Posted on 10/30/2004 7:38:57 AM PDT by blam
Astronomers chart asteroid threat
The team will be tracking asteroids with high-performance telescopes
A team of astronomers has stepped up a project which one day could help to preserve the Earth from annihilation. The team from Queen's University in Belfast is monitoring asteroids in space to see if they are on a collision course with our planet.
Their crucial data will be fed into an international programme for protecting the Earth from any future impact.
On average 30 to 40 Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) - asteroids or comets moving close to Earth - are found each month.
High-performance telescopes
More than 3,000 NEOs have now been found so far.
The team of astronomers at Queen's will be tracking these objects each week using large high-performance telescopes.
The UK Astrometry and Photometry Programme (UKAPP) for Near-Earth Objects, based at the university, is using the Faulkes Telescope North, which is physically located on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
At the end of this year they will also start using the twin Faulkes Telescope South at Siding Spring, Australia.
The telescopes' mirror size of 2m allows astronomers to see fainter NEOs.
Dr Alan Fitzsimmons, Reader in Observational Astrophysics at the university and the project's leader, told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster that it was likely that the Earth would be hit by an asteroid.
"In fact, we know that an asteroid will hit us at some point in the future.
"Of course, these things are out there and they just randomly hit us when the Earth gets in the way.
"However, generally it is not a 24-hour or even a 45-minute warning that we get. It is normally timescales of years or even decades."
Dr Fitzsimmons said that his project was acting as an "early, early warning system for the Earth".
Earth's atmosphere
He said that these long lead times gave scientists at the European Space Agency time to develop a strategy for dealing with an asteroid on a collision course.
Any object smaller than 50m across will not usually make it through the Earth's atmosphere intact so Dr Fitzsimmons is training his telescope on asteroids which are 50 to 100m across or larger.
"We are looking at a series of asteroids two or three times a week now with these telescopes in Hawaii and Australia," he said.
"There are 30 or 40 new objects discovered every month that we want to keep an eye on.
"So we only concentrate on the ones that do pass particularly close to us or are predicted to pass close in the next century or so."
Henny Penny
ping
hey, don't bother. nothing we can do anyway.
Revelation 8
"7The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
8The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, 9a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
10The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water-- 11the name of the star is Wormwood.[1] A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.
12The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.
13As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: "Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!"
Mmmm. Keep that research money rolling in.
Al Gore runs for Mayor of Calcutta.
OOOo, that would hurt if it hit me on the head.
bump
(snip quote from revelations)
Then why bother with the war on terror? Why bother with elections? Who cares about Bush or Kerry, hell it doesn't matter, if god's angels are just going to destroy the earth anyways.
What a bunch of defeatist religious wacko crap. Go crawl back in your cave.
Same strategy they always use:
Hello? America? Please please please save us!
One thing for sure - it will take an asteroid hit on the earth to change the course of this election from a Bush blowout!!!
One thing for sure - it will take an asteroid hit on the earth to change the course of this election from a Bush blowout!!!
There is a place deep inside of me that wouldn't mind seeing an asteroid hit France.
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