be a weakness'
better to be careful then not
well, i can answer one of em for ya.
nope.
it moves like dirt falling into a hole.
One event has nothing to do with another. There have been over 500 sinkholes in Hillsborough County alone since the 1950's. They're a fact of nature, not meteor, in Florida.
I was about to book that tour to Chelyabinsk, but then I decided screw it, I'll just go to Vegas.
Why, cause Vegas has hookers? lol