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Re: Fw: (meteorobs) Doomsday Icarus

David Morrison wrote:
> 
> Victor:
> 
> The article (below) about Icarus hitting the Earth in 2006 is, of course,
> nonesense.  Icarus will miss the Earth by tens of millions of kilometers.
> This is pure fiction.
> 
> David Morrison
> 
> >David:
> >What do you make of the following post on a number of meteor and astronomy
> >lists?
> >Victor
> >
> >----------
> >> From: C. Hernandez 
> >> To: EB@ATLASTRO.ML.ORG
> >> Cc: ASTRO@lists.mindspring.com; meteorobs@latrade.com;
> >shallow-sky@lists.best.com; meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com;
> >celsom-w@AMAUTA.RCP.NET.PE
> >> Subject: (meteorobs) Doomsday Icarus
> >> Date: Tuesday, March 10, 1998 8:59 PM
> >>
> >> Celso and lists members:
> >>
> >> Following you'll find a free translation of the article published last
> >> Sunday on "La Nacion" the most popular daily newspaper of Costa Rica,
> >> and a highly reputed one, from EFE's Spanish news agency and mentioned
> >> by Celso Montalvo in his posting of today. His posting means that it has
> >> been published at least in our two countries, and who knows in how many
> >> more.
> >>
> >> As much as I didn't agree with some of the ideas of Mr. David H. Levy's
> >> article of last month's S&T, I must applaud and adhere to his comments
> >> on March's S&T page 84 as to the danger of publishing such kind of news
> >> over mass media. If C. Shramek's anouncement over the Net about the
> >> Saturn-like object could have been a cause for the tragic events of
> >> California's religious cult suicide, I just don't want to imagine what
> >> this kind of news, being true or not, can cause on the common people's
> >> beliefs.
> >>
> >> Although I don't think I will be heard, I could not let this kind of
> >> news pass uncommented and I already made my points of view known to the
> >> newspaper. Coments will be welcome over the Net too.
> >>
> >> The article reads as follows:
> >>
> >>      <<      ASTEROID COLLISION FORESEEN
> >>
> >>      EFE. Moscow
> >>
> >>      Russian scientists said that the end of the world will take
> >>      place in eight years, when Earth will collide with an asteroid,
> >>      and only the joint effort of all countries could avoid the
> >>      dramatic ending.
> >>
> >>      The name of the asteroid is Icarus, with a diameter of 1.5 Km
> >>      and a mass of several hundred tons, which approaches Earth at a
> >>      speed of 60 Km per second.
> >>
> >>      Its impact with Earth would cause an explosion equivalent to a
> >>      thousand thermonuclear warheads with the power of one million
> >>      tons of dynamite each, according to calculations by
> >>      astrophysicists.
> >>
> >>      Russian scientists alerted that the impact is "almost
> >>      unavoidable" and made a plea to all states to conform a common
> >>      front of action to carry out a sophisticated space project to
> >>      deviate or destroy the deadly planetoid with powerful nuclear
> >>      detonations.
> >>
> >>      Icarus, discovered in 1949, comes near the Earth every 19 years,
> >>      but each time its distance to us is reduced and its velocity
> >>      increases, and scientists fear that its next visit, in the
> >>      summer of 2006, will be the last one.
> >>
> >>      In 1949 it passed 28 million Km away from Earth on its way to
> >>      the Sun, but 19 years later, on June 14, 1968, its distance was
> >>      reduced to only 6.36 million Km.
> >>
> >>      The scientist Valdimir Polevanov, geologist of the Russian
> >>      Natural Sciences Academy, says that the danger lies in Icarus
> >>      not having a permanent orbit, because it evolves in space under
> >>      he effect of the Sun and the rest of the planets.
> >>
> >>      This fact makes that the threat of a collision of Icarus with
> >>      Earth be "more than probable", emphasized Polevanov in an
> >>      article published in the popular newspaper Trud.
> >>
> >>      In the last 250 million years of Earth's history, the fauna and
> >>      flora of our planet has been erased 9 times, with an average of
> >>      every 30 million years and scientists opine that, at least once,
> >>      this was caused by "extraterrestrial" causes.
> >>
> >>      The extinction of species registered in the Cretacean and
> >>      Tertiary eras of the geological history of the planet was due to
> >>      the collision of an asteroid that perforated the terrestrial
> >>      crust and caused "apocalyptic" consequences, said the academic.
> >>
> >>      He quoted that, according to scientific data, some 1.500
> >>      asteroids with a diameter superior to 1 Km have collided with
> >>      Earth. He also said that those collisions are unavoidable and
> >>      that "the worst" is coming in 8 years.
> >>
> >>      To avoid this end, "international measures are required at the
> >>      UN and its Security Council levels", and he proposed a world
> >>      project called "Save the Planet".
> >>
> >>      His worry was shared by Col. Vladimir Tkachenko, chief of
> >>      experts of the Institute of Scientific Research on Space Systems
> >>      in Russia, who told the newspaper that this institution has
> >>      already elaborated a plan to "neutralize" Icarus.
> >>
> >>      Many prestigious scientists believe that the collision of Icarus
> >>      with Earth is unavoidable and that governments must pay
> >>      attention to these voices.
> >>
> >>      The project foresees the launch of a ship from which a rocket
> >>      would be send to Icarus with a space platform carrying several
> >>      modules that would be launched to the asteroid in turns.Upon
> >>      reaching its surface, each module would bore the ground and
> >>      would place powerful atomic heads which, activated
> >>      simultaneously, would destroy the asteroid.>>
> >>
> >> Sorry to the lists for the lenghty post but it deserves some atention.
> >>   _
> >> /   \
> >>     /   Carlos Hernandez
> >>   o     Heredia, Costa Rica
> >>  /      "May your skies be 'pura vida' tonight"
> >>  \ _ /
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> > ----------
> >> > > From: celsom-w 
> >> > > To: EB@ATLASTRO.ML.ORG
> >> > > Subject: [EB] Icaro
> >> > > Date: Monday, March 09, 1998 7:52 AM
> >> > >
> >> > > Hi friends:
> >> > >
> >> > > Yesterday I read in the newspaper that some russian astronomers have
> >> > > calculated that Icaro (asteroid, 1.5 km diam) will collide with >
> >>earth in  2006 or so. This can be a global catastrophe similar to the
> >> > > Chicxulub event, 65 million tears ago. Have you read or heard of > >
> >> > this news?
> >> > >
> >> > > Saludos.
> >> > > --
> >> > > Celso Montalvo
> >> > > ELECONT INGENIERIA S. A.
> >> > > Lima-PERU
> >> > > 12o S; 77o W.
Maybe the lead scientist in the Icarus investigation is really named
Spielbergsky?

WEBurrows
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