Topic: METEORITE COLLISIONS
R4 4 3 97 Shoemaker - its pretty certain we’re near the galactic plane. This means that for a million years we’ve been in a geological era of high potential bombardment.
R4 4.3.97 Napier Comets are main cratering agent
Massive interstellar comets with huge long tails form stars. Concentrations occur in the Orion nebula CS36
Out there could be 10 times more potential impactors [30 000] than stars visible to the naked eye [Sagan 1995,323]
WHEN RAPID EROSION AND TECTONIC ACTIVITY ARE ACCOUNTED FOR, THE TERRESTRIAL RATE OF CRATER PRODUCTION IS AKIN TO LUNAR LEVELS. Meadows 90
In any thousand years, there’ll be around 10 relatively minor impact events each releasing up to 25 megatons. These cause around a million deaths. This gives an average annual death rate of 1000. This is ten times the commercial aircraft average. LEWIS 209 The aircraft total takes in fatalities from much rarer major air disasters. If much rarer giant globally effective impacts are brought into the equation, the average jumps to 24 times aircraft deaths LEWIS 202
A 1000,000 megaton [1000 gigaton] explosion hits on average every million years
A 100,000 megaton [100 gigaton] explosion hits on average every 250,000 years
A 10,000 megaton [10 gigaton] event hits on average every 70,000 years
A 1000 megaton [gigaton] explosion of a 250 metre solid occurs on average every 10-15000 years. The solid slams into the surface or water as a dense debris cloud. The ratio of land to water is about 1:4 [higher in catastrophic bursts] so a land based catastrophe occurs at least every 40,000 years[ civilisation has been around about 50,000 years]. The catastrophe will be relatively localised.
An ocean impact will produce a wave 157 metres/50 stories high after 1000 kms
100-10 megaton solids explode in the air at the optimum height for maximum damage. If they actually hit the damage area would be halved! LEWIS 213
A land based 100 megaton explosion [equal to Krakatau] causing intense localised catastrophe hits on average once in any 4-8000 year period.
In this same period, 3 ocean impacts hit. After 1000 km, their wave will be 52 metres/17 stories high [Krakatau 40 metres]. A solid capable of producing such an explosion would weigh 1.2 million tons. Onlookers’ eyes would be burned out by the flash. Ships would be pummelled to the ocean floor. Lewis 157 185 195 -6 201-2 208 213
An 83 megaton explosion occurs once in every 1400 years. LEWIS199
If chance is a law, a 100,83, and 27 megaton blast could all occur in one century over 1500 years. This is a conservative estimate not accounting for impact bunching. LEWIS 199
Smaller, but still catastrophic, air explosions are much more frequent. They create local blast waves and firestorms. The agents are [photographically] undetectable weak solids, usually cometary fragments, up to 100 metres across and weighing 500,000-1 000000 tons.
A 27 megaton explosion takes place once in every 700 years. The energy is enough to kill 100,000. LEWIS199
Tunguska air burst rated at least 15 megatons Any major city below such a burst would be totally blown away, with no permanent crater formed. [By comparison Mt St Helen’s was 5 megatons Lewis 148]
An 80,000 ton stone solid produces 2.2 megatons explosive power. LEWIS196
A 25000 ton stone solid would explode with 1,200 kilotons [1.2 megatons].
A 25m asteroid would airburst with 1 megaton. There are 25 million near earth solids capable of packing this punch. Around 10 hit every thousand years, killing 1,000,000 altogether. A solid will actually impact and form a crater at least every 2,500 years. LEWIS 211
A 9900 ton stone asteroid fragment would explode with 144 kilotons. LEWIS 191
A 100 kiloton atmospheric explosion occurs on average once a year. Its usually very high, over the ocean, or in a remote area. LEWIS 188
A 4200 ton iron asteroid would impact the ocean with 54 Kilotons. A stone solid of the same size would explode in the air with 87 kilotons. LEWIS193
A 9 metre iron solid weighing 4700 tons would impact land with 41 kilotons, creating a 280m crater. All structures in a 3 mile radius would be flattened. LEWIS 190
An iron/stone solid weighing 1800 tons could almost glide unseen into a remote ocean spot. The unheard explosive impact of 25 kilotons [just higher than Hiroshima] would create a mild tidal wave. This could drown hundreds, but no-one would suspect an impact. Ditto for many past and future tidal waves. Remote ocean impacts/explosions could also explain mysterious disappearances of sea and air craft. LEWIS 189 192-3
An even slower 6,800 ton solid could fall unseen, creating a tsunami attributed to a freak of nature. The huge wave could drown thousands. LEWIS 194
A solid object of a mere 3 metres can create a several kiloton explosion [see AD 1993] Lewis 78
An iron/stone 250 metre asteroid can pack a punch of 30,000 megatons
This natural bombardment process is extremely random and variable. It brings blast waves, fire-storms and immense 750 kph tsunami waves LEWIS J 8-9 63 74 78 151
The slower a solid enters the atmosphere, the better chance it has of surviving to impact. Lewis 82
Bolt thunder bolt lightning bolt from the blue McCall 22
Short period = 3-160 years McCall 28
There is a critical temperature boundary separating the 2 groups of planets about radius of asteroid belt. McCall 30
Asimov 139 5500 meteorites have hit earth in historic times. 550 are steel alloy = metallic iron mixed with nickel and cobalt. Metallic iron does not occur naturally on earth, so in early times iron meteorites were more precious than gold. All fragments falling before 1500BC in peopled areas were used up. ?were things like metal serpents made from meteorites
= black stone in the Kaaba original object of veneration in Artemis temple Ephesus
Evidence for the Oort cloud is circumstantial. ie Asimov 134comets come in at any angle, which they can from a surrounding shell
Space Puzzles M Gardner UK 1974
20 1954 9lb mite crashes through Alabama roof &strikes housewife on hip whilst napping on a sofa
87 Whichever direction a comet moves, its tail points away from sun
88 June 68 Icarus misses us by 4m [17 moon distances] its orbit can’t be plotted accurately as many planets influence it.
A 500,000-1m ton 100 metre diameter body 40-100 megatons Tunguska CS144
Lang K R & Whitney C A WANDERERS IN SPACE Cambridge UP 1991
29 Some comets are indistinguishable from asteroids = Shoemaker 2
McCall 21 Tashatkhan = stony arrow=purple stone big as a sleigh which fell in AD1584 McCall 20-21
UFOs and Meteorites McCall 44
Meteors are cosmic material glowing in the upper atmosphere. The word derives from the ancient Greek for upper atmosphere [ hence meteorology etc] If any identifiable material ‘vaporises’ just above the ground it is called a meteoroid. If it reaches the ground, it is called a Meteorite.
The largest night meteors are slightly pear-shaped and can be bigger and brighter than the Full Moon. Lighting up the landscape, they leave a luminous trail of ionised gases. At maximum speed/heat they are streaking fireballs. As they slow, the material becomes bright blue/green.
Sceptics dismiss many UFO events as sightings of shooting stars/fireballs. I’ve always found this attitude untenable. Any seasoned observer knows a shooting star when they see one.
However, intensive research into frequent catastrophism through such agencies as comets/asteroids/meteorites has revealed facts which should be taken into account by any sky watcher.
The scenario involves a night skywatcher unknowingly looking head-on into the path of a fireball entering earth’s atmosphere.[nearest analogy would be standing on a runway as a space shuttle comes in to land]. The fireball consists of meteoric material massive enough to explode/vaporise near ground level or even land as a meteorite.
[i1] The fireball slows down in seconds on entering the upper air. Anyone looking head- on won’t see the golden streak of a slightly pear-shaped shooting star. Instead, the slowing fireball will suddenly blink into view as a blue-green star-like point.
[2] During the next few seconds the slowing object will pulsate and grow larger, briefly lighting up the immediate sky and land. Then it will either:
[i] abruptly dilate into a pinkish globe or
[ii] separate into 2 or more smaller pinkish globes
Usually, the material further fragments/ disintegrates/explodes with a shower of sparks glowing like embers. The residue forms a swelling hovering dust cloud emitting numerous smoky trails. To the ‘UFO’ night sky watcher this will be some sort of obscuring vibrating mass produced by the pinkish glowing globe[s] as it suddenly fades/abruptly disappears.
There is a striking resemblance here to silent UFO sightings. The scenario becomes almost identical if sound is a factor.
How sight and sounds combine needs explanation:
[i] Meteoric material moves much faster than sound. This means that any sound sequence hits the head on observer just as, or a minute or two after the culprit disappears.
[ii] Not only that, but the object approaches so quickly that the sound sequence arrives tightly contracted and in reverse.
Typically, in a few seconds, the observer will hear this sequence
[i] whistling and buzzing
[ii] noise like thunder,/tearing sheets/ express train
[iii] Loud shock wave reports [like those of a supersonic jet], singly or in quick succession
[iv] a slight whistling/crackling/hissing
Note :Due to various contingencies, the performance may:
[a] be silent to observers wherever they are
[b] be silent to the head on observer, but heard by those further away. In their case, the sequence of sounds is more spaced out and may not be in reverse.
[c] be heard by the head on observer, but silent to observers further away.
These same variations apply to sight, but not necessarily in synchroninity with sound presence/variation of sound sequence/absence.
So there we have it - a UFO quickly blinking into sight, performing tricks, and then blinking out again as it noisily accelerates back along its flight path with immeasurable speed. Witnesses in even directly adjacent positions but viewing from differing angles may report differences in observations/ sounds [or their presence/absence]. But that’s not all !
[1] The incoming fireball can fragment before it is seen by a head-on observer. They will then see several ‘UFOs’ suddenly ‘flashing on’ scattered over the sky.
[2] The larger pinkish globe may shape shift into a smaller bright object as the meteor burns up. ‘UFO’ effects may be accentuated by glowing plasma shooting on ahead.
Meteoric material capable of putting on ‘UFO’ displays does not travel alone. It is part of a stream or swarm which encounters earth regularly each year.
The most potent meteoric swarms, peaking 1-7 November by night and 29 June by day [Beta Taurids] make up the Taurids. Automobile sized boulders from this swarm slammed into the Moon 22-26 June 1975. A large Taurid body exploded over Tunguska 30 June 1908. An even larger Taurid body gouged out the 13 mile lunar crater Giordano Bruno 25 June 1178.
There should be consistent increases in daytime ‘UFO’ sightings around 29 June. Typically, observers will see one or more luminous globes. Slightly less bright fireballs appear as silver streaks. Both leave a lingering dark cloud Sound sequences will be identical to those heard at night .
During extremely active stream peaks, more than one meteoric object can ‘blink on’ almost simultaneously. The observer, convinced they have just seen a UFO, [and heard it accelerate back along its flight path] will suddenly see it blink on again, silently, elsewhere![the properties of the object’s performance change in relation to the angle of the observer within a reasonably wide ‘head-on’ arc]
Physical traces
Investigators of the site where a ‘UFO’ was seen to land/perform sometimes find holes, indentations, scorch marks and other physical traces: Meteoric cause -. 90% substantial meteoric objects are stone. Those performing like ‘UFOs’ often fragment intensely just above ground level [meteoroids], producing intense localised heat and small peppered craters. If the object is iron, twisted metal fragments may be found.
On rare occasions, the remaining core of meteoric material lands [due to their trajectory, size, mass, atmospheric resistance, very few impact with any force. The largest found, 66 tons, barely indents the ground]. It is then called a meteorite [Meteor is from ancient Greek ‘upper atmosphere, hence meteorology etc] If heard, the landing will be interpreted as a thud preceding the ‘UFO’ accelerating away back along its flight path.
Investigators of ‘UFO landings’ should take notice of innocent looking stones, large, tiny or fragmented!
Main Resources used
McCall G J Meteorites & their Origins [esp. pp44-54]UK 1973
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