An asteroid [the size of a bus] just zipped past Earth closer than the moon's orbit.
Why is this important? Read excerpt from The Rise of Western Lawlessness (below) Asteroid 2021 TG14 passed by Earth at a distance of roughly 155,000 miles (250,000 km). That's well within the orbit of our moon, which orbits at an average distance of nearly 239,000 miles (385,000 km). (Space.com).
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Begin excerpt:
According to Dr. Sten Odenwald, “On any given day, the estimates
are that the Earth intercepts about 19,000 meteorites weighing over 3.5 ounces.”
“Scientists estimate that 44 tonnes (44,000 kilograms, about
48.5 tons) of meteoritic material falls on the Earth each day. Several meteors
per hour can usually be seen on any given night. Sometimes the number increases
dramatically—these events are termed meteor showers. Some occur annually, or at
regular intervals, as the Earth passes through the trail of dusty debris left
by comets. Meteor showers are usually named after the star or constellation
that is close to where the meteors appear in the sky. Perhaps the most famous
are the Perseids, which peak around the Twelfth of August every year. Each
Perseid meteor is a tiny piece of the comet Swift-Tuttle, which swings by the
Sun every 135 years. Other meteor showers and their associated comets are the Leonids
(Tempel-Tuttle), the Aquarids and Orionids (Halley), and the Taurids (Encke). Most
comet dust in meteor showers burns up in the atmosphere before reaching the
ground; some dust is captured by high-altitude aircraft and analyzed in NASA
laboratories. . . . More than 50,000 meteorites have been found on Earth. Of these,
99.8 percent come from asteroids.”
Figure 4. A close-up
image of the asteroid Ida taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA.
“Asteroids with a
diameter of 7 meters enter Earth’s atmosphere with as much kinetic energy as Little
Boy (the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, approximately 16 kilotons of TNT)
about every 5 years, but the air burst only generates a much reduced 5 kilotons
of TNT. These ordinarily explode in the upper atmosphere, and most or all of
the solids are vaporized. Objects with a diameter of roughly 50 m (164 ft)
strike Earth approximately once every thousand years, producing explosions
comparable to the one known to have detonated roughly 8.5 kilometers (28,000 ft)
above Tunguska in 1908.”
Figure 5. Meteor
over Chelyabinsk on February 15, 2013. This very bright fireball is also known
as a superbolide.
“On February 14, 2013 a 10,000 ton meteor about 17-meters in
diameter entered Earth’s atmosphere over Russia traveling at 40,000 mph (18
km/s). It detonated in the air over the town of Chelyabinsk and the explosion
caused major damage to the town injuring 1,000 people. The people were hurt by
flying glass when the windows of over 3000 buildings blew out over an area of
about 1000 km2. Unlike the famous Tunguska Event of 1908 which blew down 80
million trees and was not ‘discovered’ for many decades afterwards, the
Chelyabinsk Meteor was extensively videoed by hundreds of dash-cams and cell
phones as it happened. Studies of thousands of meteor sightings by scientists
can now tell us just how often asteroids of 4-meters or larger enter Earth’s
atmosphere. About two of these events happen each year over the entire surface
area of Earth.”
Professor S.A. Nelson of Tulane University has articulated
the dangers presented by incoming astrological bodies. Below are some excerpts
from his summary titled, “Meteorites, Impacts, & Mass Extinction.”
Although the Chelyabinsk meteorite probably weighed about
12,000–13,000 metric tonnes, and measured 17 to 20 m in diameter before it
exploded, scientists were quick to point out that it was very small compared to
other objects that could potentially hit the earth. The explosion released
energy estimated at about 500 kilotons of TNT (about 20 to 30 times more energy
than the Hiroshima atomic bomb). The event brought to the world’s attention the
very real hazards associated with the impact of objects from outer space.
The impact of a space object with a size greater than about 1
km would be expected to be felt over the entire surface of the Earth. Smaller
objects would certainly destroy the ecosystem in the vicinity of the impact,
similar to the effects of a volcanic eruption. Larger impacts could have a
worldwide effect on life on the Earth. We will here first consider the possible
effects of an impact, and then discuss how impacts may have resulted in mass
extinction of species on the Earth in the past.
Regional and Global
Effects
Again, we as humans have no firsthand knowledge of what the
effects of an impact of a large meteorite (> 1 km in size) or comet would
be. Still, calculations can be made and scaled experiments can be conducted to
estimate the effects. The general consensus is summarized here.
Massive earthquake—up to Richter Magnitude 13, and numerous
large magnitude aftershocks would result from the impact of a large object with
the Earth.
The large quantities of dust put into the atmosphere would
block incoming solar radiation. The dust could take months to settle back to
the surface. Meanwhile, the Earth would be in a state of continual darkness,
and temperatures would drop throughout the world, generating global winter like
conditions. A similar effect has been postulated for the aftermath of a nuclear
war (termed a nuclear winter). Blockage of solar radiation would also diminish
the ability of photosynthetic organisms, like plants, to photosynthesize. Since
photosynthetic organisms are the base of the food chain, this would seriously
disrupt all ecosystems.
Widespread wildfires ignited by radiation from the fireball
as the object passed through the atmosphere would be generated. Smoke from
these fires would further block solar radiation to enhance the cooling effect
and further disrupt photosynthesis.
If the impact occurred in an ocean, a large steam cloud would
be produced by the sudden evaporation of the seawater. This water vapor and CO2
would remain in the atmosphere long after the dust settles. Both of these gases
are greenhouse gases which scatter solar radiation and create a warming effect.
Thus, after the initial global cooling, the atmosphere would undergo global
warming for many years after the impact.
Also, if the impact occurred in an ocean, a giant tsunami
would be generated. For a ten km-diameter object, the leading edge would hit
the seafloor of the deep ocean basins before the top of the object had reached
sea level. The tsunami from such an impact is estimated to produce waves from one
to three km high. These could easily flood the interior of continents.
Large amounts of nitrogen oxides would result from combining nitrogen
and oxygen in the atmosphere due to the shock produced by the impact. These
nitrogen oxides would combine with water in the atmosphere to produce nitric
acid which would fall back to the surface as acid rain, resulting in the
acidification of surface waters.
The Geologic Record of
Mass Extinction
It has long been known that extinction of large percentages
families or species of organisms have occurred at specific times in the history
of our planet. Among the mechanisms that have been suggested to have caused
these mass extinctions have been large volcanic eruptions, changes in climatic
conditions, changes in sea level, and, more recently, meteorite impacts.
Risk—It is estimated that in any given year the odds that you
will die from an impact of an asteroid or comet are between 1 in 3,000 and 1 in
250,000. . . . Although this seems like long odds, you have about the [the same
odds] of dying from other natural disasters likes floods and tornadoes. In fact
the odds of dying from an impact event are much better than the odds of winning
the Powerball lottery.
A 400 meter asteroid striking the earth would produce a
destructive force of 2,800 megatons of TNT. On November 8, 2011, the 400 meter
asteroid designated (308635) 2005 YU55 passed within the moon’s orbit of the
earth. Purdue
University has calculated that a 400 meter asteroid will only strike the
earth about once every 100,000 years. The
problem is that we naturally assume the interval of time between strikes starts
from the time we read the data. No
one knows where in time their measurements should begin. Neither does anyone
know how evenly spaced throughout time certain sized asteroids might make their
arrival. Furthermore, there are so many known and unknown celestial objects out
there, we simply have no assurance that there is any great length of time
between these age-ending collisions.
Figure 6. Plot of
orbits of known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (size over 460 feet (140 m) and
passing within 4.7 million miles (7.6×106 km) of Earth’s orbit) as of early
2013.
In 2002 an asteroid between 50 and 120 meters passed between
the moon and the earth. Two asteroids in 2012, and one in 2013, all in the
35-45 meter range, passed through this same corridor. According to the
scientists’ calculations, asteroids of this size enter the earth’s atmosphere about
once every 300 years. But the reality is that we only went 106 years, from 1908
to 2015 to experience two massive explosions from asteroids of this size. And
who knows how many more entered uninhabited areas of the planet during that
same period.
Through advanced telescopes astronomers have gotten a much
better picture of all that is “out there”. The earth is moving around the sun
at 67,000 MPH. Our solar system is moving through the galaxy at 490,000 MPH. And
the galaxy appears to be traveling through space at 2,236,936,290 MPH. What
could possibly go wrong? The data which astronomers have obtained has not set
the scientific community at ease about the possibility of another extinction
event. Quite the contrary. Canada, Europe, and the United States have begun to scramble
to prevent the next extinction event. The U.S. Congress passed, in 2005, The National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Authorization Act, containing the
following directive:
The U.S. Congress
has declared that the general welfare and security of the United States require
that the unique competence of NASA be directed to detecting, tracking,
cataloguing, and characterizing near-Earth asteroids and comets in order to
provide warning and mitigation of the potential hazard of such near-Earth objects
to the Earth. The NASA Administrator shall plan, develop, and implement a
Near-Earth Object Survey program to detect, track, catalogue, and characterize
the physical characteristics of near- Earth objects equal to or greater than
140 meters in diameter in order to assess the threat of such near-Earth objects
to the Earth. It shall be the goal of the Survey program to achieve 90%
completion of its near-Earth object catalogue (based on statistically predicted
populations of near-Earth objects) within 15 years after the date of enactment
of this Act. The NASA Administrator shall transmit to Congress not later than 1
year after the date of enactment of this Act an initial report that provides
the following: (A) An analysis of possible alternatives that NASA may employ to
carry out the Survey program, including ground-based and space-based
alternatives with technical descriptions. (B) A recommended option and proposed
budget to carry out the Survey program pursuant to the recommended option. (C)
Analysis of possible alternatives that NASA could employ to divert an object on
a likely collision course with Earth.
.JPG "C. W. Steinle")
