Comet May Have Missed Earth By a Few hundred Kilometers 265
First time accepted submitter afree87 writes "A re-analysis of historical observations at a Mexican observatory suggests Earth narrowly avoided an extinction event just over a hundred years ago. On August 12th and 13th 1883, an astronomer at a small observatory in Zacatecas in Mexico made an extraordinary observation, some 450 objects, each surrounded by a kind of mist, passing across the face of the Sun. This month, Hector Manterola at the National Autonomous University of Mexico suggests these were fragments of a comet. 'If they had collided with Earth we would have had 3275 Tunguska events in two days, probably an extinction event.'"
Extinction level? (Score:4, Informative)
It would probably have been calamitous but extinction level, maybe not. I mean most of those would probably have landed in the ocean anyway, with maybe a thousand or so dropping on land. The Tunguska event didn't raise too much atmospheric dust or cause much occlusion, and at around 10 megatons might have released in total ten gigatons or so, which is what, twice the total world nuclear arsenal except without fallout.
Apocalypse territory? Certainly. Extinction? Probably not.
Re:Tesla?!? (Score:4, Informative)
I'm waiting to hear from the fiscal conservatives who want to cancel the space program and asteroid-hunting programs because the Federal Government shouldn't be spending taxpayer money on such useless endeavors.
Most self-proclaimed "conservatives" in Congress usually insist that they want a socialized space program with a central government authority which has exclusive rights for access to space... private companies are neither needed nor wanted except in a support role where cost-plus contracts are handed out to the lobbyist who has schmoozed them with the best campaign contributions. Of course all of this is good because it helps out the local congressional district with billions of dollars of "stimulus money" to help keep local bureaucrats employed.
The "liberal Democrat" answer: privatized spaceflight from companies competing for fixed-price contracts open to competition and demonstrating that they are able to actually accomplish the task before they are awarded any money.
It was former senators William Proxmire and Walter Mondale who were most in favor of cancelling the "space program" in earlier eras. Guess which political party they belonged to, if you don't already know?
No, I don't get space politics either, just don't let your head get warped out on this issue.