[meteorite-list] Beautiful time-lapse movie showing the growth in discovered minor planets since 1980

From: Galactic Stone & Ironworks <meteoritemike_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:24:50 -0400
Message-ID: <AANLkTinTf_avHb2cJH+qB5h4yS+qaRY6+1_c=KT1WTgo_at_mail.gmail.com>

"Wouldn't destroy the Earth either. It would change
the Earth a lot. The interesting question is: what
would replace us Mammals?"

Meteorites would replace us. ;)



On 8/27/10, Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Eric, List,
>
>> Unless of course one destroys our planet first...
>
> The largest NEO is 1036 Ganymed. The Largest
> Near-Earth Object is 32 km in diameter. The second
> largest is 433 Eros (visited by NEAR); it's 33 km by
> 13 km.
>
> Even the 20 mile Ganymed wouldn't destroy the
> planet. Just a little dent about twice the size of
> Chicxulub... Might be tough on like, you know,
> living things, though...
>
> No, if you want to "destroy" the Earth (whatever
> that means to you), you need a bigger hammer.
> I suggest 2060 Chiron, whose orbit between
> Saturn and Uranus is not long-term stable. How
> big is it?
>
> In 1984, Larry Lebofsky derived a diameter of
> 180 km or 112 miles. In 1991, IRAS determined
> it had to be less than 372 km. In 1994, Campins
> determined 150 km. in 1996, an occultation yielded
> a value of 180 km. And In 2007, the Spitzer Space
> Telescope said it was 235 km in diameter.
>
> Personally, I'll go with Larry. If eventually, old
> Saturn "persuades" Chiron to fall into the inner
> solar system and it should meet up with Earth with
> the 40 to 50 km/sec velocity such an elliptical orbit
> implies, it would be one helluva whack.
>
> Wouldn't destroy the Earth either. It would change
> the Earth a lot. The interesting question is: what
> would replace us Mammals?
>
>
> Sterling K. Webb
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Meteorites USA" <eric at meteoritesusa.com>
> To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Friday, August 27, 2010 1:54 PM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Beautiful time-lapse movie showing the
> growth in discovered minor planets since 1980
>
>
>> Wow! Wow! WOW! It really is a cosmic "soup" out there. It's so fluid,
>> and reactive. All I can think is. Look at all the future meteorites!
>> ;)
>>
>> Unless of course one destroys our planet first. The red ones are
>> scary... ;)
>>
>> Eric
>>
>>
>> On 8/27/2010 10:34 AM, Matson, Robert D. wrote:
>>> Hi All,
>>>
>>> Here is a fascinating video graphically showing the exponential
>>> growth
>>> in
>>> discovered minor planets over the last 30 years. At the beginning of
>>> 1980,
>>> the count stood at 8954. It's now over half a million!
>>>
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_d-gs0WoUw
>>>
>>> In this time-lapse video, as new minor planets are discovered, they
>>> are
>>> highlighted in white. You'll notice that the majority of the
>>> discoveries
>>> follow the earth around in its orbit (since most discoveries are made
>>> at
>>> opposition).
>>>
>>> In the 1990s, the big surveys start to come online, and the discovery
>>> rates skyrocket. In 2010, a new pattern of discoveries starts to show
>>> up
>>> in a line perpendicular to the earth-sun line. This shows the
>>> dramatic
>>> increase in minor planet discoveries by WISE (the Widefield Infrared
>>> Survey Explorer), which only images near 90-degree elongation.
>>>
>>> The final color-coding of minor planets differentiates the NEOs from
>>> the
>>> mainbelters. Earth-crossing NEOs are colored red; earth-approaching
>>> NEOs
>>> (perihelion distance less than 1.3 a.u.) are in yellow; all others
>>> are
>>> green.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Rob
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> Visit the Archives at
>>> http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html
>>> Meteorite-list mailing list
>>> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>>>
>>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> Visit the Archives at
>> http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html
>> Meteorite-list mailing list
>> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>
> ______________________________________________
> Visit the Archives at
> http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Gilmer - Galactic Stone & Ironworks Meteorites
http://www.galactic-stone.com
http://www.facebook.com/galacticstone
------------------------------------------------------------

Received on Fri 27 Aug 2010 05:24:50 PM PDT