WhatsUIP! - Asteroids Just BIG Potatoes!
WhatsUP! Asteroids - Just Big Potatoes!
Asteroids- BIG Idaho Potatoes!
At a recent Astronomy lecture the speaker described Asteroids as just BIG Idaho potatoes-- and yes most of them look like you just dug them out of the ground!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid
Some are mostly ice and rock, while others are solid metal -- left over pieces from the formation of the solar system. Most of them orbit the sun in a belt between the planets Mars and Jupiter; while other roam the solar system periodically crossing Earth's orbit. If one should collide with Earth -- it would be a very BAD day!
If you look at some of the pictures located at this web site--
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-asteroids.html
you can see that they come in all shapes and sizes from several feet across to miles across. NASA is currently trying to find all possible Earth orbit crossing asteroids and plot their orbits to determine if one is on a collision course with Earth. During the next 5-7 years most all of the larger asteroids will be plotted to determine if any are headed our way.
Anything bigger than the size of a car would cause great damage if it impacted Earth in a populated area. One such icy asteroid impacted Siberia in the early 1900s and devastated a vast area (largely unpopulated)-- if it had hit 3 hours earlier it would have hit near London and probably killed millions of people living there at the time. Depending on the asteroids composition, it may or may not make it all the way to the ground. However an "air" burst like what happened in Siberia can be just as devastating!
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/30jun_tunguska.htm
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071107-russia-crater.html
The links above will give you detailed information on the Siberia- Tunguska impact in 1908. Remember that meteors and asteroids can hit the Earth at speeds greater than 20 kilometers per second--- or 45,000 miles per hour!
I have posted a short video on Neighborsgo explaining how astronomers find new asteroids. So go outside today and look up --- wear a hard hat as you never know what might fall out of the sky!
http://neighborsgo.com/video/1397 -- How to find an asteroid
Clear Skies!
TelescopeMan
