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Russian Meteor Largest In a Century
gbrumfiel writes "A meteor that exploded over Russia's Chelyabinsk region this morning was the largest recorded object to strike the earth in more than a century, Nature reports. Infrasound data collected by a network designed to watch for nuclear weapons testing suggests that today's blast released hundreds of kilotons of energy. That would make it far more powerful than the nuclear weapon tested by North Korea just days ago, and the largest rock to strike the earth since a meteor broke up over Siberia's Tunguska river in 1908. Despite its incredible power, the rock evaded detection by astronomers. Estimates show it was likely only 15 meters across — too small to be seen by networks searching for near earth asteroids."
Today's meteor event came a day after California scientists proposed a system to vaporize asteroids that threaten Earth. Of course, the process needs to be started when the asteroid is still tens of millions of kilometers away; there's no chance to shoot down something that's already arrived.
At first blush, that would seem to reduce the usefulness significantly....
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
In USA, prisoners smash rocks. In Soviet Russia, rocks smashes prisoners!
I thought the same when I red that.
Proverbs 21:19
I'm green with envy at your punning skills. Is there any punning course I could cyan up to?
Ezekiel 23:20
Granted, Russia is the largest country in the world by land area but do *all* the big rocks have to land there?
Yes, the citizens of New York should definitely write a petition to the Universe to have a few large rocks redirected towards them. :-)
Ezekiel 23:20
its ok D.C. can have first dibs on the next one
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
this thing was 15 meters across, jet black, and moving like a bat out of hell. To paraphrase people that look for near earth objects "Its invisible until it hits the atmosphere." The sad fact of the matter is, no matter how much money you pour into programs to locate and track near earth objects, there is no way to detect objects of this size and velocity with any degree of reliability.
The fine summary notes,
Well, there's part of the problem right there -- we don't want to shoot the things *down*, we want to shoot them *up* and *away*. Meteors and asteroids are only a problem when they come down!
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
Ah, well, now that this is out of the way, the rest of the century should be rather pleasant.
I drank what? -- Socrates
"Inconvenient"
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
I'm glad that no one was puceillalimous enough to post these puns as AC...
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
If we all posted AC, that might confuchsia.
"Slow down, Cowboy! It has been 3 years, 7 months and 26 days since you last successfully posted a comment."
What is this, god damned reddit?!
Look where all this talking got us, baby.
Mauve over, let the experts have a shot at the puns.
Civilization?