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Title: END OF WORLD WARNING: Watch biggest explosion EVER on Moon as NASA warns we could be next
Source:
express
URL Source: http://www.express.co.uk/news/scien ... st-explosion-NASA-video-impact
Published: Jul 7, 2017
Author: Paul Baldwin
Post Date: 2017-07-07 14:52:25 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 4845
Comments: 18
A METEOR with the explosive power of TEN cruise missiles has struck the Moon – sparking a massive explosion visible with the naked eye. And terrifyingly the 56,000 mph collision – captured by NASA scientists highlighting the catastrophic danger planet earth faces from similar meteors – was caused by a space rock weighing no more than 88 lbs (40 kilos). Despite the meteor’s tiny proportions – about the size of a small boulder and the weight of an average 10-year-old boy – the impact damage was colossal and the explosion shone with the brightness of a magnitude 4 star. The moon was struck by a meteor creating the an explosion visible with the naked eye A similar strike against a city on earth would create a crater 65feet (20m) deep and create a devastating kill zone equivalent to TEN Tomahawk cruise missile striking in exactly the same place. Experts fear the death toll would run into thousands. Unlike the Moon the Earth has a protective atmosphere meaning most space debris burns up before it can impact. But bigger meteors sometimes get through – most recently at Chelyabinsk in Russia where a 20 metre asteroid travelling at 43,000 mph breached the atmosphere and exploded with the power of 33 Hiroshimas. Fortunately because of the speed and angle of entry the rock exploded while still in the air but 7,200 buildings were damaged and 1,500 people were injured seriously enough to seek medical treatment. A spokesman for respected science website Science.com said: “For the past eight years NASA has been monitoring the Moon for signs of explosions caused by meteors. “They’ve just seen the biggest explosion in the history of the programme. The explosive power of the meteor was the equivalent of ten cruise missiles “It exploded in a flash 10 times as bright as anything we’ve seen before. Anyone looking at the Moon at the moment of impact could have seen the explosion – no telescope required.” The Chelyabinsk meteor is the largest known natural object to have entered Earth's atmosphere since the 1908 Tunguska meteor, which destroyed a wide, remote, forested, and very sparsely populated area of Siberia. NASA is so concerned about the possibility of an asteroid strike ending all life on earth it has started the first design phase of a spacecraft known as the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) which will be used to redirect an asteroid’s path. NASA is working in conjunction with the European Space Agency (ESA) on the craft and hope to have the first space tests underway by 2022 where it will attempt to move a “non-threatening” asteroid. Lindley Johnson, planetary defence officer at Nasa Headquarters in Washington, said: “DART would be NASA’s first mission to demonstrate what’s known as the kinetic impactor technique – striking the asteroid to shift its orbit – to defend against a potential future asteroid impact. “This approval step advances the project toward an historic test with a non-threatening small asteroid.” 
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 6.
#4. To: cranky (#0)
I think it has happened before. Either than or the man on the moon had acne during his adolescent phase. Earth has that nice protective layer over its skin, so it takes a really bigun to get through. So far, maybe 2 in the last 65,000,000 years. But NASA needs to sell their asteroids game, so, ah! Yikes! Somebody do something! [Sound of hailing trumpet -- birt ta da derrr!] "NASA man / woman / it to the rescue!" I feel safer now. (Hey! Who took my wallet!)
It happened in Siberia. I THINK in 1917.
#7. To: sneakypete (#6)
That would be the 'tunguska event' in 1908, no?
I meant on the moon. Earth gets a few, but is not constantly barraged like the moon because the atmosphere burns up most of them. An 80 pounder wouldn't make it to the surface on Earth. There is evidence, though it is not scientific canon, that a huge asteroid, 6+ miles in diameter, hit the earth ~10k years ago causing the end of the last ice age. Advanced human civilization living on the coastal regions of Africa, on "Atlantis" off the coast, and in a savanna-like Amazon region was driven into the forests and suffered genetic damage due to the deterioration of the atmosphere caused by toxic superheated dust and gases as well as increased volcanic activity due to the asteroid actually pushing down and sliding the Atlantic tectonic plate. About 4000 years later, after the atmosphere had recovered and mankind emerged from the shelter of the woods, the budding Egyptian civilization used some hand me down technology to build the pyramids and megaliths. Their brains were smaller so they were using technology that they did not fully understand. The quality of construction was inferior and continued to decline over the next 2 millennium before ceasing altogether. So, bring it on. Humanity has survived it before.
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#6. To: Anthem (#4)
I think it has happened before.
Replies to Comment # 6. It happened in Siberia. I THINK in 1917.
#9. To: sneakypete, cranky (#6)
I think it has happened before.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 6.
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