Send your sntries to: Void where prohibited. No actual city will be sent into space. Which is too damned bad. |
Posted on 05/15/2004 4:11:22 PM PDT by missyme
On Sept. 29, 2004 an asteroid the size of a small city will make the closest known pass of such a very large space rock anytime this century. Computer model based on radar data reveals different views of Toutatis. Note the shallow craters, linear ridges and a thin "neck" between two lobes. The neck my have been chipped away by impacts, or perhaps the lobes came together in a gentle collision.
While not dangerous for now, asteroid Toutatis is incredibly strange. And scientists are quite familiar with it, having bounced radar off the tumbling stone on previous flybys to generate computer renderings of its weird shape and movement.
Toutatis looks something like a dumbbell hurtling awkwardly through space. It has a crazy rotation that makes normal days impossible. Scientists can't explain the shape or the spin, but they're eager to learn more in September when, during the close pass, even backyard skywatchers will be able to spot the asteroid.
Well known path
The orbit of Toutatis is pinned down with better precision than any other large asteroid known to cross Earth's orbit. Toutatis' 4-year trek around the Sun ranges from just inside the Earth's path out to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid visits us every four years.
This fall, it will zoom by our planet within a million miles, or about four times the distance to the Moon.
That's close by cosmic standards for an object that could cause global devastation. Toutatis hasn't been so near since the year 1353 and won't be that close again until 2562, NASA scientists have calculated. No other asteroid so large is known to have come so close in the past, though accurate tracking of space rocks is a fairly recent, high-tech skill that still leaves wide margins of error for many objects.
Toutatis is about 2.9 miles long and 1.5 miles wide (4.6 by 2.4 kilometers). Any other near-Earth asteroid as big as Toutatis would almost surely be spotted decades or centuries before any possible impact. OTHER PREDICTIONS FOR THIS FALL
A Massive Earthquake to hit California late September
Late 2004: Arnie Stanton noted on 1997-SEP-16 that that
evening was the fourth Jewish festival since 1996-APR-3 on which a lunar eclipse occurred. 5 He quotes Luke 21:25-26 which mentions "signs in the sun, in the moon and in the stars and on the earth distress of nations" He believes that "these recent lunar eclipses are the last known astronomical signs that will precede a 7 year (360 day/year) countdown to Armageddon/Christ's return to the Earth." He expects that Christ's return will occur within a few months of 2004-SEP-29 when Asteroid Toutatis will make a very close approach to the Earth - perhaps even a collision!
Victor Hopchenk, and Orthodox Christian, has prophesized that by God's "wish and compassion", an asteroid will hit Los Angeles, CA Sept 2004
I am beginning to think maybe I should go back to Florida for the fall...weird predictions for California!
TOUTATIS ONE OF THE STRANGEST OBJECTS IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Two NASA-sponsored scientists studying the Earth-crossing asteroid 4179 Toutatis with radio telescopes have found it to be one of the strangest objects in the solar system, with a highly irregular shape and an extraordinarily complex "tumbling" rotation.
Both its shape and rotation are thought to be the outcome of a history of violent collisions. A detailed description of the asteroid and its observed rotation is reported in this week's issue of the journal "Science," by Drs. Scott Hudson of Washington State University and Steven Ostro of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA.
I've passed a couple stones and, believe me, it's no picnic.
Send your sntries to: Void where prohibited. No actual city will be sent into space. Which is too damned bad. |
How about 2 Fallujah and San Fran....
How quickly the ex-Floridians forget -- ha ha
EXcellent ideas!
EXcellent ideas!
Your right, I guess I will just take my chances here with earthquake and asteroid prediction scares...LOL
It looks like Maui in the lower left and upper right pic!
(...and a Hippo in the other two ;-)
I'm glad I could talk you down ;-)
How would that affect the election?
I did not not need alot of convincing..:-) but thanks for bringing me back to my senses....
I guess it would knock out all the Hollywood Liberals in a flash...
Another Apocalypse post, ya gotta love 'em.
Sounds good, but we'd only be able to enjoy it for a few minutes.
Sometimes it hurts when you pass a stone that large. ;-)
I guess a few minutes is better than no minutes:0
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Let's start the contest now! Which city shall we put on it? Fallujah? Beijing? San Francisco?