... That’s one suggestion for building telescopes to find a city-smashing asteroid before it finds us. Asteroids are space rocks, which can range from boulder sized up to chunks of rock nearly 1,000 kilometers (621 miles across). Most of them orbit between Mars and Jupiter. A fleet of pint-sized satellites orbiting the sun could track down the majority of asteroids that threaten Earth's safety. Or that’s what a team of scientists now proposes. Others aren’t so sure. This plan has holes big enough to drive an asteroid through, some scientists charge. The U.S. Congress directed NASA, the nation’s space agency, to identify 90 percent of all asteroids wider than 140 meters (roughly 460 feet). Congress set a deadline of 2020. The space agency could meet the first goal using five miniature observatories, say scientists on a team that includes Michael Shao. He’s an astrophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. All it would take, his group says, is to space the satellites out evenly just inside the orbit of Venus. Some astronomers have looked into building and launching a single space telescope, tasked with keeping its eye out for asteroids. Building it could take eight to 10 years and cost about half a billion dollars. But those five mini telescopes could do the same thing, Shao’s group proposed online March 29 on arXiv.org. Once launched, they could find all the high-risk asteroids in perhaps three years — and for just one-tenth a big telescope's cost...
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...Abstract Earth has been under the threat of nearby asteroids since its creation. In the past decade or so there have been some instances that have gain the attention of the higher ups to do something to combat this treat but it isn’t enough. For where they lack the are some people willing to step to the plate to make life on the wonderful planet safe from these planetary disaster bringers. Early morning of the 15th of February 2013, a bright flash is seen over the southern region of Ural in Russia followed by a window shattering shock wave injuring over 1500 people. June 17th 2002 a large asteroid was discovered floating between earth and the moon. It would have been a routine spotting of an asteroid except for the fact that 3 days prior it was one of the closest passing asteroids in a long time. Not only that, with its size and if it had entered our atmosphere, it could have easily destroyed a city the size of New York without a trace. In both situations had we detected these asteroids with enough advance notice, we could have at least been prepared or some contingency plan in place. Alas our current NEO or Near Earth Objects, detection methods are not up to par. This is why we need to improve on our knowledge and current asteroid detection methods and systems or be doomed to be a planetary statistic. The Chelyabinsk Meteor in Russia was a lucky break. The speed the meteor enters entered the earth’s atmosphere was clocked at close to 43,000 mph. That’s close to 60 times...
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...1. A synapsid was a group of “mammal-like reptiles” and were Earth’s first great dynasty of land vertebrates. Since they were once Earth’s dominant land vertebrates, their fossils are the most visible today, embedded in the rocks, and provide us with the best evidence as to what caused their extinction and how the Earth evolved. 2. The fungal spike was a moment in time when there was an elevated level of fungi all over the world (now seen in Permo-Triassic rocks), to decompose the vast amount of dead trees. One hypothesis as to how this happened is a possible asteroid impact. This would have sent billions of particles into the atmosphere, blocking the sun and immediately killing plants and most living organisms, triggering the fungal spike. 3. The three lines of evidence for an asteroid impact are the tiny quartz crystals marked with microscopic fractures in rocks from the time of extinction, the enormous 75-mile wide crater in Australia, and also the fungal spike - which proves the extinction of many plants due to the particle blockade of the sun. The meteorite is thought to have made impact below Australia and to be the size of 4.8 km wide. Furthermore, the effects of a meteorite impact would have been again the blockade of the sun by noxious gases, initial lowered temperatures and acid rain, and global warming from the mounting CO2 from fires and decaying organic matter after the clouds had cleared. 4. Focusing on the Earth’s systems, the meteor impact would have...
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...Kayla Salcedo Mrs.Harkin Science If the asteroid didn't hit earth how would we be affected by it? For many years scientists have studied mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs over 65 million years agohttp://www.universetoday.com/118633/it-looks-like-an-asteroid-strike-cant-cause-a-worldwide-dinosaur-killing-firestorm/ Research shows that vast global firestorms could have been the main cause of extinction http://www.universetoday.com/118633/it-looks-like-an-asteroid-strike-cant-cause-a-worldwide-dinosaur-killing-firestorm/ vast energy released a 15 km wide asteroid slamming into earth which was also around the time dinosaurs were extinct http://www.universetoday.com/118633/it-looks-like-an-asteroid-strike-cant-cause-a-worldwide-dinosaur-killing-firestorm/...
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...stop.Plus the people are so mean to each other.You can barely see a someone giving a hand to an other.The world is just full of hate and anger.If you picture this rissing amount of these disasters,hate,corruption,discrimination and all those bad things that are going on now,how will it be in fifty years ? On the other hand a lot of people believe that the world WILL be a better place.We still can put our hopes in to the scientists.Who can find some way to improve the current state of the world.They can find some new cures or ways how to dispose a waste without leaking it into the sea. To sum things up I’m this kind of a person (maybe a crazy one ) who believes in the potential end of the world in 2012 not in the cause of that some huge asteroid will hit the Earth or that the magnetic poles will turn over.But I really support the teorie that the year 2012 will be „the start“ of the end and since now on the Earth will only get worse and...
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...On October 10 , 2015 the Space exploratory in Maui Hawaii found that on October 30, a “Halloween” asteroid would fly by. It is said that it is not a threat but it is the closest and asteroid has come to earth since 1999.It will still be 300,000 miles away from earth however and it will be following and orbit similar to the moons. The asteroid’s official name is TB145 but many just call it “The Great Pumpkin”. NASA is also now tracking the asteroid and studying it and are planning to use many instruments to study it as it is flying so close to earth. Lance Benner leader of NASA’s radar research program, Says “We plan to test a new capability to obtain radar images with two-meter resolution for the first time and hope to see unprecedented...
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...MILESTONES: To study the origin of comets, the relationship between cometary and interstellar material, and its implications with regard to the origin of the Solar System. The measurements to be made to achieve this are: Global characterisation of the nucleus, determination of dynamic properties, surface morphology and composition. Determination of the chemical, mineralogical and isotopic compositions of volatiles and refractories in a cometary nucleus. Determination of the physical properties and interrelation of volatiles and refractories in a cometary nucleus. Study of the development of cometary activity and the processes in the surface layer of the nucleus and the inner coma (dust/gas interaction); Global characterisation of asteroids, including determination of dynamic properties, surface morphology and composition. Comets are important to study -- because their ice probably contains the same molecules present at the start of the solar system -- and also difficult to land on, because of their speed. The comet that Philae landed on is traveling around the sun at about 84,000 miles per hour. Even though it's only about 300 million miles away, the probe traveled about 4 billion miles to reach it, slingshotting around the Earth three times to build up speed. As the comet approaches the sun (with Rosetta still following its orbit and gathering info, which it will do for the next year) Philae's solar panels may receive enough light to power the probe on. This...
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...Impacts: The Impending Doom Albert Mindel, Jr. Astronomy 1002 Ref 371741 Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….3 Brief History and Gene Shoemaker’s contribution Analysis………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..6 Destructive power of Comets & Asteroids Results of an impact on Earth Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………8 Is enough being done to protect humanity? Different methods and theories being explored Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….12 Photos of impact crates, and techniques to deflect incoming objects Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..15 Brief History Natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, and tsunamis wreak havoc on humans caught in their path, but the destruction in often centrally localized. On August 28, 2005, Hurricane Katrina unleashed her destructive force on the Southern Coast of the United States, affecting several States to included; Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The reported death toll was more than 1,800 people and destruction of property surpassed $81 billion dollars. On December 26, 2004, an earthquake below the Indian Ocean triggered a Tsunami which claimed the lives of approximately 230,000 people in eleven countries. Waves of 30 meters (100 feet) high crashed into coastal communities, making the 2004 tsunami one of the deadliest natural disasters...
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...the audience wondering just exactly what was going on. “Take almost any 30 seconds at random, and you’d have a TV ad.” (Ebert, 2008, para.1). Armageddon seems to have been tossed together in haphazardly fashion by it’s writers, replacing real scientific facts with your typical inaccurate, and dramatized hollywood one-liners fired off by the actors in this film at every turn. An example of the diluted science in this film is in the plot of the story itself. An asteroid the size of the state of Texas is cutting through space on course for a head on collision with Earth, at which point, is certain to destroy our planet, and end life on the earth as we know it. NASA’s seemingly only, and best plan is to send a group of oil drillers to the asteroid while still in space and blow it in half in a fashion so that the remaining debris will separate, and pass around Earth all together. In order to execute this feat, the team of drillers must first land on the asteroid, then drill an 800-foot hole into the center of the asteroid,...
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...Falling stars aren't stars at all, they're actually tiny pieces of dust impacting the Earth's atmosphere and burning up. You might also have heard them called "shooting stars", but their scientific name is "meteors". Let's learn some more about falling stars. Space looks empty, but there's all kind of stuff out there: gas, dust and tiny rock and ice fragments. The tiny pieces of rock or ice are known as meteoroids. They could have been left over from the formation of the Solar System 4.6 billion years ago. Or maybe they were part of the tail of a comet that was making a near pass to the Sun. Rocks and asteroids can collide with one another in space and generate meteoroid debris. Who knows how long the tiny object was orbiting the Sun until its path finally crossed the Earth. When a meteoroid strikes the Earth's atmosphere, it burns up leaving a tiny trail in the sky. This trail is the falling star, or meteor. The size of the trail depends on the speed of the object, the angle it struck the atmosphere at, and the amount of mass that it has. The largest objects can leave a trail across the sky that lasts for a few seconds. Although you can see falling stars any night of the year, there are certain times when they're more frequent. These are the times when the Earth orbit takes us through the tail of an ancient comet. We'll pass through the tail fragments at the same time every year, so a meteor shower is predictable. Some famous meteor showers are the Perseids in August, and...
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...defined as heavenly bodies or solar system objects that have been pulled gently by the gravitational force of the Earth bringing them close to into orbits and the Earth’s neighborhood. These NEOs include Near-Earth comets, Near- Earth asteroids, meteoroids and a few solar-orbiting spacecraft huge enough to be trailed in space before hitting the Earth. The collision of the NEOs in the past has had a significant part in shaping the biological and geological history of the Earth. Near-Earth asteroids (NEA) have orbits that rest between 0.983 to 1.3 astronomical units from the sun (Shapiro, 1999). Due to this the Earth’s orbit cross with some NEA orbits posing a collision danger. By 2012 August there were 848 Near-Earth asteroids that were larger than 1km and 154 of those had were potential hazardous asteroids (PHAs).Comets are mostly composed of ice water with engrafted dust particles. They are formed on the outer system of the planet. The asteroids are mainly rocky and are formed in the warmer inner solar system between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars (Bally, Reipurth 2005). Scientific interest in asteroids and comets is due to their status because they have unchanged debris from the solar system formation dated back to up to 4.6 billion years ago. Asteroids and comets give hints to the chemical mixture from which the planets took shape 4.6 billion years ago. NEOs are of high interest also because they present interesting scientific opportunities for both astronomical and direct investigation...
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...On February 15, 2013 the small asteroid 2012 DA14 was its closest to Earth. The 50 meter asteroid passed through the gap between Earth and the ring of geosynchronous satellites that orbit earth. Geosynchronous objects orbit around the earth with a period equal to one sidereal day. Asteroid 2012 DA14 passed at about 17,200 miles above the Earth’s surface. The asteroid was discovered in February 2012 by astronomers at the LaSagra observatory in southern Spain. (http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news177.html)( http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news174.html) (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/geosynchronous) An asteroid is a small planet-like body in orbit around the sun. The orbits of some asteroids take them across the paths of the planets. Asteroids are smaller than a planet but larger than a meteoroid, which is a small interplanetary object also in orbit around the Sun. If a portion of a meteoroid or other object survives the entry through the Earth’s atmosphere and reaches the Earth’s surface it is referred to as a meteorite. A meteor, also known as a shooting star, is a streak of light produced by a meteoroid that burns away in the Earth’s atmosphere. When their orbit brings them close to the sun, gigantic balls of ice and rock or comets, form a tail of dust and gas while being heated by the Sun’s rays. Scientists believe that the extinction of dinosaurs, nearly 66 million years ago, was the result of a large meteorite striking what today is Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. In...
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...Smaller Objects in the Solar System Asteroids are small, airless rocky worlds revolving around the sun that are too small to be called planets. They are also known as planetoids or minor planets. In total, the mass of all the asteroids is less than that of Earth's moon. But despite their size, asteroids can be dangerous. Many have hit Earth in the past, and more will crash into our planet in the future. That's one reason scientists study asteroids and are eager to learn more about their numbers, orbits and physical characteristics. Most asteroids lie in a vast ring between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The main asteroid belt holds more than 200 asteroids larger than 60 miles long. Nearly all asteroids are irregularly shaped, although a few are nearly spherical. A comet is an icy body that releases gas or dust. They are often compared to dirty snowballs, though recent research has led some scientists to call them snowy dirtballs. Comets contain dust, ice, carbon dioxide, ammonia, methane and more. Astronomers think comets are leftovers from the gas, dust, ice and rocks that initially formed the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. Comets orbit the sun but are believed to be located in an area called the Oort Cloud, far beyond the orbit of Pluto. Meteorites vary in size from a few millimetres across to several feet in diameter. Meteorites are rarely round in shape. They are typically irregular, with rounded edges. The surface of a freshly fallen meteorite will appear black...
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...10/25/2013 Department of Physics | Loyola College | JOURNAL | PHYSICA | JOURNAL | PHYSICA | CONTNETS * About college * About physics department * Students club * Science news * Science facts * Picture of the day * Puzzle * Riddle ABOUT COLLEGE Glorious college: Loyola College Loyola College was founded by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1925, with the primary objective of providing University Education in a Christian atmosphere for deserving Students, especially those belonging to the Catholic Community. Although this college is meant primarily for Catholics, it admits other students irrespective of caste and creed. The College aims at training young men and women of quality to be leaders in all walks of life, whom we hope will play a vital role in bringing about the desired changes for the betterment of the people of our country, more particularly of the dalits and other poorer and marginalized sections of society. The College trains young men and women to serve their fellowmen in justice, truth and love. Loyola College became autonomous in July 1978. The College, however, continues to be affiliated to the University of Madras and is autonomous, in the sense that it is free to frame its own course of studies and adopt innovative methods of teaching and evaluation. The University degrees will be conferred on the students passing the examinations conducted by the college. In Loyola, we look at education differently...
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...Controversy surrounds the extinction of the dinosaurs. According to one theory, dinosaurs were slowly driven to extinction by environmental changes linked to the creeping withdrawal of shallow seas from the continents at the end of the dinosaur era. Proponents of this theory propose that dinosaurs dwindled in number and variety over several million years. An opposing theory proposes that the impact of asteroid or comet caused catastrophic destruction of the environment, leading to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Evidence to support this theory includes the discovery of a buried impact crater (thought to be the result of a large comet striking the earth) that is 200 km (124 mi.) in diameter in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. The spray of debris was blown from the edge of the crater. The debris has been found over large regions of North America. Comet enriched material from the impact's fiery explosion was spread all over the world. With radiometric dating, scientists have used the decay rates of certain atoms to date the crater, spray of debris, and fireball layer. Using similar techniques to date the dramatic changes in the record of microscopic fossils, they have found that the impact and the dinosaur extinction occurred nearly simultaneously. Although great amounts of ash suggest that most of North and South America was devastated by fire from the impact, the longer-term environmental effects of the impact were ultimately more deadly to life than the fire. Dust blocked...
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