Speculation Beta Taurid meteor shower may conceal killer asteroids

news.com.au ^ | 5/16/19 | Jamie Seidel

[LibWhacker]

Every year, Earth passes through the tail of the comet Encke - twice. This isn’t unusual. We regularly cross cometary trails of ice and dust. But this one may be different.

It could have been the source of the dramatic 1908 Tunguska airburst which flattened hundreds of square kilometres of Russian forest. The 45m wide comet fragment struck on June 30, at the height of the Beta Taurid shower.

Was it, in fact, a part of that shower?

Astronomer and science advocate Dr Phil Plait says it is possible. Calculations of its trajectory indicate the Tunguska object came from the same patch of sky.

But comet trails are usually just scatterings of dust and debris, rarely bigger than a pebble.

So what makes that belonging to comet Encke different?

Dr Plait says there is an idea being examined by astronomers that the gravitational influence of Jupiter may be having a particular effect on its trail. A photo of flattened trees taken by Leonid Kulik on a 1927 expedition to Tunguska, which was hit by a mysterious fireball from the sky in 1908.

Usually, comet debris simply slowly drift away.

But in Encke’s case, Jupiter could be rolling its offcasts into a tighter, more compact clump - the Taurid Swarm.

[PIF]

This same swarm is believed to have been the origin of the one mile diameter rock that ended the Ice Age and brought on the Younger Dryas age - the coldest recent age.

[jmacusa]

We’re DOOMED!. (kinda doubt it, though.)

[dp0622]

It’s because our life spans are so laughably short that we are likely not doomed.

Not because something devastating won’t happen again.

I don’t know if the dot of even 90 year would been on a chart comparing it to the earth’s age.

[jmacusa]

90 wouldn't even be a thought. Seriously. The dinosaurs lived on the Earth for 135 million years. In geological time that's barely five minutes. Hominids and modern humans have been around some five million years, that would would be about thirty seconds.

[dp0622]

Damn.

Yet in our minds (or at least mine) we are the end all and be all and the whole universe will disappear when we/I die.

Well it will for me when I die!! lol!

[Waverunner]

Did you say Doom..And the earth being destroyed..

[jmacusa]

Wait, what... but.. but AOC said we have 12 years! Maybe, maybe she’s like this hot superhero babe who’s gonna like save us all from the bad dudes, ya know? Like she wears this hot mini skirt outfit with a cape and she fly’s ‘n’ stuff ‘n’ she can like pick up buildings ‘n’ throw them at bad guys ‘n’ stuff....

[Political Junkie Too]

It used to be that stories like this meant a new sci-fi movie was coming out soon.

-PJ

[Stentor]

Maybe, maybe she’s like this hot superhero babe...

She's have to be hot to begin with. She's a quasi butterface at best.

[Bratch]

[jmacusa]

COOL!! We’re SAVED! Yeah!! I love you AOC, you’re so cool ‘n’ like a totally hot babe ‘n’ stuff!

[jmacusa]

Oh wow man, you’re like a totlal drag ‘n’ stuff.. like...’c’mon just like pretend she’s hot,ok?

[MikelTackNailer]

"Killer asteroids? I've got this shark oil stuff
in my bathroom cabinet that...what!?

"...never mind."

Seriously, that lunar telescope project
is looking better all the time.

[Waverunner]

The Dem's had one of those...

[Waverunner]

Why stop with a lunar telescope, we need one further out, and in lower gravity, like orbiting the 7th planet.
That's right lets put a telescope on the rings around Uranus.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks LibWhacker.

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[BenLurkin]

https://meteoriteclub.com/meteorite-news/increased-fireball-rate-possibly-linked-to-2019-taurid-meteor-swarm/

[BenLurkin]

[SunkenCiv]

Fireball? Probably just Steve Zodiac and Venus Star.