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Destroying Asteroids
- Thread starter MolaKule
- Start date
The moonlet revolves around the larger astroid once every 11.9 days. Hitting the larger astroid must have been two darn easy, even at 7 million miles away.
MolaKule
Staff member
"...[A]bout 66 million years ago, gravitational perturbations caused by a thin pancake-shaped disc of dark matter in the Milky Way galaxy dislodged icy comets in the Oort cloud at the very edge of the known solar system, resulting in the fiery meteoroid that eventually crash-landed in the Yucatan, leading to the mass extinction of more than 75 per cent of life on the planet in the process..."
Basulto, D., What killed the dinosaurs? Dark matter, says theoretical physicist Lisa Randall, Sydney Morning Herald, 11 December 2015.
So, in summary, the dinosaurs were wiped out by an alleged comet dislodged from an alleged Oort Cloud, by an alleged perturbation in the gravitational fields near our solar system allegedly 66 million years ago by the action of an alleged disc of putative dark matter.
Basulto, D., What killed the dinosaurs? Dark matter, says theoretical physicist Lisa Randall, Sydney Morning Herald, 11 December 2015.
So, in summary, the dinosaurs were wiped out by an alleged comet dislodged from an alleged Oort Cloud, by an alleged perturbation in the gravitational fields near our solar system allegedly 66 million years ago by the action of an alleged disc of putative dark matter.
MolaKule
Staff member
No, but some extensive Orbital Mechanics calculations must have been carried out.
Makes it even more amazing. Don't know the details, but it's possible the spacecraft locked on to target and used correction pulses during final approach to hit that small target.
Owen Lucas
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Hitting a tiny moonlet orbiting an asteroid is insanely impressive. Timing the position of the moon and getting the right trajectory, then making it happen.... I'm sure the scientists will say it's simple math if you ask them. Amazing work Nasa!
The meteor causation can be argued back and forth. It’s academic.
The crater, and the iridium layer across the planet, are indisputable.
The Earth was hit by a large object with lots of iridium in it.
That impact was coincident with the massive extinction event that killed off the dinosaurs.
Massive climate change happened at the same time.
There is some argument in academic circles about whether the meteor impact was solely responsible for the climate change and extinction or whether other factors, like volcanic eruptions contributed.
But the fact of the impact isn’t in dispute. The power of the impact and the mass extinction are also well established, even if scientists like to argue fine points within the bookends of impact and extinction.
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MolaKule
Staff member
This ‘K-T boundary’ (K = Cretaceous, from the German word for chalk, Kreide = chalk, T = Tertiary) is the time at which the dinosaurs supposedly disappeared.
In between the layers of rocks classified as Cretaceous and those of Tertiary category, there is evidence of enrichment with noble metals such as iridium and osmium, which are commonly found in objects from outer space. These noble metals are also found in volcanic emissions.
So how does one know if the iridium and osmium in the K-T boundary came from an extraterrestrial body AND the volcanoes, or from the extraterrestrial body itself, or from the volcanoes themselves, or from the combination of the two?
Keller, G., and six others, Chicxulub impact predates the K-T boundary mass extinction, Proc. Natl. Adad. Sci., USA, 10.1073/pnas.0400396101; published online /www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0400396101v1"]www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0400396101v1[/URL]>, 2 March 2004. Available on the Web as a PDF.
So the science isn't settled on the cause for the demise of the Dinosaurs.
I think we’re in agreement.
The impact isn’t in dispute. The timing isn’t in dispute.
The precise cause of the extinction continues to be investigated.
Good question.
One piece of evidence - Seems to me that glassy nodules are found in the gills of fossilized fish (found in the central USA) at the K-T boundary. Hard to believe that volcanoes would produce a rain of glassy nodules, but an impact by a huge extraterrestrial body could.
Dinosaur fossils are found in the same area, which is thought to be an ancient river and adjacent river bank.
MolaKule
Staff member
ET bodies are not the only source of glassy materials. "Volcanic ash consists of fragments of rock, mineral crystals, and volcanic glass, created during volcanic eruptions and measuring less than 2 mm (0.079 inches) in diameter.[1] The term volcanic ash is also often loosely used to refer to all explosive eruption products (correctly referred to as tephra), including particles larger than 2 mm. .." Wiki
Volcanic ash - Wikipedia
Dinosaur remains are found all over the world in sedimentary rock layers and are not always associated with the K-T boundary.
So do I have this right? As long as we are NOT doing this near our own atmosphere, we should not create another Van Halen belt?
The theory is the Van Halen belt was created by trapped particles in high altitude nuclear detonations.
It is one of the claims on how we could *not* go to the moon. You would have to pass through that radiation belt.
but detonating a nuclear bomb further out will not trap some radiation into our poles?
The theory is the Van Halen belt was created by trapped particles in high altitude nuclear detonations.
It is one of the claims on how we could *not* go to the moon. You would have to pass through that radiation belt.
but detonating a nuclear bomb further out will not trap some radiation into our poles?
OK, avoiding the obvious David Lee Roth jokes, the Van Allen belt extends out to about 36,000 miles. Well inside the orbit of the moon.
Van Allen radiation belt - Wikipedia
If we’re going to deflect asteroids, even with nukes, it has to take place whole lot farther away than the moon. thousands of times farther away.
In the case of this collision, it was over six million miles away, so about a hundred times farther than the Van Allen belt.
There is a near zero chance we’ll add to the radiation in the Van Allen belt. Further, the Van Allen belt isn’t a threat to life on Earth, in fact it is a manifestation of Earth‘s magnetic field (magnetosphere) - the field that protects us from solar wind, and that protection is one of the reasons life on Earth is possible.
MolaKule
Staff member
Apparently not all Asteroids are solids, but are more like sponges soaking up space dust and debris as they travel through the universe:
www.upi.com
Surface of asteroid Bennu soft like plastic ball pit, OSIRIS-REx spacecraft finds
After it analyzed data from the spacecraft, NASA said it would have sunk into the asteroid if it hadn't fired thrusters to lift off as soon as it collected the dust and rock samples because of its makeup.
www.upi.com
Looks like the Dart project was successful in changing the period of the orbit of the moonlet.
MolaKule
Staff member
Well, apparently after the Didymus impact by DART back in September, the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system has a tail as seen by Hubble.
www.nasa.gov
As you may recall, the DART spacecraft was travelling at 13,500 mph when it impacted Dimorphos, a mini-moon orbiting the asteroid Didymus. The mass of the DART spacecraft at the time of its kinetic impact with Dimorphos was roughly 570 kilograms (1260 pounds). While the mass of Dimorphos has not been directly measured, but using assumptions for the asteroid's density and size, the mass of Dimorphos is estimated as roughly 5 billion kilograms. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft was designed to assess the potential of a spacecraft impact to deflect an asteroid through transference of momentum.
A mechanical Impulse (such as a hammer blow on a rock) transfers momentum to the impacted object. An impacted mass travelling in space will have it's direction of movement and speed of motion changed. I.e., It's velocity vector and rotation period will change.
NASA does not have an explanation for the tail.
However, a tail means a loss of mass.
My theory is the DART impact sent a seismic P and S wave
throughout Dimorphos, modifying its internal structure and possibly causing it to lose some material from its outer structure.
If Dimorphos "reverberated" upon impact, then by its "spin-orbit" gravitational coupling with Didymos, Didymos' structure may have been affected as well.
NASA’s Hubble Spots Twin Tails in New Image After DART Impact - NASA Science
Two tails of dust ejected from the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system are seen in new images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, documenting the lingering aftermath of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impact. The DART spacecraft impacted Dimorphos, a small moonlet of Didymos, on...
www.nasa.gov
As you may recall, the DART spacecraft was travelling at 13,500 mph when it impacted Dimorphos, a mini-moon orbiting the asteroid Didymus. The mass of the DART spacecraft at the time of its kinetic impact with Dimorphos was roughly 570 kilograms (1260 pounds). While the mass of Dimorphos has not been directly measured, but using assumptions for the asteroid's density and size, the mass of Dimorphos is estimated as roughly 5 billion kilograms. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft was designed to assess the potential of a spacecraft impact to deflect an asteroid through transference of momentum.
A mechanical Impulse (such as a hammer blow on a rock) transfers momentum to the impacted object. An impacted mass travelling in space will have it's direction of movement and speed of motion changed. I.e., It's velocity vector and rotation period will change.
NASA does not have an explanation for the tail.
However, a tail means a loss of mass.
My theory is the DART impact sent a seismic P and S wave
throughout Dimorphos, modifying its internal structure and possibly causing it to lose some material from its outer structure.
If Dimorphos "reverberated" upon impact, then by its "spin-orbit" gravitational coupling with Didymos, Didymos' structure may have been affected as well.
Quite the Allegory...
Dang, always hope for those in the first full week of Nov every coupla years