Duck and Cover (asteroid impact)

[Delta4Embassy]

SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

"SMALL ASTEROID HITS EARTH: Newly-discovered asteroid 2014 AA hit Earth's atmosphere on Jan. 2nd. The space rock, about the size of a small car, disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean about 3,000 km east of Caracas, Venezuela. Infrasound records interpreted by Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario suggest an impact energy between 500 and 1,000 tons of TNT. That's a lot of dynamite; nevertheless, in cosmic terms this was a relatively minor impact that did no damage to our planet."

Hiroshima's a-bomb was about 12-15kt.

 

[martybegan]

SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

"SMALL ASTEROID HITS EARTH: Newly-discovered asteroid 2014 AA hit Earth's atmosphere on Jan. 2nd. The space rock, about the size of a small car, disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean about 3,000 km east of Caracas, Venezuela. Infrasound records interpreted by Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario suggest an impact energy between 500 and 1,000 tons of TNT. That's a lot of dynamite; nevertheless, in cosmic terms this was a relatively minor impact that did no damage to our planet."

Hiroshima's a-bomb was about 12-15kt.

They actually detected it before it hit, which is something that hasnt happened before.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Detect a lot of them. NASA has a monitoring program picking up atmospheric penetrating fireballs on that site. Day to day there's usually a dozen or so. And ones like this actually hit about once a week. But they almost all burn up before airbursting like in Russia, or hitting the ground taking out a city or causing impact-tsunamis. (knocks on wood.)

 

[martybegan]

Detect a lot of them. NASA has a monitoring program picking up atmospheric penetrating fireballs on that site. Day to day there's usually a dozen or so. And ones like this actually hit about once a week. But they almost all burn up before airbursting like in Russia, or hitting the ground taking out a city or causing impact-tsunamis. (knocks on wood.)

This one they detected about 2 days before it impacted, which is one of the few times they have seen an impactor BEFORE it started burning in the atmosphere.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Ah. Now if they'd deploy my railgun interceptor idea so we could actualy do anything about it.

Another similar impact-event happened in April 2012,

""The source of loud 'booms' accompanied by a bright object traveling through the skies of Nevada and California on Sunday morning has been confirmed: it was a meteor. A big one. It is thought to have been a small asteroid that slammed into the atmosphere at a speed of 15 kilometers per second (33,500 mph), turning into a fireball, delivering an energy of 3.8 kilotons of TNT as it broke up over California's Sierra Nevada mountains."

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Thought about it putting it here, but it did happen today. About as 'current newsy' as it gets.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Time to make this issue a issue of defense. seriously.

 

[Kosh]

This is far and away a more real threat than AGW.

 

[Politico]

If an asteroid hits you can duck and cover all you want.