Cool Stuff

The Wayfarers trilogy by author Jim Yackel

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Asteroid explosion over Indonesia raises fears about Earth's defences

 On 8 October, the rock crashed into the atmosphere above South Sulawesi Indonesia. The blast was heard by monitoring stations 10,000 miles away, according to a report by scientists at  the University of Western Ontario.

Scientists are concerned that it was not spotted by any telescopes, and that had it been larger it could have caused a disaster.

The asteroid, estimated to have been around 10 metres (30ft) across, hit the atmosphere at an estimated 45,000mph. The sudden deceleration caused it to heat up rapidly and explode with the force of 50,000 tons of TNT.

Luckily, due to the height of the explosion – estimated at between 15 and 20 km (nine to 12 miles) above sea level – no damage was caused on the ground.

Image search at PicPoke.com

However, if the object had been slightly larger – 20 to 30 metres (60 to 90ft) across – it could easily have caused extensive damage and loss of life, say researchers.

Very few objects smaller than 100 meters (300ft) across have been spotted and catalogued by astronomers.

Continues here

No comments:

Post a Comment