# Real life Sci-fi 2013



## orbital (Feb 15, 2013)

*Real life Sci-fi*

+

Big day in the world of Asteroids & Meteorites*,, seems like Russia is quite the hotspot. 
_Who needs sci-fi movies when there's *real *video & sound _

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8dA2A_df0w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90Omh7_I8vI

..more to come:devil:

*Planetesimals


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## Steve K (Feb 15, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*

the second video is the one to watch! Incredible! ....and a bit too close for comfort, if you ask me! 
Watching the video, I couldn't help but wonder... why are so many people taking movies of their commute to work?? What normally happens on their drive that they want to capture?


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## EZO (Feb 15, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*



Steve K said:


> Watching the video, I couldn't help but wonder... why are so many people taking movies of their commute to work?? What normally happens on their drive that they want to capture?



A great many Russians use windshield mounted "dash cams" - small automated DVRs otherwise known as blackboxes to record everything that goes on in front of and sometimes also behind their vehicles. Many of these units include GPS mapping functions as well as G-sensors that will react on impact to record the video, sound and GPS information during an accident even if power is lost to the camera. The reasons for their popularity are multifold but the primary reason is for self protection. The average Russian motorist has to contend with often corrupt police, thugs, drunks, insurance scammers and incredibly dangerous road conditions where many drivers disobey speed limits and other safety laws. As a result of embracing this technology, numerous astonishing events and horrific traffic accidents get captured on video and there are whole websites and a YouTube channel dedicated to them.

Here are a few links that can enlighten you on the subject.

http://www.animalnewyork.com/2012/russian-dashcam/

http://jalopnik.com/tag/russian-dash-cams

http://www.rferl.org/content/dash-c...orruption-and-scams-car-crashes/24780355.html


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## Steve K (Feb 15, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*

oh.. this explains where Tosh.0 gets some of his material... 

to be honest, I've considered getting a little GoPro camera for the bike I commute on. Too many drivers that either drive while sleeping or don't respond well to any change in routine traffic. And it will be handy for the next meteroite that screams across the local cornfields!!


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## EZO (Feb 15, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*

I'm not so sure that the next big meteor will streak across local American skies. Between this latest event in Russia and the Tunguska explosion I'm starting to wonder if Russia just attracts large meteors in the same way that trailer parks in the US are said to attract tornadoes. :ironic:


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## JohnR66 (Feb 15, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*

Here is a video with excellent audio of the sonic booms (which caused the bulk of the damage). If you have good audio on your computer, crank it up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8dA2A_df0w


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## EZO (Feb 15, 2013)

*Re: Planetesimal'fest*

It seems the meteor (now a meteorite) likely ended up in a lake east of Moscow. I wonder if there will be an attempt to recover it, as it could be among the largest on record depending on what it weighs in at.




"A circular hole in the ice of Chebarkul Lake where a 
meteor reportedly struck the lake near Chelyabinsk, 
about 1500 kilometers (930 miles) east of Moscow, 
Russia, Friday, Feb. 15, 2013."


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## Steve K (Feb 15, 2013)

*Re: Planetesimal'fest*

two small boys were transported to earth in a meteorite!!?? That's incredible!


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## moldyoldy (Feb 15, 2013)

*Re: Planetesimal'fest*

according to Soviet, er, Russian news channels, the meteor damage exceeds 1 billion rubles with over 1200 injured. However the Russians did not lose their humor. There are at least a couple Photomontage showing Vladimir Putin, with upper body bare, riding on the main smoke trail of meteor, or another showing Medvedev standing on a monument with his hand in his jacket Napoleon-style and a piece of the meteor knocks his Napoleon-style hat off showing a clowns hat underneath. etc. I think that the Photomontage have been shrunk enough to paste:







edit: Ooops, Greta does not want Russian links posted on CPF. I removed those. Hopefully the German link of the Russian Photomontage of Putin is OK.


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## DAN92 (Feb 15, 2013)

*Re: Planetesimal'fest*



Video 2.


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## EZO (Feb 15, 2013)

*Re: Planetesimal'fest*



Steve K said:


> two small boys were transported to earth in a meteorite!!?? That's incredible!



And they have amazing superpowers here in earth's gravity and solar radiation!


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## LEDAdd1ct (Feb 15, 2013)

*Re: Planetesimal'fest*

The other joke circulating the web goes like this:

"Yeah, it was supposed to arrive December 21, 2012, but the Russian Postal Service..."


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## EZO (Feb 15, 2013)

_"Estimates of the meteor’s size varied considerably." _(New York Times) The Russian Academy of Sciences claims the object weighed ten tons and was around three meters in diameter. The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration estimated that the object was about 15 meters (49 ft) in diameter and had a mass of several thousand tons. Three impact sites were found. Two were in an area near Chebarkul Lake and the other is some 80 kilometres (50 miles) further to the northwest, near the town of Zlatoust. In Kazakhstan, emergency officials said they were looking for two possible unidentified objects that may have landed in Aktobe Province, Kazakhstan, adjacent to the affected Russian regions. There is disagreement and some confusion about the possible size and weights of the meteorites that made impact. One American scientist claims the object(s) that hit the ground were no larger than a loaf of bread while others point out that there appear to be at least two impact craters twenty or more feet in diameter and that larger meteorites may have survived intact. It is believed the meteor was made of an extremely hard material, possibly iron. The energy released from impacts were big enough to register as seismic events but some sources claim the meteor disintegrated completely. It will probably take some time for all the facts to sort themselves out.


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## EZO (Feb 16, 2013)

By "coincidence" a rather large shooting star was captured on a dash cam video in the San Francisco area at 7:44PM 2/15/2013.
The person who posted it said he was driving south on I-280 toward the peninsula.
Perhaps we are experiencing a "meteor shower" of larger rocks than usually seen?


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## orbital (Feb 16, 2013)

EZO said:


> I'm not so sure that the next big meteor will streak across local American skies. Between this latest event in Russia and the Tunguska explosion I'm starting to wonder if Russia just attracts large meteors in the same way that trailer parks in the US are said to attract tornadoes. :ironic:



^

The Soviet scientists lab experiment that proved the Tunguska event was above ground, should have gotten an extra day off, 
not to mention possibly a Nobel Prize, _since nowadays you don't actually have to do anything to get one.._

below: While hiking along some railroad tracks in Colorado about 20 years ago,
I spotted this ,,, its heavy and clearly metallic.
It's origin is still a bit of a mystery


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## EZO (Feb 16, 2013)

orbital said:


> ^
> 
> below: While hiking along some railroad tracks in Colorado about 20 years ago,
> I spotted this ,,, its heavy and clearly metallic.
> It's origin is still a bit of a mystery



That's a really cool object Orbital. If it is a meteorite it could be quite valuable as a collectible. If you take it to a local university science department you could probably have it definitively identified. It could be just about anything though, such as a discarded piece of industrial slag or an old locomotive clinker. 

Since you found it along railroad tracks, a clinker seems the most likely explanation. "_A *clinker* is a piece of solid matter formed in a coal fueled firebox when the firebed melts from its own heat and forms into a gooey mass on top of the firebed and prevents the free flow of air through the fire especially under poor combustion conditions or with poor quality fuel thus reducing the amount of heat the fireman can get out of the fire. Clinkers must be disposed of at regular intervals during its duty if a locomotive is to continue to produce sufficient steam to enable it to maintain a reasonable rate of work. Sometimes this had to be done during a single trip where poor coal was used." 

_Edit: _The term "clinker" comes from the fact that these metallic blobs, when cooled, would make a clinking sound when they'd hit each other or the shovel during clean out of the firebox.
_


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## LEDAdd1ct (Feb 16, 2013)

If it's either a meteorite or a piece of bona fide American railroad history, those are both pretty cool possibilities.


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## EZO (Feb 16, 2013)

LEDAdd1ct said:


> If it's either a meteorite or a piece of bona fide American railroad history, those are both pretty cool possibilities.



Very true! Only one is far more common than the other. I would certainly enjoy having either one. Good find orbital!


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## orbital (Feb 16, 2013)

+





___________^

A Yale professor figured the chances the 2012DA14 Asteroid and the Russian Meteorite in the same day were 1:100,000,000
..who's to argue w/ a Yale professor


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## Samy (Feb 16, 2013)

Well i can't say much about the co-incidence but i run a forward facing HD camera in the wife's car and front and rear HD camera's in my car. They're fairly cheap these days and are good insurance.

cheers


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## gadget_lover (Feb 16, 2013)

I wonder about the trajectory for the third rock, the one that streaked across the central California sky. Did it match either of the other two?

Daniel


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## jtr1962 (Feb 17, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*



Steve K said:


> to be honest, I've considered getting a little GoPro camera for the bike I commute on. Too many drivers that either drive while sleeping or don't respond well to any change in routine traffic. And it will be handy for the next meteroite that screams across the local cornfields!!


I've had similar thoughts. I've never collided with a car in 34 years of cycling, but it's only because I ride defensively and have cat-like reflexes. I figure if something ever happens, in all likelihood the driver will say it's my fault regardless of the actual turn of events. After all, cyclists in NYC seem to be blamed for everything from hurricanes to bad hair days. The camera will exonerate me. Same thing if a cop stops me for some traffic violation which didn't actually occur (the police, particularly in Manhattan, have been giving lots of cyclists tickets, sometimes even for violations of laws which don't exist). Come to think of it, the situation here in NYC is pretty much like in Russia-lots of bad drivers, corrupt police force. A camera is sounding better all the time.


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## LEDAdd1ct (Feb 17, 2013)

gadget_lover said:


> I wonder about the trajectory for the third rock, the one that streaked across the central California sky. Did it match either of the other two?
> 
> Daniel



Great question, Daniel.

No, it did not. Different times:

"The meteor entered Earth's atmosphere and blew apart over Chelyabinsk at 10:20 p.m. EST on Feb. 14 (03:20:26 GMT on Feb. 15). The meteor briefly outshined the sun during the event, which occurred just hours before a larger space rock — the 150-foot-wide (45 meters) asteroid 2012 DA14 — zoomed by Earth in an extremely close flyby."

vs.

"Asteroid 2012 DA14 approached within 17,200 miles (27,000 kilometers) of Earth Friday, but never posed an impact threat to the planet. The asteroid flyby and Russian meteor explosion had significantly different trajectories, showing that they were completely unrelated events, NASA officials said."

vs.

"Late Friday, another fireball was spotted over the San Francisco Bay Area in California. That event, also unrelated, occurred at about 7:45 p.m. PST (10:45 p.m. EST/0345 Feb. 16 GMT) and lit up the nighttime sky. Aside from the unexpected light show, the fireball over San Francisco had little other effect."

Source


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## moldyoldy (Feb 17, 2013)

some data translated and paraphrased from a few German and Russian websites

NASA scientists estimated the Chelyabinsk heavenly body (meteor/meteorite) to be about 15 meters in diameter with a mass of 7000 metric tons. It entered the Earth atmosphere with a speed of about 18 kilometers per second. It blew up at an altitude of about 20-25 Kilometers. The meteor flew over 4 adminstrative areas with a nominal strike area near the village of Satka. The energy released was estimated by NASA to be about 300 Kilotons of TNT. Unfortunately the "airburst" seems to have totally broke up the meteor and finding the small chunks in a heavily populated area will be difficult. As for specific damage, most of the detonation pressure wave was not focused, but there appears to have been some focused pressure waves that severely damaged some buildings <<ie: The Zinc factory>>. Divers have not found any obvious object(s) at/near the bottom of the 7 meter hole in that nearby lake 

<<comment: Given the nature of the earth in the Taiga (including bogs), any object could have burrowed quite deep into Taiga or the bottom of the lake.>>

The (Russian) Ministry of Defense claims to have spotted the meteor nearing the Earth with an estimated velocity of 40 kilometers/second and a mass of 10-30 (metric) tons. They thought that it would burn up in the atmosphere and did not sound an alarm. In the first couple days after the meteor entry, there were some 20K Russian soldiers and 3-7 aircraft searching the area around Chelyabinsk and Satka.

By historical comparison, 

the iron-meteor that fell on Sikhote-Alin on the East Coast of Russia in 1947 was estimated to be about 100 (metric) tons also detonated and broke apart in the atmosphere but did create many small holes (sic) in the landscape.

Otherwise the famous Tunguska meteor that exploded over the forested Taiga near a tributary of the Jenissei river caused severe damage to the forest and to local inhabitants. The Estonian minerologist Leonid Kulik (different from the Kulikov fame) later conducted an expedition to that remote area and attempted to reconstruct the event based on what he found and from statements by the locals. The locals saw a huge fireball that seemed to tear apart the sky. People were thrown far more than a meter thru the air and suffered broken bones as they fell back to the ground or landed in the tree branches. The hot pressure wave burned their clothing. The earth shook violently. The heat-storm tore apart the tents of the Tungusen. When Professor Kulik reached what appeared to be the epicenter of the event, the trees were burned and knocked down in a semicircle from the epicenter, but the trees at the epicenter were not knocked down, but stripped of all branches and bark and were burned and charred. ie: the pressure wave was directed vertically down. There was no crater. The estimated diameter of the meteor was about 50 meters. All of the eyewitnesses are now deceased.


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## moldyoldy (Feb 18, 2013)

update from a German website: 

members of the Russian Akademie of Sciences have found 53 meteor fragments, all a centimeter or less in size and looking like porous black stone. Based on chemical tests, they were conclusively proven to be part of a meteor of the Chondrite class. Content was about 10% iron, sulfite and Chrysolit. 

Based on where the pieces were found, the main meteor chunk is believed to be at the bottom of Chebarkul' Lake (озеро Чебаркуль). However the Chebarkul Lake has a 1.5 meter thick mud bottom. Air temperatures at the lake are minus 20C, so further searching with divers was halted. The chances of finding that main chunk are believed to be minimal. Nevertheless, the area around Chebarkul' lake was restricted to scientists only to stop treasure seekers from finding and attempting to sell supposed bits of the meteor for up to 300K Rubles (7500 Euro). The police are progressively hunting down the sellers. Almost 5000 building were damaged with some 1200 people hurt. 

NASA scientists estimated the energy released by the explosion to be about 30 times the Atomic Bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.


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## StarHalo (Feb 19, 2013)

Re: Why Russians have dashcams:

Works great for preventing insurance fraud, no so much if the driver has anger issues..


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## EZO (Feb 19, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*



jtr1962 said:


> Come to think of it, the situation here in NYC is pretty much like in Russia-lots of bad drivers, corrupt police force. A camera is sounding better all the time.



I had been tempted to post the following video in response to jtr1962's comment about driving and bicycling in NYC but didn't wanted to stray too far off topic. Then again, since Russian dash cam videos have been such a central part of the unfolding of the story of February 15th's meteor strike perhaps this is not really as off topic as it may seem and StarHalo has provided the perfect segue, especially now that the major news of this event is behind us.

When I came across this video, I thought I might watch a few minutes of its 13 minute run time but as each more jaw dropping scene unfolded I found myself unable to stop watching the whole thing. Jets strafing the highway, tanks crossing one's path, shootings, fights.....you name it, even the cops are drunk. I'll take NYC any day.


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## orbital (Feb 19, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*

+

Are these real?.. * "vvell yess, you can trvst me" *just send PayPal :tinfoil:


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## moldyoldy (Feb 19, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*

EZO & jtr1962: Thank you for those video links and comments! The main topic had pretty much run it's course anyway 

One of my daughters intends to do her residency in the NYC area and she also likes to ride bikes. She has worked in NYC before, but not with a bike. Reading about the NYC bicycle riders and their problems should slow her down. and a doctor that we know wants to visit Russia and does not want to be bothered by public transportation -> wants to drive a rental car. Watching these Russian dash-cam videos will be a great disincentive for his intentions. as for me/wife, outside of the video itself, the verbal comments from the Russian drivers at times were simply hilarious - although quite vulgar in language. Our Russian acquaintances had never mentioned those links, probably because that is the life over there. Thanks to both of you!


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## jtr1962 (Feb 19, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*



moldyoldy said:


> One of my daughters intends to do her residency in the NYC area and she also likes to ride bikes. She has worked in NYC before, but not with a bike. Reading about the NYC bicycle riders and their problems should slow her down.


For what it's worth, she'll probably avoid any problems as far as the police go if she doesn't go through red lights or stop signs right in front of them. Nearly every cyclist here treats red lights as yields simply because nearly every block has a traffic light. As far as avoiding problems with motorists, not too hard if you're generally respectful. Don't make quick maneuvers, cut people off, or pass red lights/ stop signs if there's cross traffic. Fact is everyone in NYC is a scofflaw in a big hurry, but we all somehow make it work. You just need to keep a high spatial awareness of everything around you. It's actually quite a bit of fun once you get the hang of it.


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## EZO (Feb 19, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*



moldyoldy said:


> the verbal comments from the Russian drivers at times were simply hilarious - although quite vulgar in language. Our Russian acquaintances had never mentioned those links, probably because that is the life over there.



Just the intonations in some of the voices were pretty funny without knowing what the comments were and one gets the impression that those Russians sure do know how to cuss without even knowing the language! There sure didn't seem to be too many people on bicycles tooling around the Russian streets either. It must be dangerous enough to just to be a motorist.


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## moldyoldy (Feb 19, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*



jtr1962 said:


> For what it's worth, she'll probably avoid any problems as far as the police go if she doesn't go through red lights or stop signs right in front of them. Nearly every cyclist here treats red lights as yields simply because nearly every block has a traffic light. As far as avoiding problems with motorists, not too hard if you're generally respectful. Don't make quick maneuvers, cut people off, or pass red lights/ stop signs if there's cross traffic. Fact is everyone in NYC is a scofflaw in a big hurry, but we all somehow make it work. You just need to keep a high spatial awareness of everything around you. It's actually quite a bit of fun once you get the hang of it.



Thanks! I copied off your comments in an email to her.


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## moldyoldy (Feb 19, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*



EZO said:


> Just the intonations in some of the voices were pretty funny without knowing what the comments were and one gets the impression that those Russians sure do know how to cuss without even knowing the language! There sure didn't seem to be too many people on bicycles tooling around the Russian streets either. It must be dangerous enough to just to be a motorist.



there were a few relatively good verbal assessments of the driving by other drivers in the process of their failure. In one case of a truck sliding out of control, the comment was something to the effect of: he is straightening it out ... nope, he is losing it. 

However most of the time the politest reference to the other driver was to call him a "Blin" or, as translated, "a pancake". Among other unofficial implications, being called a "Blin" refers to the person's intelligence. Otherwise the cruder appelations and commentary would not be acceptable even in the CPF Underground. Russian swearing is much more creative than just 4 letter words!


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## jtr1962 (Feb 19, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*



moldyoldy said:


> Thanks! I copied off your comments in an email to her.


You're quite welcome. Here's a few other pointers I picked up from years of riding in the city which you might wish to pass on:

1) Try to leave a cushion of space around you for the unexpected. It's a given that pedestrians will suddenly appear, cabs will stop and pick up passengers, etc. so it's best to make sure you have some maneuvering room when they do.

2) It's really common for cars to make turns here without using turn signals. Generally, you'll know this in advance if you hear the engine speed slowing down along with the car starting to drift slightly to the right. If you see this, back off a bit because they'll probably cut in front of you to turn. If there's room you can pass them on the left. In fact, in general only pass on the left at intersections. The exception to this is if you're on the left side of a one way street, such as one the protected lanes on First Avenue.

3) Make sure to be extra careful around buses. Bus drivers here are actually pretty aware of cyclists, but they still need to pull into bus stops frequently. Make sure to always pass buses on the left when they're signaling and pulling into a stop.

4) Cars tend to try to "make lights", so don't go the instant a traffic light changes to green. In fact, it's a good idea to check for cross traffic all the time, just in case.

5) Watch out for potholes! Some streets aren't bad, but others are just littered with potholes, ruts, etc.

6) If you're going a long distance up or downtown, the Hudson River Greenway is probably your best bet for most of the trip. It's basically a bicycle expressway running nearly the length of Manhattan. There are some vehicle crossings to get to piers, but generally you won't be dealing with motor vehicles on the greenway. There's also the East River Greenway, but there's a gap.

The nice thing about riding in the city (i.e. Manhattan) is traffic generally is often moving no faster than bicycle speed. Many times it's moving slower. This makes riding pretty safe so long as you keep aware of things around you. In fact, most of my mishaps have been due to potholes or otherwise uneven pavement. BTW, I live in Queens, not Manhattan, so that's where I ride. The main difference between Queens and Manhattan as far as riding goes is the streets in Queens are in worse condition, the motor traffic generally moves faster, and there are a lot less pedestrians.

NYC Cycling Map:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/2012_nyc-cycling-map.pdf


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## moldyoldy (Feb 20, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*

jtr1962: Thanks for the NYC info - also passed on to my daughter. Having ridden the commuter trains from Berkley Heights NJ in to NYC and then walked a lot, even w/o a bike I appreciate the routes with lesser traffic. I agree that nearly every corner has a light, and have observed that many NYC drivers either have their foot in the carburetor on are standing on the brakes. crazy! Driving to minimize fuel consumption is not something they comprehend.


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## moldyoldy (Feb 20, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*

Back to the topic - essentially regarding the more violent forces of nature:

A timely find: the third largest meteor crater was just found in SE Australia in the East Warburton Basin. The diameter of the crater was determined to be 200 km, as generated by an estimated 10-30 KM diameter asteroid that impacted some 300 million years ago. It is believed that impact also led to species die-off over a wide area of the earth because of the pulverized rock thrown in to the atmosphere.

By comparison, vulcanism from isolated volcanoes also has had global effects, not just in Pompei. 

The largest recorded volcanic explosion occured in 1815 from the volcano Tambora on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa which pulverized some 160 cubic kilometers of rock.

The island of Krakatoa/Krakatau was the scene of the second largest volcanic explosion in recorded history when in 1883 the ocean reached the main magma chamber underneath Krakatoa and generated a Caldera explosion that pulverized some 20 cubic kilometers of rock and accelerated that rock up to 25 KM in to the atmosphere. Some 165 cities and towns were destroyed at the cost of 36000 lives. The dust from the Krakatau volcanic explosion colored the sunsets even in Britain for the next few years. By comparison, Mt. St. Helens in the US pulverized about 1 cubic kilometer of rock. 

The third largest volcanic explosion was Mt. Pinatubo which pulverized about 10 cubic kilometers of rock. 

All of these represented global effects! However in general, the large asteroid impacts had greater/longer-lasting effects on life on the planet Earth than the volcanic explosions.


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## orbital (Feb 20, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*

+

I'v always wondered about the formation of the Michigan Basin.
It's formation/explanation is always a bit incomplete.

The incredible size is what scientists can't really explain.
Is it too big to be a collapsed caldera?? 
An asteroid impact to create something soo large, would have to be from an asteroid roughly the size of Rhode Island

The geologic record of the area has nearly been wiped clean by several glaciations, unfortunately.





_______________ ^ Similar geologic rocks ,, if you look close, you can make out the great lakes..






____ just reference stuff ^


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## EZO (Feb 20, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*



moldyoldy said:


> Back to the topic



Wait, not just yet! 

Jon Stewart's take on this event and Russian dash cam videos is just too good.

This is just a screen shot.....go HERE to view.


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## moldyoldy (Feb 20, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*

Jon Stewart obviously copied out the better Russian dash-cam accident scenes - a funny/sad presentation. yes, Russian society can be rather coarse - because life over there is coarse and raw. minus 20C and colder is normal. East of the Urals, roads are nearly impassable during the spring thaw. The military is well known for many shenanigans that would have US officers courtmartialed. 

Ref my comment above about a US doctor wanting to drive in Russia to carry his ski equipment: After watching the video links, he upgraded his vehicle to a 7 passenger van - for two people. He figured that he needed some more crush space.... and he is considering purchasing a small dash-cam just for the trip!


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## moldyoldy (Feb 20, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*

Ref the Michigan caldera post by Orbital above: How does this basin size compare to the Yellowstone super volcanoe slumbering away for now? The vulcanologists wax eloquent when they speculate on the size of a Caldera explosion from the Yellowstone magma chamber. I do agree that something the size of the Michigan basin is probably an old meteor strike. The astrophysicists have repeatedly commented that the sky in the vicinity of the Earth is relatively calm in the A.D. or CE era. There is plenty of documentation in stone that the sky was not very calm going backwards from the BC/AD transition. Read any of the several works from Velikovsky if you need some more convincing...


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## EZO (Feb 20, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*



moldyoldy said:


> Jon Stewart obviously copied out the better Russian dash-cam accident scenes - a funny/sad presentation. yes, Russian society can be rather coarse - because life over there is coarse and raw. minus 20C and colder is normal. East of the Urals, roads are nearly impassable during the spring thaw. The military is well known for many shenanigans that would have US officers courtmartialed.
> 
> Ref my comment above about a US doctor wanting to drive in Russia to carry his ski equipment: After watching the video links, he upgraded his vehicle to a 7 passenger van - for two people. He figured that he needed some more crush space.... and he is considering purchasing a small dash-cam just for the trip!



*moldyoldy* - I can hardly disagree with your remarks. A Russian acquaintance laments that since the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991 Russian society has become more and more corrupt and dysfunctional, albeit more "open" and what corruption and dysfunction existed at the time simply came out of the woodwork. 

As far as Jon Stewart's presentation is concerned, I could not imagine that I could be further astonished by any Russian dash-cam videos beyond those in my original post but several clips from the Daily Show did the trick, particularly the tractor trailer full of live cows spilling over, hence my posting it......and as sad a commentary as it is, it was indeed funny. I live in a rural area among farms where I regularly observe people transporting livestock, but with great care and caution. I mean, the average cow weighs around 700-1000 pounds and it's moving around in the back of a truck and this was literally a herd of them! You've just got to wonder how the driver could take a turn like that, at that speed in a truck full of cows. Vodka would be my guess.

I drive with a dash cam and I highly recommend them. This is partly why I am fascinated by the Russian's use of them. The media is describing the Russian's reliance on them as a "fad". I disagree. I believe they will someday be in all vehicles and perhaps may even be offered as a factory option when you buy a new car. I recommend that your doctor friend do some research before buying a dash cam as many on the market are cheap and unreliable. I pray that he has a safe journey in his 7 passenger van. I wonder if one can rent an armored vehicle in Russia?


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## jtr1962 (Feb 20, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*



EZO said:


> You've just got to wonder how the driver could take a turn like that, at that speed in a truck full of cows. Vodka would be my guess.


I think vodka is a factor in the vast majority of those incidents caught on dash cam. From what I've read, the Russians go through the stuff like we drink Coke or Pepsi.


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## EZO (Feb 20, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*



jtr1962 said:


> I think vodka is a factor in the vast majority of those incidents caught on dash cam. From what I've read, the Russians go through the stuff like we drink Coke or Pepsi.



I agree jtr1962. It makes me wonder about the scenes of the fighter jet or the helicopter gunship "strafing" the highway, or the tank cutting across the road. Hmmm......well, *na zda-rov’-ye!*


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## HighlanderNorth (Feb 20, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*



JohnR66 said:


> Here is a video with excellent audio of the sonic booms (which caused the bulk of the damage). If you have good audio on your computer, crank it up!
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8dA2A_df0w




Although the brilliant US media journalists kept referring to these blasts as sonic booms, I dont think thats what it was . I used to live near an airforce base(30 minutes away), and jets would break the sound barrier somewhat frequently, but it wasnt anywhere near that loud.

Sonic booms dont cause 50 kiloton explosion energy events. This was the asteroid exploding.


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## StarHalo (Feb 20, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*



HighlanderNorth said:


> Although the brilliant US media journalists kept referring to these blasts as sonic booms, I dont think thats what it was . I used to live near an airforce base(30 minutes away), and jets would break the sound barrier somewhat frequently, but it wasnt anywhere near that loud.



Nope, it was indeed a sonic boom; jets don't enter the atmosphere at Mach 55 and then disintegrate from heat energy.

Sound moves through air like waves on water, throw a little pebble in the water, little waves, big rock, big waves..


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## EZO (Feb 20, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*



HighlanderNorth said:


> Although the brilliant US media journalists kept referring to these blasts as sonic booms, I dont think thats what it was . I used to live near an airforce base(30 minutes away), and jets would break the sound barrier somewhat frequently, but it wasnt anywhere near that loud.
> 
> Sonic booms dont cause 50 kiloton explosion energy events. This was the asteroid exploding.



I would agree. The main stream media (MSM) always seems to oversimplify things or just doesn't know what it is talking about and there seems to be a lot of confusion about the difference between a sonic boom and a shock wave or detonation wave. This meteor would have made both a sonic boom and a detonation wave but the explosion was the main event here where the detonation wave was the force that broke windows and caused damage. 

I witnessed a spectacular Leonid Meteor Shower some years back with numerous bright colorful flashes (mostly green) and there were indeed sonic booms happening as much as every thirty seconds to one minute apparent for a period during the event.


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## EZO (Feb 20, 2013)

I found a reference to what I was trying to explain in the wikipedia entry on shock wave:

"When the 2013 meteor entered into the Earth’s atmosphere with an energy release equivalent to hundred or more kilotons of TNT, dozens of times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, the meteor's shock wave produced damages as in a supersonic jet's flyby (directly underneath the meteor's path) and as a detonation wave, with the circular shock wave centered at the meteor explosion, causing multiple instances of broken glass in the city of Chelyabinsk and neighboring areas."

So, according to this explanation both the shock and detonation waves caused damage. However, as best I understand the explosive detonation wave was the more powerful.


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## StarHalo (Feb 20, 2013)

It's the same thing - movement of air caused by some sort of energy transfer. When the meteor broke, it released more energy at that point, but all of it came from the movement through the atmosphere, and all the damage was done by a "sonic boom" shockwave.


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## EZO (Feb 21, 2013)

StarHalo said:


> It's the same thing - movement of air caused by some sort of energy transfer. When the meteor broke, it released more energy at that point, but all of it came from the movement through the atmosphere, and all the damage was done by a "sonic boom" shockwave.



There is a distinction; shock waves are not sound waves; a shock wave takes the form of a very sharp change in the gas properties. Shock waves in "air" are heard as a loud "crack" or "snap" noise. 
Over time a shock wave can change from a nonlinear wave into a linear wave, degenerating into a conventional sound wave as it heats the air and loses energy. The sound wave is heard as the familiar "thud" or "thump" of a sonic boom, commonly created by the supersonic flight of aircraft. A detonation wave follows different rules to a shock wave since it is driven by chemical reactions occurring inside the wave itself, and so the speed of the wave depends on the nature of the chemical reaction occurring. So a "sonic boom" is a "relative" of a shock wave but is a different animal. A shock wave can cause a sonic boom if it happens in air. I am by no means an expert on this stuff and NASA has a whole department full of physicists whose job it is to analyze and theorize about this subject but as I understand it a shock wave or detonation wave can exist in a vacuum, like outer space but a "sonic boom" can't.


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## LEDAdd1ct (Feb 21, 2013)

I don't have knowledge in this field to contribute to the discussion, but here is a page distinguishing shock waves from sonic booms:

Page

And Another


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## HighlanderNorth (Feb 21, 2013)

StarHalo said:


> It's the same thing - movement of air caused by some sort of energy transfer. When the meteor broke, it released more energy at that point, but all of it came from the movement through the atmosphere, and all the damage was done by a "sonic boom" shockwave.




I think the point that we are making is that the explosion was essentially a separate event from the sonic boom, and it was the explosion that caused the vast majority of the energy that caused damage. The explosion was caused by, as you stated, the asteroid entering the atmosphere at mach-???, and the sudden friction caused by the asteroid hitting the air at such a high speed caused extreme heat and the eventual explosion. It didnt explode because of the sonic boom, and the sonic boom wasnt the main contributor to the shock wave that caused the damage. look at the many videos, and you'll see a blinding white light at the very moment of the explosion. That was proof of the massive amount of energy and heat released by the explosion.

But our main point was that the US media were initially blaming the damage on the sonic boom, with no mention of an explosion, as if the entire incident was caused by the noise created by the sonic boom.

Its like back in 2004 after the pacific tsunami, I watched at least 2 journalists speculate that global warming played a role in the tsunami. I dont doubt global warming, but the fact is global warming has absolutely nothing to do with plate tectonics!


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## moldyoldy (Feb 21, 2013)

just some reference data for pressure waves; 

The military grade explosive Octol has a flame front of ~8000 ft/sec depending on the specific formulation. Octol is used in certain bombs. View the various videos of B-52s running Arclight missions over Vietnam and watch the _mostly_ spherical expansion of the shock wave compressing the air from each bomb exploding. or watch any video from Iraq of a VBIED detonating, like the one from that dump truck. You can see the air compression effects as the wave travels towards the camera and the dust/dirt kicked up by the pressure wave as well as people being knocked down. The point is that exploding gases themselves also exceed the speed of sound. and most explosive devices are at least somewhat shaped to focus the energy in specific directions. ie: not the usual flash-powder-based aerial bomb in fireworks, the effects of which are spherical. At some point the gases from the explosion slow down and dissipate, but the air pressure wave propagates further.

Back to the Chelyabinsk meteor: As far as I have read in Russian or German press, the wall(s) of that Zinc factory were knocked down or heaviily damaged by a localized pressure wave, not by a large extra-terrestrial object that was "found". Overpressure above 5 psi on a building will cause collapse, some buildings sooner, some later. In Hiroshima, the overpressure from the nuclear bomb was estimated above 12 psi on the ground. IOW, in the case of the Chelyabinsk meteor exploding from intense heat, the shock wave was not symmetrical. 

Dash-cams typically have a max of 30 frames per sec, same as the double-scan effect on CRT TV with a dual-scan interlace which raises the effective rate up to the supposed flicker free of 60hz. Although it is visible from the dash-cam videos that there seemed to be more than one explosion, the progression of the main explosion was difficult to ascertain except for the blinding light which seemed to last a bit longer than the detonation from an explosive. However the image retention of the CCD in a dash cam is unknown. It takes a while before the charge on individual elements in a CCD dissipates. 

On another web site (forgot which), there was an analysis of the depth of atmospheric penetrations of increasing sizes of meteors. The Tunguska meteor was about as large as it could be to still explode in the atmosphere and not create a significant crater in the Earth's crust. rather fascinating to read how close the Earth has routinely avoided disaster because of a thick atmosphere.

Going off topic just a bit regarding air pressure waves: on 30 Oktober 1961, a Tupolew-Tu-95W-Bomber dropped the Soviet Царь-бомба (Tsar-Bomb) (AN602) (hydrogen bomb) that detonated at about 4000 meters altitude over Novaya Semlya north of the Soviet mainland. I watched the blips of the air pressure wave from that detonation as it traveled around the world twice - as they were recorded live on a recording barograph in an open window at the high-school that I was attending. The first blip was much higher than the second blip. The actual megaton numbers from that H-bomb vary around 60 megatons, but evidently the yield was higher than Soviet scientists had calculated (to be 50 megatons). A 10 megaton nuclear weapon was considered to be a city-buster. At that time, I did not fully understand the physics implications, but I understood the pressure blips on the barometric chart - because since grade school I had to routinely participate in Civil Defense exercises in schools, such as ducking under desks and always away from windows. and it was glass shards from broken windows in/around Chelyabinsk that caused most of the human damage.


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## EZO (Feb 23, 2013)

I know, I know, we've had enough videos of the Russian meteor event already!

Maybe not? This is clever, well done and contains some footage most of us haven't seen previously.

*Russian Meteorite: The Movie!! (trailer)*


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## LEDAdd1ct (Feb 23, 2013)

Quite melodramatic, but including the sound really amplifies the "I'm there" effect.

The tinkling glass and reactions on people's faces going about their daily business really emphasizes the sudden nature of the event.


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## moldyoldy (Feb 23, 2013)

this is one of those rare cases where Chicken Little and Henny Penny are able to legitimately agree that "the sky is falling".....


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## orbital (Mar 1, 2013)

+

I know this has nothing to do w/ the OP,, but check this out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jvLalY6ubc&feature=player_embedded


*___________** ^ not sure if I should be scared or not!!! ^ *oo:*__________________*


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## moldyoldy (Mar 1, 2013)

orbital said:


> +
> 
> I know this has nothing to do w/ the OP,, but check this out
> 
> ...



the mechanical mule is not new, including walking up a hill or across uneven ground with a serious load, but the ability to throw a concrete block is new for me. Should you be scared? Not until the power pack has shrunk from that power cable leading up/across the ceiling to a compact autonomous size w/in the device. Then be very scared - Star Wars will not be long in coming... 

To my observation, CPF itself is one of the better Internet sites to routinely visit to understand the problems and opportunities with increasing energy density in a battery, or more generally, in a easily portable power source. At my former job in various design meetings it was repeated and clear that electric drives had sufficient power to replace all hydraulics in vehicles/weapon systems, but dissipating the heat w/o a high I/R signature represented a major problem. Hydraulics are considered a major fire threat.


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## EZO (Mar 1, 2013)

moldyoldy said:


> Should you be scared? Not until the power pack has shrunk from that power cable leading up/across the ceiling to a compact autonomous size w/in the device. Then be very scared - Star Wars will not be long in coming...



I've been watching the creepy robots Bostons Dynamics has been developing with keen interest and I had the same thought about what happens when they cut the cables on these things as they become more and more autonomous. Then I remembered that they've already done that! Scared? Not yet, but we are certainly getting closer to that day. Terminator can't be too far off!


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## EZO (Mar 11, 2013)

March 9 - "An asteroid as big as a city block shot relatively close by the Earth on Saturday, the latest in a series of visiting celestial objects including an asteroid the size of a bus that exploded over Russia last month, injuring 1,500. Discovered just six days ago, the 460-foot long (140-meter) Asteroid 2013 ET passed about 600,000 miles from Earth at 3:30 p.m. EST. That's about 2-1/2 times as far as the moon, fairly close on a cosmic yardstick.

"The scary part of this one is that it's something we didn't even know about," Patrick Paolucci, president of Slooh Space Camera, said during a webcast featuring live images of the asteroid from a telescope in the Canary Islands."

Four asteroid flybys occurred between March 4 and today (March 10). The asteroids were also all discovered this month, some just days ago.

http://www.space.com/20149-asteroids-buzz-earth-week.html


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## jtr1962 (Mar 11, 2013)

Scary yes, but putting things into perspective in the worst case something small enough to not notice until it's nearly on top of us will take out a city. Granted, that's not a pleasant prospect, but it's not an extinction level event either. And chances are good the impacts will either be in the ocean, or in remote areas. Large, dense cities with the potential for the most casualties are a very small percentage of Earth's land area. Anything large enough to do serious damage to the planet we'll probably know about decades in advance, giving us plenty of time to deflect it. I think deflecting these space rocks to crash on the moon is a good strategy as it puts them out of commission for good as potential Earth impactors.


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## EZO (Mar 11, 2013)

These things have been whizzing by the planet for millenia completely unnoticed, so to a certain degree they are in the news more often just because we can see at least some of them coming. Sooner or later though we are statistically due for a big one to hit. Nobody is talking about an extinction level event here but certainly in light of the recent episode in Russia that involved a relatively small rock in the scheme of things, an asteroid "the size of a city block" coming nearby the earth that is only detected shortly before it does is something to give one pause. Even if it hit in the ocean it would be a very serious worldwide event.


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## EZO (Mar 11, 2013)

Here is some footage of the city block sized asteroid that came past the earth on March 9 2013.
It was first detected on March 3rd.


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## moldyoldy (Mar 11, 2013)

actually 3 asteroids whizzed past the Planet Earth on 9 and 10 March - and were discovered only a few days before they flew by. „2013 ET“, „2013 EC 20“ und „2013 EN 20“. Evidently all of those passed inside of Earth's orbit before departing the Earth's vicinity. IOW, They missed the Earth this time. Next time?

I cannot remember which journal I read it in, maybe Scientific American, but a couple seemingly well-known astrophycists commented that the "sky" has been relatively "quiet" in the last thousand plus years. That is not normal. Especially before the BC/AD turnover, the sky was quite active. Not that I am going to worry about it, but I agree with EZO => some major events are statistically due....


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## moldyoldy (Mar 12, 2013)

news release today/12Mar2013: Soviet scientists met in Moscow to discuss asteroid defenses. In the video on a German news site, I was having considerable difficulty following the Russian that was being interpreted by the German version. However some details seemed clear enough. The nuclear scientists wanted a year for rocket prep before launch to intercept the asteroid. and for a 1 KM diameter asteroid, a nuclear weapon somewhere above 1 megaton would be required to break it apart. well, so much for a discussion. they have the weapons, but with only a few days lead time any detonation would be dangerously close to the earth anyway. EMP effects could cause considerable damage even if an asteroid of that size was at least broken in to smaller pieces.


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## LEDAdd1ct (Mar 12, 2013)

I thought the goal was to deflect rather than break apart the asteriod?


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## jtr1962 (Mar 12, 2013)

LEDAdd1ct said:


> I thought the goal was to deflect rather than break apart the asteriod?


That depends largely on the size and composition of the asteroid. A metallic asteroid is likely to end up being broken into fewer, larger chunks which may still survive reentry. A comet, basically a dirty snowball, might be nicely broken into pieces small enough to burn up in the atmosphere by a large enough detonation. Once asteroids get past a certain size, deflection becomes the only viable option. We don't have bombs large enough to effectively break up an asteroid much over maybe 1 km, regardless of its composition. Deflection will need lead times of at least several years, perhaps decades, to be a viable option but it should work.


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## EZO (Mar 13, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*

There is a lot of interesting material to peruse on the website of the B612 Foundation in regard to this subject.

_"The B612 Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c) 3 organization dedicated to opening up the frontier of space exploration and protecting humanity from asteroid impacts. On June 28, 2012, the Foundation announced its plans to build and operate the first privately funded, launched, and operated interplanetary mission – an infrared space telescope to be placed in orbit around the Sun to discover, map, and track asteroids whose orbits approach Earth and threaten humanity."

_








_Photo of Comet Tempel 1 taken by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft on July 4, 2005,
67 seconds after a probe crashed into the comet._


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## EZO (Mar 14, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*


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## orbital (Mar 14, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*

_____^

...and yet there still are people who can't grasp how our solar system was formed.


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## EZO (Mar 14, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*



orbital said:


> _____^
> 
> ...and yet there still are people who can't grasp how our solar system was formed.



Everything revolves around the earth, right?


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## moldyoldy (Mar 14, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*

What? Are you not a member of the Flat Earth Society?


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## EZO (Mar 14, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*

http://theflatearthsociety.org/cms/

The Flat Earth Society Wikipedia Page

Sign me up! :ironic:


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## moldyoldy (Mar 14, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*

Get out your telescopes, or just binoculars, or evidently it is visible with the Mark I Eyeball! The Comet PanStarrs is flying by and should be visible shortly after sunset in Europe at least. Several articles in the German press about it. 

The link gives a view of the comet over Pensacola Florida.

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/komet-panstarrs-kopfueber-am-nachthimmel-fotostrecke-94441-2.html

A general link regarding PanStarrs:

http://www.space.com/20056-comet-panstarrs-march-night-sky.html


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## LEDAdd1ct (Mar 14, 2013)

*Re: (*) Planetesimal'fest*

Tried for three nights to find it, and could not. 

Hope some people (on our forum or otherwise) can see it.


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## orbital (Mar 15, 2013)

jtr1962 said:


> That depends largely on the size and composition of the asteroid. A metallic asteroid is likely to end up being broken into fewer, larger chunks which may still survive reentry. A comet, basically a dirty snowball, might be nicely broken into pieces small enough to burn up in the atmosphere by a large enough detonation. Once asteroids get past a certain size, deflection becomes the only viable option. We don't have bombs large enough to effectively break up an asteroid much over maybe 1 km, regardless of its composition. Deflection will need lead times of at least several years, perhaps decades, to be a viable option but it should work.



+

First we started banging rocks together to make tools,..
now we look to bang 'rocks together in inner-space & outer-space

_*things never change *_ 









​ _________ ^ Higgs bosson


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## orbital (Mar 23, 2013)

+

On *NOVA *this Wednesday

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/meteor-strike.html



_____________________


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## Ken_McE (Mar 24, 2013)

moldyoldy said:


> members of the Russian Akademie of Sciences have found 53 meteor fragments, ... Content was about 10% iron, sulfite and Chrysolit.



That Sulfite would explain why there was so much yellow in the cloud. What I take away from all this is that just the wind from its passage injured over a thousand people...


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## moldyoldy (Mar 25, 2013)

some new data/calculations for a well worn subject by now:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/science/space/in-asteroids-aftermath-a-sigh-of-relief.html?hp&_r=0


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## moldyoldy (Apr 1, 2013)

Another smallish meteor will impact the Earth in the Russian area of "Gamanan" in East Siberia on 7 July at 2136 local time. The meteor is reportedly only about 1-1/2 meters in diameter. However based on a new laser telescope technique, analysis indicates a composition of some 90% of a highly pure form of carbon. IOW, a diamond in some form. Although the outer surface will be stripped away upon re-entry, the "diamond" core is not expected to melt and will impact the earth. If the core is actually out of what is commonly understood to be "diamond", the value could be up to 6 billion Dollars, depending on how many pieces it breaks in to upon impact from a very high speed. Evidently the laser telescope data can also match a carbon substance of a much lower density than diamond, hence less valuable pieces on impact. Reportedly this impact is the subject of hot discussion in the Amsterdam diamond market. 

Ref the German website Focus article: 

http://www.focus.de/wissen/weltraum...auf-russisches-sperrgebiet-zu_aid_950812.html

Evidently the Soviets are already moving military equipment and closing off the expected impact area to prevent treasure hunters from grabbing bits of this meteor. No one in Moscow is confirming anything for now. Supposedly there will be some statement released in Russia on Tuesday. 

Umm, I am unable to find "OM-2013B2", parsed out or not, on any NASA or JPL websites although the measurements were by JPL, Furthermore, I am unable to find "Gamanan" on any website or mapsite, nor do I recall that name from my own memory. Nothing. From the usual Russian websites: "Ничего не найдено" "Результатов нет". That alone is very curious for me.

The Focus article reported that the "Gamanan" area was near the Sea of Okhotsk in Eastern Siberia, and implied that _either_ Russian or Chinese treasure hunters might pick up pieces of the meteor that could impact in a potentially low marshy area. Well, including Chinese in any possible pickup means that the location is also near the River Amur which does drain in to the Sea of Okhotsk. Still no success on finding "Gamanan". Furthermore, the word "Gamanan" does not relate to anything in Russian that is meaningful to me - probably from an indigenous language. 

Ref the location: My wife said she will ask her Russian(Soviet) acquaintances about the word "Gamanan". In any case, she will be back in Eastern Europe on 7 July. However I recall that some CPF members also had Russian acquaintances, maybe EZO?

Any ideas?


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## EZO (Apr 1, 2013)

moldyoldy, If this interesting and exciting tale is still in the news cycle tomorrow when it is no longer the first of April it will be a very newsworthy item indeed!


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## orbital (Apr 1, 2013)

EZO said:


> moldyoldy, If this interesting and exciting tale is still in the news cycle tomorrow when it is no longer the first of April it will be a very newsworthy item indeed!



+

Search: *Popigai Crater*

Russia again____^


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## moldyoldy (Apr 1, 2013)

EZO said:


> moldyoldy, If this interesting and exciting tale is still in the news cycle tomorrow when it is no longer the first of April it will be a very newsworthy item indeed!



sigh. I totally forgot that today was 1 April. For me it was simply Easter Monday. ... insert hook in mouth & pull ...


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## EZO (Apr 1, 2013)

moldyoldy said:


> sigh. I totally forgot that today was 1 April. For me it was simply Easter Monday. ... insert hook in mouth & pull ...
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Too funny! I assumed you were just having some fun with the elaborately presented story on that link to see if you could get any of your CPF buddies to bite.


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## moldyoldy (Apr 1, 2013)

yep, both funny and a bit sad since my own cross checks found nothing, and I know from experience that my cross-checks are not that bad. 

The Focus editors now posted a subsequent comment, w/in the article, not on the first page, that (translated/gisted by me):

"Dear User, as many of you suspected, the diamond asteroid from space is not from some secret source in outer space, but sprang solely from our imagination. It is a Focus-Online April (fools) joke for 2013. If you had fun with it, that makes us happy .... We collected together some of the best/better Aprilfools jokes that other editors put together." <<link supplied on the Focus webpage>>

http://www.focus.de/panorama/welt/t...en-die-besten-scherze-im-netz_aid_951557.html

These jokes were evidently collected from various websites around the world and translated back to German - 3 pages of them! Some of them are pretty good, albeit much simpler than the Focus joke.


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## EZO (Apr 1, 2013)

I thought it was a funny and clever hoax and someone obviously put some time and effort into putting all the details together for the piece. Any non deutsch "sprecheners" who might like to read the original article in question from moldyoldy's post, it can be found in the following two links which are the Google Translate versions of pages one and two. It may not be perfect English but it is certainly readable. And, hey man, don't worry about it moldy; this kind of stuff is what the heart of this day is all about. 

Page #1

Page #2


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## orbital (Oct 16, 2013)

+

_Bit_ of Update::

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24550941




____________________________________


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## moldyoldy (Dec 29, 2013)

bump. Another presumed meteor lit up the sky over Iowa/Minnesota the other day:

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/v...ay-vo-possible-meteor-lights-the-sky.cnn.html

With Christmas appearance of the Geminids, the recent CA meteor, and now the Iowa meteor, the 'sky' is restless, and the Sun is heating up for it's sunspot peak. 2014 could be exciting....


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## EZO (Dec 29, 2013)

The Quadrantids Meteor Shower is just around the corner. The Quadrantids are an above average shower, with up to 40 meteors per hour at their peak. The shower usually peaks on January 3 & 4, but some meteors can be visible from January 1 - 5. Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Look for meteors radiating from the constellation Bootes.
​


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## Steve K (Dec 29, 2013)

Will there be videos posted?? 
It's supposed to be below zero tonight, so it's hard to imagine standing around in that sort of cold in order to watch for meteors. Or is this an excuse to travel to Arizona?


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## EZO (Dec 29, 2013)

Steve K said:


> Will there be videos posted??
> It's supposed to be below zero tonight, so it's hard to imagine standing around in that sort of cold in order to watch for meteors. Or is this an excuse to travel to Arizona?



You'll need a snowmobile suit, a reclining lawn chair and a hip flask. 

Where I live, half way up a small mountain here in Vermont I have a spectacular view of the sky but you do have a point about the cold. Then a again, I'm lucky to have a skylight above my bed so I can watch the sky (at least a small rectangle of it) as snug as a bug in a rug.


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## moldyoldy (Jan 9, 2014)

on 7 Jan 2014, A class-X solar flare and a CME took place. The proton storm is past the earth. however the plasma is expected today/tomorrow. Besides spectacular Aurora, power failures are expected in the Scandinavian countries and Alaska (served by any long powerlines). 

http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/sun-unleashes-first-x-class-flare-of-2014/

There was better info on European/German news sites.

http://www.focus.de/wissen/weltraum...-wird-heftiger-als-erwartet-1_id_3526836.html

2014 is now expected to produce more severe solar flares than the normal increase/decrease in the solar cycle would have predicted. We live in exciting times... :tinfoil:


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## moldyoldy (Feb 17, 2014)

Tonight, Monday night, at 2100 EST, there will be a live showing of the latest rock to whiz by the Planet Earth:

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/huge-asteroid-fly-safely-earth-monday-watch-it-live-n32051

or:

http://www.space.com/24704-asteroid-2000-em26-earth-flyby-webcast.html

Are the scientists just publishing these events better, or are there more of these flybys than before? As one astrophysicist stated, the sky has quieted down, but it only takes one disruptive event anywhere in the Sun's solar system to stir things up again. "May you live in exciting times" ?


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## EZO (Feb 18, 2014)

"Gold medals presented to winners at the Sochi Olympics will contain fragments of the Chelyabinsk meteorite that struck Russia last year.

The medals are not the official coins handed out in the Olympic ceremony, but special commemorative ones to be given out to the sportswomen and men who win on the anniversary of the meteor strike on February 15.

Ten medals will have a chip of the meteorite embedded in its centre, crafted by specialists at a workshop in Zlatoust, in the Chelyabinsk region, Russian media report."  LINK


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## orbital (Oct 29, 2014)

+



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-ap...Z_01_WAS405_RTRIDSP_3_SPACE-ORBITAL.jpg&w=148

*Image tags removed see Rule #3 Do not Hot Link images. Please host on an image site, Imageshack or similar and repost – Thanks Norm*




Oct. 28th 2014



________^ ..was the Antares rocket


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## martinaee (Oct 31, 2014)

Is that a bird in that image? Dang son... Get that bird to Hollywood pronto!


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## Marcturus (Oct 31, 2014)

martinaee said:


> Is that a bird in that image



Sure, but can you see the alien face at the lower right of the fireball? oo:


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## moldyoldy (Mar 17, 2015)

ST. PATRICK'S DAY GEOMAGNETIC STORM: http://www.spaceweather.com/

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/planetary-k-index

those CPFers in northern latitudes should be enjoying a rather spectacular evening.


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## gadget_lover (Mar 18, 2015)

Real life sci fi. 

I got a smartwatch for Christmas. Yesterday I used it as an MP3 player. Then I dictated a txt message and sent it. Then called my wife to make dinner plans. Then I asked it when Spock died. All without touching it, no cell phone in sight.

Samsung Gear S watch. Life is Good!

Daniel


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## moldyoldy (Jun 22, 2015)

Bump. The star that keeps the Planet Earth warm aimed 3 CMEs at the planet Earth, the last CME caught up with the first two.

http://www.weather.com/science/space/news/geomagnetic-storm-hits-earth-june

regarding the recent intensity:

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/planetary-k-index


For general info on CMEs, look here.

My radio reception is definitely low. no Aurora was visible in Wisconsin yet - too cloudy. will look again tonight.


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## moldyoldy (Jul 12, 2015)

an fyi for those of us that fly the Pond a lot. Fortunately I tend to take the more southern routes to Germany, so ash clouds from Icelandic volcanoes have not bothered me yet. A few flights from Schiphol to Manchester evaded the primary flight prohibitions due to ash.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33497169

What is interesting is the use of LIDAR to detect 3 bands of ash, by altitude. The airlines have the choice of flying in the lower bands w/o restriction. I wonder a bit about the suggested method to detect the static electricity developed by the ash on the A/C skin. I suppose if the readings were normalized, it might be feasible. Nevertheless, a total flight ban across northern routes between the US/Europe is very unlikely in the future. That ban cost the airlines far too much money.


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## Chauncey Gardiner (Jul 12, 2015)

gadget_lover said:


> Real life sci fi.
> 
> I got a smartwatch for Christmas. Yesterday I used it as an MP3 player. Then I dictated a txt message and sent it. Then called my wife to make dinner plans. Then I asked it when Spock died. All without touching it, no cell phone in sight.
> 
> ...



I must say, "How cool is that!"

~ Chance


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## moldyoldy (Sep 12, 2015)

Bump: Belated info on the Starfish Prime 'experiment' in 1962.

While the article plays down the significance, the extensive damage it caused at the time was not trivial! either in Space or on-the-ground. At the time, the EMP effects from a nuclear explosion were only suspected at best.

In another time/place, my brother served as a silicon foundry manager. Developing true rad-hard chips impervious to deep-space hard radiation was the most difficult task that foundry had - very high reject rate. Chip hardening against an EMP pulse was yet another challenge


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## StarHalo (Oct 15, 2015)

So the Kepler telescope observes entire groups of stars watching for tiny and rhythmic dips in brighness as planets pass in front of them; visible light gradually dips to up to 1%, then gradually returns to full brightness, observable on a regular cycle as the planet comes around again on its orbit. It's discovered many thousands of planets this way, searching for predictable and repeatable tiny variations in brightness.

Kepler has now observed a specific star that drops up to 22% in brightness, suddenly and with no pattern whatsoever. There is no known or conceived natural phenomenon that could be responsible for this observation - so is the cause not natural? Is it _engineering_? Read for yourself..


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## StarHalo (Oct 16, 2015)

Update: The Kepler telescope was damaged some time ago, so these are the last readings we'll get from this star for some time.

Also Update: SETI is scrambling to listen in on this star's location.


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## StarHalo (Nov 5, 2015)

More Update: Didn't notice it before, but the graphs within the article are clearly not the transits of round objects; the ~800 day event dims progressively and then cuts out abruptly - this would indicate a triangle-like shape. The ~1500 day event has two objects that produce the exact same contour, but the second is smaller than the first. And there is a perfectly symmetrical object between those two. The "non-natural" explanation makes more sense in this light..


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## moldyoldy (Nov 8, 2015)

still more update. Short synopsis: SETI searches found nothing reportable.


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## moldyoldy (Dec 30, 2015)

Bump: Here are Aviation Leak's technology predictions for 2016. The countering technologies for unmanned A/C seem obvious, but I have not observed that many together on a single platform. I would suspect that a focused EMP emission will be included in the package. The only catch is the ability to optically detect & track the flying objects. RDF does not seem all that unreasonable, given the tracking technology in a HARM missile, even if the emitter shuts down. If done correctly, RDF can locate an emitting object on 2 axis w/in about a minute.


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## StarHalo (Jan 17, 2016)

Yet more update on the Kepler mystery/KIC '52/Tabby's Star: An astronomer at Louisana State University manually searched photographic plates of that region of space dating back to the late 19th century, only to find that the star has occasionally but repeatedly made unexplainably significant dips in intensity for as far back as the record goes. So it's not a stray comet cloud..


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## orbital (Feb 11, 2016)

+


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0E5KDoSRHU#t=63

Einstein was right all along about gravitational waves


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## Steve K (Feb 11, 2016)

orbital said:


> +
> 
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0E5KDoSRHU#t=63
> ...



very cool! I hope we hear more about the details of how it was done. I've heard that lasers were involved, which makes it very much of interest to CPF folks!


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## recDNA (Feb 11, 2016)

*Re: Real life Sci-fi*

Those would make nice live wallpaper on an Android phone.


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## orbital (Apr 9, 2016)

*Re: Real life Sci-fi*

+

SpaceX landing_______*yes landing!

*
*




*


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## orbital (Feb 6, 2017)

*Re: Real life Sci-fi*

+

Last night there was a startling bang that sounded like a massive thunder boom, _my dog jumped like never before._
The weather didn't support thunder, so I figured some kind of sonic boom maybe (right around 1:30am)

On the local news this morning there were many reports of a meteor across my area at that same time.

Sonic boom by a meteor !:twothumbs


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## Offgridled (Feb 6, 2017)

*Re: Real life Sci-fi*

Wow...


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## orbital (Feb 6, 2017)

*Re: Real life Sci-fi*

+

This map shows the trajectory and where it likely exploded before crashing into Lake Michigan

Various Wisconsin agencies were even more accurate (aired on my news) the trajectory was even *closer* to me.
They tracked w/ radar & had altitude of 8000' _ the size of meteor still being determined_

Put it this way, it passed just south of the city which is my mailing address,
.. if you looked at a full US map, I was in the bullseye at 1:30am.

Once in a lifetime_ 





_

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/u...-explodes-over-wisconsin-monday-morning/79068


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## Burgess (Feb 6, 2017)

*Re: Real life Sci-fi*

VERY neat !


I experienced a bolide on March 26, 2003,
shortly before Midnight.


Didn't even know * WHAT * it was, 
until the next day on TV news !


Now known as " The Park Forest, Illinois meteorite "


Didn't see it Close-Up , but rather just as
a sudden " Bright Sky at Night " event !

Followed by distant, but distinct , Thunder.


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## StarHalo (Feb 6, 2017)

*Re: Real life Sci-fi*

That meteor made CNN, they have video clips..


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## Offgridled (Feb 6, 2017)

*Re: Real life Sci-fi*



StarHalo said:


> That meteor made CNN, they have video clips..


I saw it on the news also


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## gadget_lover (Feb 10, 2017)

*Re: Real life Sci-fi*



orbital said:


> +
> 
> This map shows the trajectory and where it likely exploded before crashing into Lake Michigan
> 
> ...




You still have a chance to experience another one. After all, it did not hit you this time.


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## StarHalo (Nov 6, 2017)

*Re: Real life Sci-fi*

Bumping this thread for newly declassified data; On July 9th, 1962, ~900 miles SW of Hawaii, a 1.4 megaton nuclear warhead was sent 250 miles up into space atop a Thor missile and detonated around 10pm local time. The explosion soundlessly yielded the traditionally-reported phasing through the visible spectrum of colors, however it also produced *a plainly visible aurora borealis*, despite the nearly equatorial latitude. The blast sent down a storm of charged particles powerful enough to damage phone lines and electrical equipment not just in Hawaii but even in New Zealand. We now know for certain that *mankind has had the ability to create an aurora borealis for over half a century*. 

The full article, more pictures, video of a space detonation here.

View of the sky from the Maui station ~900 miles from the blast:


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## moldyoldy (Nov 7, 2017)

*Re: Real life Sci-fi*

fwiw, those atmospheric nuclear detonations in the '50s and '60s were remarkable for the confirmation of multi-spectral effects that physicists had only speculated on.

however on a human level, the Soviet nuclear tests near Семипалатинск / Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan could be summed up in this quote among the locals: "...the day the Sun rose twice..."
The Soviets were not exactly squeamish about conducting atmospheric nuclear tests 'within range' of nomadic folk.


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## StarHalo (Dec 29, 2017)

*Re: Real life Sci-fi*

Friendly reminder to do your sky phenomenon viewing at the right time and place, not like these folks watching the SpaceX launch in my area:


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## StarHalo (Apr 2, 2018)

*Re: Real life Sci-fi*

Shortly after sunset last Monday; rocket or jet fuel?


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## orbital (Oct 31, 2019)

*Re: Real life Sci-fi*

+

The latest episode of Frontline called Fire in Paradise, is on the 2018 Camp Fire in California.
*It is nothing short of a real life fire blizzard!
*
If you didn't know you were watching a documentary, you'd say the images were computer generated.

incredible


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## orbital (Aug 5, 2020)

*Re: Real life Sci-fi*

+

*Beirut Port explosion 2020*

Not including vintage nuclear bomb test footage,, you'll likely never see a bigger explosion
..nearly unbelievable

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB8GtdTYNSw


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## thermal guy (Aug 5, 2020)

*Re: Real life Sci-fi*

Them people have been living on borrowed time for over 5 years! All that just sitting there waiting for a spark. Praying for them. Not sure how they come back from this with all there other problems.


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