Re: [meteorite-list] Supergiant Asteroid Impact
Here is a great video submitted to the List in March by Bill Hall that may answer your question... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zvCUmeoHpw Best regards, Greg Greg Hupe The Hupe Collection NaturesVault (eBay) gmh...@htn.net www.LunarRock.com IMCA 3163 Click here for my current eBay auctions: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZnaturesvault - Original Message - From: Meteorites USA e...@meteoritesusa.com To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 5:11 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Supergiant Asteroid Impact Increased discovery of NEOs (NEA) over time... http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/stats/ This poses yet another not so obvious question. Can Moore's law (or something similar) predict the rate of discovery based on the technological advancement of the human species as a whole? Don't forget to calculate population growth as well... World USA Population clock: http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html We are advancing as a species faster than ever before in the history of human kind. 100 years ago it took months to travel across the world, and we did not have TV, cell phones,and of course the internet. Today we can travel to any place on the planet in less than 12 hours and access information with the click of a mouse. We can talk to another human on the opposite side of the world with little effort and see what's happening LIVE in every continent via satellite communication. As for exploration, before the next decade is out we might even put a human being on Mars, and who knows what other scientific discoveries will be made after that. We're living in a very exciting time. We're in the midst of a superfast evolutionary change as a species. Where are we going next? Maybe nowhere if an asteroid slams into us... Meteorites USA wrote: Article about a supergiant asteroid shutting down Mars's magnetic field. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/090511-mars-asteroid.html This raises the question that seems to be getting bigger and bigger. What would such an impact do to Earth? Would we be wiped out by the impact, severe weather, nuclear winter, earthquakes, tsunamis or by the atmosphere withering away by the solar winds? Or would humans be able to survive underground in manufactured ecosystems capable of supporting life? What if a supergiant asteroid slammed our planet tomorrow? Who would be sequestered away deep in the safe rooms underground? The question is not whether we are prepared -as we are not- the question is simply when will we find a solution to this obvious hazard. We're finding more asteroids all the time. It's becoming more mainstream, and public awareness is growing. Eventually we will find one that is on a collision course with Earth. When taking into account the increased awareness, advances in technology, and population increasing over time, I would predict a major discovery in less than 5 years. Now, this is not to say that an asteroid will hit in 5 years, but at the rate of the increase of awareness the likelihood that an amateur astronomer or asteroid hunter will find something increases exponentially over time. Not to mention NASA's NEO Project and other governmental and educational asteroid hunting programs. We've all heard the phrase It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. when describing the likelihood of an asteroid impacting Earth. Well I would say you have to believe that this increase in knowledge and discovery is directly related to the increase in technological advancement coupled with a population increase. As we are able to see more we will learn more faster. __ http://www.meteoritecentral.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ http://www.meteoritecentral.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Supergiant Asteroid Impact
Hi, Super-Impactors, A 2000-mile crater is No Big Whoop. It requires only a 375-to-400 kilometer asteroid if it's a dense rocky body and a 240-kilometer asteroid if an iron (but an iron that size is unlikely). The little bitty Moon has a 2000-mile crater (we call'em basins because anything that big floods with lava afterwards). Scaling for target size and gravitational focusing effects, the Earth should have (or should have had) EIGHTEEN 2000-mile craters. To make one, it takes a 400-kilometer asteroid on a gentle 20 km/s impact. But if it was a 28 km/s impact, it would only need to be a 250-kilometer asteroid. And if it was a long-period comet at right angles and top speed, it wouldn't have to be any bigger than the dozen or so biggest comets of the last two centuries. The depth of the initial crater would be 275 miles! It soon collapses and fills with molten planet, leaving a two-mile deep basin 2000 miles across. The safe place to be is exactly halfway around the planet, of course. Even there, you will be rained on by rock vapor as it condenses. The pressure peak of the shock wave will be about 225 pounds per sq. in. or 15 times normal pressure. The wind of the shock wave will be about 2200 mph, Mach Three... halfway around the planet. The hydrothermal vent bacteria will be just fine, though, unless it lands on them. If you're interested in Really Big impacts, I suggest a book called Comets and the Origin and Evolution if Life, which contains a paper by Zahnle and Sleep on larger impacts. They model one big enough to boil the oceans away, one big enough to melt the entire mantle, one big enough to give the Earth a long-term atmosphere of rock vapor. Almost every trace of such impacts, from initial accretion through the Late Bombardment, are gone. It's amazing what Mother Earth can do with her tectonic make-up. The odds of such an impact now (meaning in the last half-billion years) are small... but not impossible by any means. Sterling K. Webb - Original Message - From: Darren Garrison cyna...@charter.net To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 5:15 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Supergiant Asteroid Impact On Mon, 11 May 2009 13:01:28 -0700, you wrote: This raises the question that seems to be getting bigger and bigger. What would such an impact do to Earth? An impact big enough to make a 2,000 mile crater? Think the oceans boiled away to their floors, everything bigger than a hydrothermal vent bacterium killed instantly, and maybe them, too. __ http://www.meteoritecentral.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ http://www.meteoritecentral.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Supergiant Asteroid Impact
Article about a supergiant asteroid shutting down Mars's magnetic field. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/090511-mars-asteroid.html This raises the question that seems to be getting bigger and bigger. What would such an impact do to Earth? Would we be wiped out by the impact, severe weather, nuclear winter, earthquakes, tsunamis or by the atmosphere withering away by the solar winds? Or would humans be able to survive underground in manufactured ecosystems capable of supporting life? What if a supergiant asteroid slammed our planet tomorrow? Who would be sequestered away deep in the safe rooms underground? The question is not whether we are prepared -as we are not- the question is simply when will we find a solution to this obvious hazard. We're finding more asteroids all the time. It's becoming more mainstream, and public awareness is growing. Eventually we will find one that is on a collision course with Earth. When taking into account the increased awareness, advances in technology, and population increasing over time, I would predict a major discovery in less than 5 years. Now, this is not to say that an asteroid will hit in 5 years, but at the rate of the increase of awareness the likelihood that an amateur astronomer or asteroid hunter will find something increases exponentially over time. Not to mention NASA's NEO Project and other governmental and educational asteroid hunting programs. We've all heard the phrase It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. when describing the likelihood of an asteroid impacting Earth. Well I would say you have to believe that this increase in knowledge and discovery is directly related to the increase in technological advancement coupled with a population increase. As we are able to see more we will learn more faster. -- Regards, Eric Wichman Meteorites USA http://www.meteoritesusa.com 904-236-5394 __ http://www.meteoritecentral.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Supergiant Asteroid Impact
Increased discovery of NEOs (NEA) over time... http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/stats/ This poses yet another not so obvious question. Can Moore's law (or something similar) predict the rate of discovery based on the technological advancement of the human species as a whole? Don't forget to calculate population growth as well... World USA Population clock: http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html We are advancing as a species faster than ever before in the history of human kind. 100 years ago it took months to travel across the world, and we did not have TV, cell phones,and of course the internet. Today we can travel to any place on the planet in less than 12 hours and access information with the click of a mouse. We can talk to another human on the opposite side of the world with little effort and see what's happening LIVE in every continent via satellite communication. As for exploration, before the next decade is out we might even put a human being on Mars, and who knows what other scientific discoveries will be made after that. We're living in a very exciting time. We're in the midst of a superfast evolutionary change as a species. Where are we going next? Maybe nowhere if an asteroid slams into us... Meteorites USA wrote: Article about a supergiant asteroid shutting down Mars's magnetic field. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/090511-mars-asteroid.html This raises the question that seems to be getting bigger and bigger. What would such an impact do to Earth? Would we be wiped out by the impact, severe weather, nuclear winter, earthquakes, tsunamis or by the atmosphere withering away by the solar winds? Or would humans be able to survive underground in manufactured ecosystems capable of supporting life? What if a supergiant asteroid slammed our planet tomorrow? Who would be sequestered away deep in the safe rooms underground? The question is not whether we are prepared -as we are not- the question is simply when will we find a solution to this obvious hazard. We're finding more asteroids all the time. It's becoming more mainstream, and public awareness is growing. Eventually we will find one that is on a collision course with Earth. When taking into account the increased awareness, advances in technology, and population increasing over time, I would predict a major discovery in less than 5 years. Now, this is not to say that an asteroid will hit in 5 years, but at the rate of the increase of awareness the likelihood that an amateur astronomer or asteroid hunter will find something increases exponentially over time. Not to mention NASA's NEO Project and other governmental and educational asteroid hunting programs. We've all heard the phrase It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. when describing the likelihood of an asteroid impacting Earth. Well I would say you have to believe that this increase in knowledge and discovery is directly related to the increase in technological advancement coupled with a population increase. As we are able to see more we will learn more faster. __ http://www.meteoritecentral.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Supergiant Asteroid Impact
On Mon, 11 May 2009 13:01:28 -0700, you wrote: This raises the question that seems to be getting bigger and bigger. What would such an impact do to Earth? An impact big enough to make a 2,000 mile crater? Think the oceans boiled away to their floors, everything bigger than a hydrothermal vent bacterium killed instantly, and maybe them, too. __ http://www.meteoritecentral.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
