Has anyone seen this in the news? Tunguska-2?
1 posted on
10/05/2002 12:02:00 PM PDT by
blam
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To: blam
US general fears asteroid explosion could trigger nuclear war A high-ranking US military official has warned it's possible a stray asteroid could trigger atomic war.
Air Force Brigadier General Simon P. Worden voiced his fears to members of a House Science sub-committee.
General Worden is deputy director for operations of the US Strategic Command.
He said about 30 times a year space rock smashes into the atmosphere and explodes, releasing energy equal to that of an atomic bomb.
He believes there is a chance the explosions could be mistaken for a nuclear attack.
The United States has satellite instruments that determine within a minute if the explosion is a nuclear weapon or a natural explosion from an asteroid.
But General Worden says no other countries have such technology and without it, some could conclude they have come under attack.
He cited an example of an asteroid explosion in August, while Pakistan and India were at full alert over Kashmir.
He said a few weeks before US satellites detected an atmospheric flash over the Mediterranean that indicated "an energy release comparable to the Hiroshima burst.
"The resulting panic in the nuclear-armed and hair-triggered opposing forces could have been the spark that ignited a nuclear horror we have avoided for over a half-century," the general said.
Story filed: 08:38 Friday 4th October 2002
2 posted on
10/05/2002 12:05:55 PM PDT by
blam
To: blam
A large meteorite is thought to have smashed into a forest in a remote area of Russia. Why can't these damn things ever hit somewhere like Mecca?
3 posted on
10/05/2002 12:07:03 PM PDT by
Mulder
To: blam
This is interesting. A piece of comet hit Siberia in 1908. It exploded with such force that is flattened miles of forest. I've seen recent pictures that are pretty interesting.
To: blam
No, but yesterday one of the news issues was the possible effects of an asteroid hit. They said America can pretty much know when one is comming, but not 3rd world countries. They might think they have been hit by a bomb instead.
Must be the US knew it was comming, and maybe Russia too. Or we warned Russia.
Anyway, the concern was if it were to hit, say, Iraq, India or Iran. They'd think they were at war.
To: RadioAstronomer; longshadow; PatrickHenry
Boom!
6 posted on
10/05/2002 12:10:23 PM PDT by
Aracelis
To: blam
"At least 30 times a year, asteroids smash into the Earth's atmosphere and explode with the force of a nuclear bomb." Are there any astronomers in our ranks? This stat seems very high.
I would think that if 30 astronds hit with this sort of impact each year that a city would have disappeared by now.
To: blam
Residents in the town of Bodaibo, in the Irkutsk region of Siberia, saw a large luminous body fall from the sky. They say the impact caused the ground to shake and made a sound like thunder. Jerrold Nadler?
14 posted on
10/05/2002 12:17:48 PM PDT by
bootless
To: blam
town of Bodaibo, in the Irkutsk region of Siberia, Life isn't hard enough there without the sky falling? Those poor people must be scared out of their wits. I hope they don't blame it on GWB, but they probably will. Everything in the world and elsewhere is his fault, doncha know.
To: blam
So which is it? An asteroid, or a meteorite?
To: blam; All
I keep telling you guys, God throws rocks!
30 posted on
10/05/2002 12:30:49 PM PDT by
CyberAnt
To: blam
I'm a little skeptical of this "nuclear-sized impact" 30 times a year ....
I've been reading about these since hte early 60's and have neever seen that number before.....
To: blam
Oh, kewl! Feels like 1908 all over again. Did they see that they missed and fired another shot? Hmmmm. We could put it on a range ring--OK, range sphere if we allow for the light propagation speed. 94 years since 1908, divide by two for the one-way distance. Somebody 47 light years away is shooting at Siberia.
To: blam
One point... An asteroid is a larger object than a meteor. Meteorites routinely hit Earth, but large events seldom occur in a person's lifetime. However, given the larger scope of human development in our lifetimes, chances are increasing that meteorities could cause problems. The Tunguska event has been theorized to be either cometary debris or a meteorite. Meteor strikes should have created substantial debris and crating. If memory serves, scientists were unable to locate an impact site. Thus, the cometary explanation (being ice and methane) surfaced.
To: blam
This omen should not flim-flam us
I read it first in Nostradamus.
Leni
To: blam
Here is a satellite picture of a cloud that formed over Greenland after a meteor (asteroid) hit in 1997
GOES-8 visible image on 9 December 1997
The GOES-EAST visible image at 1445 UTC gives a nice view of a distinct high cloud over southern Greenland near local noon: 
corresponding coastline map:
The "+" marks the reported impact point at 61.4N, 44.4W. Latitude and longitude lines are sketched at 2 degree intervals, based on the reported GOES earth-navigation. At this time, the navigated map's coastlines fall 3 pixels south and one pixel west of the observed coastlines, within the GOES earth-navigation error tolerances of 4 visible pixels.
Unfortunately, Greenland is too dark in December to provide visible images during the other GOES-8 observation times, such as 1145 and 1745 UTC.
GOES-8 infrared images on 9 December 1997
Fortunately, Greenland can be seen every three hours in the GOES-8 thermal infrared channel ("I04", or Imager channel 4 at 11 microns) with lower resolution: 
GIF animation
coastline map ("+" marks impact point)
0245 UTC (local midnight)
0545 UTC
0845 UTC (30 minutes after impact)
1145 UTC
1445 UTC (local noon)
1745 UTC
2045 UTC
2345 UTC
A cold, high cloud appears over southeastern Greenland at 0845 UTC, 30 minutes after the reported impact, with faint hints of cloud formation along the center ridge of the southern Greenland ice cap at 0545 UTC.
48 posted on
10/05/2002 12:52:11 PM PDT by
Lokibob
To: blam
Siberia seems to be a magnet for these things. They're always blowing, flattening forests, blasting out craters.
To: blam
At least 30 times a year, asteroids smash into the Earth's atmosphere and explode with the force of a nuclear bomb. These smaller asteroids, between 200 and 500 metres wide, could potentially demolish a city with a direct hit or cause tsunamis - giant waves - capable of wiping out entire coastal areas if they land in the ocean.
The writer must mean (much smaller) meteors, not asteroids. If the earth got hit by 30 asteroids, 200 to 500 meters in diameter, every year there'd be nothing left of the planet. The meteorite that made Meteor Crater in Arizona was only 150 feet across and it made an impact crater 700 feet deep and 4000 feet across. Asteroids 600 to 1500 feet in diameter would cause unimaginable devastation. I'm afraid the reporter wrote this story after a three-martini lunch (either that or an editor mixed and matched a few paragraphs here).
52 posted on
10/05/2002 1:05:12 PM PDT by
DentsRun
To: blam
>>...a large luminous body fall from the sky...<<
"LOOK OUT BELOW!!!!"
To: blam
"Large luminous body", anyone seen Teddy Kennedy lately?
78 posted on
10/05/2002 2:24:04 PM PDT by
exnavy
To: blam
Why are there no photographs or images of the impact area?
Has anyone seen the area of impact on the news or internet?
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