Fireballs
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Meteor

6th mass extinction and the 'Shiva hypothesis'

Imapct Event
© Live Science
A total of five mass extinctions occurred during the last 500 million history of the planet earth, when more than 75 per cent of existing life forms had gone extinct. Various causes have been ascribed for each of the five mass extinctions.

The most recent, 5th mass extinction took place about 66 million years ago, when a huge meteorite with a radius of about 10 km crashed on the earth and made a crater with 180 km diameter and 20 km deep in the Yucatan village, Chicxulubin Mexico. The impact created a doomsday scenario.

Superheated dust particles and steam filled the sky preventing sunlight to reach earth for decades killing plant life as they could not carry out photosynthesis. Many volcanoes around the earth became active and spewed lava. There were super-tsunamis drowning land animals and plants. The atmosphere of earth became unsuitable to support most of the existing life forms, leading to the extinction of dinosaurs.

Can the 6th mass extinction occur in a similar manner and all of us would disappear before we figure out what hit us? Michael Rampino and Bruce Haggerty (1984) proposed the 'Shiva hypothesis' (named after Lord Shiva, the Hindu God of destruction) based on an earlier paper of Napier and Clube (1979). According to this hypothesis, the earth experiences large impact events with comets every 30 million years when solar system crosses the plane of Milky Way galaxy. This causes gravitational disturbances in the cloud of comets (Oort cloud) surrounding the solar system and sends some of them hurling towards the inner solar system. These may be propelled to collide with the earth by the 'sling shot' gravitational action of Jupiter (NASA's Voyager-1 and 2 used this effect to escape Sun's gravity).

Modelling studies suggest that an object of 1 km size, depending upon its speed and angle of approach is enough to wipe out the humanity according to Rampino, who gave the 'Shiva hypothesis.' This could throw up enough pulverised rock to block the sun for months. The debris falling back on earth would cause wild fires increasing the surface temperature and killing everything living to death. The earth will then go through a process of cooling and a prolonged winter possibly creating new forms of life millions of years later.

Fireball 5

Asteroid much harder to destroy than previously thought

Impact Event
© MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty ImagesPast modelling for the effect of asteroid collisions has underestimated the force needed to bring about total destruction.
Asteroids are much harder to destroy than previously thought, new modelling shows.

The research, published in the journal Icarus, shows that an asteroid damaged in a collision - by another asteroid, for instance, or a nuclear missile fired at it in the blind hope that doing so will prevent it from smacking into the planet with catastrophic consequences - will substantially reconstruct itself because of the strong gravitational pull of its still-intact core.

The modelling, funded by NASA, substantially updates and contradicts earlier research that showed that a collision between a small asteroid and a large one would completely demolish the latter, the destruction facilitated by the rapid transit of cracks right through it.

The new study, conducted by Charles El Mir and KT Ramesh, of Johns Hopkins University, US, and Derek Richardson, of the University of Maryland, US, applies more fine-grain analysis and arrives at a distinctly different conclusion.

At issue, fundamentally, is the way rocks react to energetic impacts. This process is well understood at what can be called "laboratory scale", wherein real-world and simulated experiments use rocks roughly the size of a human fist.

But asteroids of a magnitude big enough to worry NASA scientists - or tempt would-be space-miners - are considerably larger than that. They might, indeed, be roughly the size of Berlin.

Fireball 2

Two previously unknown massive impact craters discovered

Impact Crater
© A. CAVOSIEHiding in plain sight: Morgan Cox (right) collecting breccia samples at the Yallalie impact site.
Researchers have discovered two previously unknown massive craters on Earth, the most recent estimated to have been produced by an impact only 800,000 years ago.

The craters - one in Western Australia and the other in Nicaragua - are revealed in a pair of papers published in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science.

In one sense, the Australian crater, in a location known as Yallalie, about 200 kilometres north of the state capital, Perth, has long been hiding in plain sight.

Buried deep beneath the surface, it was first tentatively identified as an impact site in 1992, after its discovery two years earlier during oil drilling exploration.

Subsequent studies of the 12-kilometre-wide circular formation, which also features a raised central structure three kilometres wide, identified it as the result of several meteorite impacts.

Fireball 2

Meteor fireball seen in Houston area, Texas

fireball
Just two weeks after a fireball was seen in the Sugar Land sky, another light has UFO enthusiasts looking up.

Jason Velazquez captured the video above on his dashcam as he was driving in Hockley around 11 p.m. on Sunday.

In the video, you'll see a little bright spot at the top of your screen move across the sky.

According to the American Meteorological Society's website, there were seven reports overnight of fireball sightings in the Houston-area including four in Cypress.

It appears several people may have seen some movement happening in the sky last night.


Fireball 2

Meteor fireball reported over Canadian Maritimes

Canadian Maritimes meteor
© AMS (screen capture)Observers map of event 843-2019.
The American Meteor Society (AMS) received 57 reports about a meteor fireball seen over ME, New Brunswick, Nouveau-Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Québec and Quebec on Saturday, February 23rd 2019 around 23:57 UT.

Eye witness reports from CBC Canada include:
"I saw a light travelling west to east, quite a bright ball cutting a trail," she said. "But it wasn't as fast as any meteor that we've ever seen. We've seen some fairly slow ones, but this was slower. But it wasn't as slow as an airplane. It was this unusual speed ... it looked like it was on fire."
"It was quite amazing, actually," he said. "It seemed so close. You could even see it looked like sparks ... on the tail of it. It was getting brighter. It was quite interesting."
A video of the event can be viewed here.

Alarm Clock

Source of loud boom heard, felt in Charleston, South Carolina still unknown

Mystery boom (stock)
© WYFF
Numerous people in and around Charleston, SC, reported on social media Monday a loud "boom" or the sound of an "explosion," which some said shook their home or other building they were in for several seconds.

The source of the boom and ensuing shaking is presently unknown. Many have speculated it was a possible earthquake, while some are suggesting it was a "sonic boom" from an aircraft breaking the sound barrier.

The National Weather Service in Charleston said it has received multiple inquiries, but hasn't received confirmation from the U.S. Geological Survey of a seismic event such as possible earthquake.


Info

Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Fireballs and Repeating climate cycles

file
The number of fireballs reported in the USA has continued to increase since 2003 along with Near Earth Objects.

Urban Heat Island study shows that temperatures can rise as much as 4C at low night time temperatures.

Deserts bloom across the Middle East unleashing a locust plague that is unlike anything seen in generations.


Sources

Fireball 2

Video shows meteor fireball blazing over Kansas

Kansas meteor
© YouTube/AMS (screen capture)
The American Meteor Society (AMS) received a report about a meteor fireball seen over Kansas on Monday, February 18th 2019 around 12:08 UT. A video has been uploaded to their website.


Fireball 3

Meteor fireball explodes above French island of Mayotte

meteor mayotte island
© @Bee_Mondroha/Twitter
A meteor has exploded above the island Mayotte, sparking concern on the French overseas department, located near Madagascar off the eastern coast of Africa.

Initial reports indicated an explosion had taken place somewhere on the island. The local authorities said on Twitter: "Tonight, several testimonies reported a noise that would have occurred in the Mahorais sky. At this stage no explanation could be provided. All states are mobilised to find an explanation of this phenomenon."

It later became clear a meteor had entered the Earth's atmosphere above Mayotte.

One resident said: "It's gone in the direction of the sea. It was a ball of fire that had a kind of tail and was going very fast.

"The fire was very bright on the front. The fireball travelled from Labattoir to head offshore."

Comment: Mayotte seems to be a lively place, especially below ground:


Fireball 2

Meteor fireball sighted in 5 countries in Europe, photographed by 3 sky cameras

meteor blackfield feb 15th 2019
© Paul RoggemansBlackfield camera, UK
Fireball date: 15 February 2019 at 20:09:05 UT

Fireball ID: M20190215_200905
A large fireball, initially reported by the members of the public from 5 different countries, also known as IMO 741-2019 event.

15 February 2019 at 20:09 roughly over Antwerpen the Belgian meteor network has recorded a large meteor, known as a fireball.

The fireball has been spotted as far as Stuttgart, London and Versailles. UKMON camera in Blackfield has also recorded the same event.



Comment: The skies in Europe have been busy this week: See also: In the blink of an eye: Astronomers seek backup to capture strange stellar blackout with help of cell phone cameras