Thanks 2ndDivisionVet. Nice bunch of concurrent discussions here.
|
Posted on 02/15/2013 11:28:48 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Not to pick nits but it never hit the ground. It was much like the latest event this week. It blew up at high altitude and converted all it's kinetic energy into a blast wave which devastated hundreds of square miles. There was no impact crater, no radiation, and no debris were ever found. It happened to be in an extremely remote area with a very small and dispersed population so there were no human casualties. The major damage was a huge forest laid low like a giant crop circle with all the fallen trees pointing away from ground zero. The blast was estimated to have been in the 50 megaton range.
Yes that was a big blast but it was around 1906 and hasn't repeated since. The latest one was in the 20 kiloton range, much much smaller and those two do not seem to mark a trend being over 100 years apart.
Chances are we'll we more of these events because now we have observational tools which weren't available even 50 years ago. Who knows how many medium to large rocks have fallen into the oceans unnoticed?
Regards,
GtG
“Hot Fudge Sundae” a la Niven/ Pournelle
Well I never thought this quite through I guess.
thank you for the fascinating information.
And I am waving back to you GTG!
|
The destroyer displaces 10,000 tons of water, which has a lower density than most of the asteroid (Earth’s density is about 4 times that of Jupiter, for example).
Well put.
The near side is ‘whooped’ too — it’s just that there are several newer large impact craters which refaced most of it. By contrast, the surface of Mars is divided into a Hemisphere of Craters and the Opposite Hemisphere, which is apparently due to a single large impact event which contributed a lot of ejecta craters. These two hemispheres are not the same as N-S or E-W hemispheres, and don’t match up with the Martian equator.
And yes, the Moon does in fact rotate, otherwise it *wouldn’t* show the same face, obviously — it has to rotate during its orbit or we’d see the entire surface at some point. The Moon got tidally locked because of the tidal transfer of momentum from Moon to Earth; the same transfer takes place in the other direction, IOW the Earth’s rotation slows just a little more every year and pushes the Moon away.
Moon’s Youngest Crater Discovered [1953]
BBC | 12-20-2002
Posted on 12/19/2002 7:42:01 PM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/809572/posts
A Celestial Collision
Alaska Science Forum | February 10, 1983 | Larry Gedney
Posted on 09/15/2004 9:04:28 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1216757/posts
Objects as small as this one come up a few miles short during terminal descent, so they’re not being actively looked for, although they are occasionally collaterally found. The asteroid which missed on the same day was about three times the diameter, which is approximately 3 times in each dimension, or 27 times the size (and probably the mass). Something about that size produced the 3/4 mile wide Barringer Crater in Arizona circa 50K years ago.
re deflection:
Astronomy Picture of the Day — Gravitational Tractor
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2990516/posts
At 40,000 mph had that asteroid missed the earth it wasn’t coming back.
It was a really large asteroid before someone smeared “Preperation A” on it.
That little guy waving up at you?
That was me...
Regards,
Gandalf
PS I "borrowed" the graphic from the FreeRepublic fund drive, it's just a copy so I don't think it will be missed...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
