Posted on 06/30/2019 2:07:20 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Sunday is International Asteroid Day, commemorating the Earth's largest recorded asteroid impact while focusing on the real danger of asteroids that could collide with Earth.
In 1908, a powerful asteroid struck the Podkamennaya Tunguska River area in a remote Siberian forest of Russia.
Six years ago, an asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere over Chelyabinsk, Russia. It exploded in the air, releasing 20 to 30 times more energy than that of the first atomic bombs and generating brightness greater than the sun. It damaged more than 7,000 buildings and injured more than 1,000 people. The shock wave broke windows 58 miles away.
And it explains why astronomers and the Asteroid Day group want people to be aware.
NASA and other space organizations around the world are focused on detecting the threat of near-Earth objects or NEOs, asteroids and comets whose orbits place them within 30 million miles of Earth.
NASA's NEO program funds and relies on detection and tracking efforts from observatories across the country and in space and collaborates with observatories around the world.
Researchers modeled the Tunguska and Chelyabinsk events on computers to understand how damage can occur from asteroids entering our atmosphere, even when they break apart in the air.
The analysis provided a promising discovery. Four computer models arrived at a similar picture of what happened at Tunguska. The asteroid was probably rocky, not icy, and between 164 and 262 feet across, and entered our atmosphere at 34,000 miles per hour. This created the energy equivalent to the Mount St. Helens volcanic eruption in 1980, between 6 and 9 miles above the ground.
The researchers found that the interval between such devastating potential asteroid impacts on Earth is one of millenia, not centuries, based on the known asteroid population.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
LOL! Seriously though, Russia has 12 time zones! Imagine if they had Daylight Savings Time like we do. Man, would that screw things up.
No, but my dad does.
Thanks BenLurkin. It sez here that Hostess Brands are currently owned by private equity firms Apollo Global Management. *That's* what's known as a loony nonsequitur -- although asteroids are just remnants or fragments of comets, which are generally described as Sno Balls.
Well played.
L
The earth was saved before. Here is a short documentary showing how.
Asteroid Through Earth
https://youtu.be/tb1fwG9MPA0?t=127
...especially when falling from the sky!
When they fall from the sky, aren't they called flight attendants now?
One look at the map and you realize how insane it was for Hitler to launch his armies across that vastness.
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.
