[meteorite-list] FW: ECTV/Breaking News - Is This The Culprit for Meteors Crashing To Earth?

From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:18 2004
Message-ID: <20031001003054.14415.qmail_at_web60302.mail.yahoo.com>

----- Forward Message -----
From: Mitch Battros
[mailto:earthchanges_at_earthlink.net]
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 7:40 AM
To: Breaking News
Subject: ECTV/Breaking News - Is This The Culprit for
Meteors Crashing To Earth?


Is This The Culprit for Meteors Crashing To
Earth?...09/30/03
by Mitch Battros (ECTV)
As reported by my colleague David Whitehouse of BBC,
an asteroid discovered just a month ago is making a
close approach to the Earth. The name of this NEA
(near earth asteroid) is '2001 YB5'. Although there
is no danger of collision with it,
astronomers say that its proximity reminds us just how
many objects there are in space that could strike our
planet with devastating consequences.

Moving closer to the Sun, the asteroid is passing by
at less than three times the Moon's distance from us -
just 830,000 kilometers (510,000 miles) away on 7
January, which is close in cosmic terms. It is thought
to be 300 meters in size - large
enough to wipe out an entire country if it struck the
Earth.

2001 YB5 was discovered in early December by the Neat
(Near Earth Asteroid Tracking) survey telescope
observing from Mount Palomar in California, US.
Astronomers call it an Apollo object because it has a
highly elliptical orbit that crosses the
orbits of Mars, Earth, Venus and Mercury. It circles
the Sun every 1,321 days.

Astronomers also add that it is "potentially
hazardous", meaning there is a slim chance that it may
strike the Earth sometime in the future. Such a "close
encounter" is rare but not unprecedented. However, the
only other known object that will come closer to the
Earth is an asteroid called 1999 AN10, which will pass
a shade closer on 7 August, 2027.

Could the events we have seen in India and New Orleans
be a "chip off the old block"?

2001 YB5's brightness suggests it is a rocky body
about 300 meters across. If it struck the Earth a
300-meter object would
not be a global killer: to wipe all life off the face
of our planet an object would have to be about 1 km in
size. But 300 meters is more than enough to cause
widespread devastation.

If it struck land, it would wipe out an entire
country. If the impact point were London, then
scientists estimate there would be
total devastation for 150 km and severe destruction
for a further 800 km, meaning that not only would the
UK be destroyed but France and the Low Countries as
well. If it struck the ocean, the destruction would
be more widespread. It would trigger tsunamis that
would devastate most coastal cities.

According to experts, the recent discovery and close
approach of 2001 YB5 suggests that something nasty
could creep up on us at any time. Dr Benny Peiser of
Liverpool John Moores University, UK, told BBC News
Online: "The fact that this object was discovered less
than a month ago leads to the question of if we would
have had enough time to do anything about it had it
been on a collision course with us.

"Of course the answer is no; there is nothing we could
have done about it. It is a reminder of the objects
that are out there. It is a reminder of what is going
to happen unless we track them more efficiently than
we do and make better preparations to defend our
planet," says Dr Peiser.
  

Stunning Update to India's Meteor Blast
  

Bhubaneswar, India - The search for the remnants of
the huge meteorite which sped across the sky in the
coastal Orissa last night continued today amid reports
of villagers in Kendrapara district stumbling upon two
strange objects this morning. While the object at
Benakand a village was blown to smithereens, the one
at Paschima suniti weighing 5.7 kg was intact. The
"ball of fire", described by scientists as a
meteorite, streaked across the sky from west to east
before landing on a thatched house at about 6.30 p.m.
yesterday and was witnessed by the people in at least
11 districts in the coastal belt.

One dies... One of the 11 persons admitted to
hospitals in Kendrapara, Jajpur and Mayurbhanj
districts after witnessing the spectacle died in the
SCB Medical College Hospital at Cuttack today. Sukadeb
Singh age 75, who along with two others, had been
shifted from Kendrapara hospital to Cuttack, died this
morning. Five persons, including three from one
family, were admitted to hospitals in three different
places of Jajpur district while three others were
hospitalized at Kaptipada in Mayurbhanj district.

The three persons, who fell unconscious after the
incident, were recovering in the Kaptipada Hospital. A
75-year-old man, Harekrushna Behera, complained that
he had lost his vision after seeing the fire. In
Kolkata, M.P. Brila Planetarium clarified that the
small streak of luminous yellow light which turned to
orange and finally brilliant blue before disappearing
from the sky was a typical meteorite, though it came a
wee bit closer to the earth than the normal ones. It
was a normal cosmic phenomenon and had nothing to do
with the tidal ebb.

_____________________________________________

Mitch Battros
Producer - Earth Changes TV
http://www.earthchangestv.com
  



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Received on Tue 30 Sep 2003 08:30:54 PM PDT