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Today is the first Asteroid Day;
http://www.asteroidday.org/
6 things you have to know;
http://tinyurl.com/q8d6jd9
You can monitor incoming asteroids here;
http://spaceweather.com/
near the bottom of the page.
If Asteroids aren't your thing, check out the conjunction tonight-It's in the Western sky. Sometimes it is called a double star, next year the two planets get even closer;
https://in-the-sky.org/news.php?id=20150701_16_100
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Thanks for that, Ino. Although not specifically Puna-related, the protesters on Mauna Kea have done their best to interfere with work that is aimed at preventing something like this happening to us:
https://youtu.be/zBWbpFz3wac
(One of my favourite songs of all time by the way).
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Aw, Tom, it relates; we can see the sky from Puna!
oh, wait, you meant the protesters aren't Puna. But I bet they live here!
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Thank you TomK for the video I enjoyed that.
We think there are over 1 million asteroids heading towards Earth right now. We only know of about 1% and track about 10,000 of them. Earth is living on borrowed time as it's not a question of if but a question of when.
On Jan. 26th 2015 a huge asteroid about 1800' wide went whizzing by the Earth within 750,000 miles. In cosmic terms this was considered a very close call! You could actually see it with binoculars and it was incredible looking. If it had hit the Earth the consequences would have been catastrophic. All you have to do is notice the impact craters on the Moon to know it will happen here at some point in the future.
Asteroids arrive by the thousands every day and actually have the ability to wipe us out completely if they manage to score a direct hit. Currently we have the technology to prevent such a thing but we need to find and monitor these asteroids before they arrive to have a chance to deflect them. Hence the movement today to raise awareness. If you get a chance please sign the petition on
http://www.asteroidday.org/
Thank you!
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After looking over all of the available information above, links, videos, cool Pink Floyd music, etc, I think it's safe to say First Asteroid Day will be a whole lot better than Last Asteroid Day.
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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One thing about asteroids is there hasn't been a movie yet that depicts them accurately.
That's because it would be a very short movie. According to Bill Bryson in his book A Short History of Nearly Everything, there would be virtually no warning of an asteroid or comet impact:
It wouldn't be visible to the naked eye until it warmed up and that wouldn't happen until it hit the atmosphere, which would be about one second before it hit the Earth.
He continues:
A
n asteroid or comet traveling at cosmic velocities would enter the earth's atmosphere at such a speed that the air beneath it couldn't get out of the way and would be compressed, as in a bicycle pump. As anyone who has used such a pump knows, compressed air grows swiftly hot, and temperature below it would rise to some 60,000 Kelvins or ten times the surface temperature of the Sun. In this instant of its arrival in our atmosphere , everything in the meteor's path-people, houses, factories, cars-would crinkle and vanish like cellophane in a flame.
One second after entering the atmosphere, the meteorite would slam into the earth's surface, where the people of Manson(an impact site of such a collision millions of years ago) had a moment before been going about their business. The meteorite itself would vaporize instantly, but the blast would blow out a thousand cubic kilometers of rock, earth, and superheated gases. Every living thing within 150 miles that hadn't been killed by the heat of entry would now be killed by the blast. Radiating outward at almost the speed of light would be the initial shock wave, sweeping everything before it.
http://vkg378.blogspot.com/2006/02/armag...ryson.html
Happy 1st Asteroid Day!
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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a fiery death by cataclysmic asteroid strike might be a relatively merciful one after being subjected to a heavy dose of Pink Floyd lyrics.
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quote:
Originally posted by PunaMauka2
a fiery death by cataclysmic asteroid strike might be a relatively merciful one after being subjected to a heavy dose of Pink Floyd lyrics.
Boo. The worms ate into your brain.
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haha i love their instrumentation. recently subjected myself to watching The Wall again, after which my wife and i have sort of a running joke about the incessantly hopeless dismal theme.
