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Re: Fw: (meteorobs) Doomsday Icarus

I realize I'd learn a lot by reading your mail; still . . . .

David B

On Tue, 10
Mar 1998, Prof. William E. Burrows wrote:

> 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
>
References: