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(meteorobs) Doomsday Icarus
Celso and lists members:
Following you'll find a free translation of the article published last
Sunday on "La Nacion" the most popular daily newspaper of Costa Rica,
and a highly reputed one, from EFE's Spanish news agency and mentioned
by Celso Montalvo in his posting of today. His posting means that it has
been published at least in our two countries, and who knows in how many
more.
As much as I didn't agree with some of the ideas of Mr. David H. Levy's
article of last month's S&T, I must applaud and adhere to his comments
on March's S&T page 84 as to the danger of publishing such kind of news
over mass media. If C. Shramek's anouncement over the Net about the
Saturn-like object could have been a cause for the tragic events of
California's religious cult suicide, I just don't want to imagine what
this kind of news, being true or not, can cause on the common people's
beliefs.
Although I don't think I will be heard, I could not let this kind of
news pass uncommented and I already made my points of view known to the
newspaper. Coments will be welcome over the Net too.
The article reads as follows:
<< ASTEROID COLLISION FORESEEN
EFE. Moscow
Russian scientists said that the end of the world will take
place in eight years, when Earth will collide with an asteroid,
and only the joint effort of all countries could avoid the
dramatic ending.
The name of the asteroid is Icarus, with a diameter of 1.5 Km
and a mass of several hundred tons, which approaches Earth at a
speed of 60 Km per second.
Its impact with Earth would cause an explosion equivalent to a
thousand thermonuclear warheads with the power of one million
tons of dynamite each, according to calculations by
astrophysicists.
Russian scientists alerted that the impact is "almost
unavoidable" and made a plea to all states to conform a common
front of action to carry out a sophisticated space project to
deviate or destroy the deadly planetoid with powerful nuclear
detonations.
Icarus, discovered in 1949, comes near the Earth every 19 years,
but each time its distance to us is reduced and its velocity
increases, and scientists fear that its next visit, in the
summer of 2006, will be the last one.
In 1949 it passed 28 million Km away from Earth on its way to
the Sun, but 19 years later, on June 14, 1968, its distance was
reduced to only 6.36 million Km.
The scientist Valdimir Polevanov, geologist of the Russian
Natural Sciences Academy, says that the danger lies in Icarus
not having a permanent orbit, because it evolves in space under
he effect of the Sun and the rest of the planets.
This fact makes that the threat of a collision of Icarus with
Earth be "more than probable", emphasized Polevanov in an
article published in the popular newspaper Trud.
In the last 250 million years of Earth's history, the fauna and
flora of our planet has been erased 9 times, with an average of
every 30 million years and scientists opine that, at least once,
this was caused by "extraterrestrial" causes.
The extinction of species registered in the Cretacean and
Tertiary eras of the geological history of the planet was due to
the collision of an asteroid that perforated the terrestrial
crust and caused "apocalyptic" consequences, said the academic.
He quoted that, according to scientific data, some 1.500
asteroids with a diameter superior to 1 Km have collided with
Earth. He also said that those collisions are unavoidable and
that "the worst" is coming in 8 years.
To avoid this end, "international measures are required at the
UN and its Security Council levels", and he proposed a world
project called "Save the Planet".
His worry was shared by Col. Vladimir Tkachenko, chief of
experts of the Institute of Scientific Research on Space Systems
in Russia, who told the newspaper that this institution has
already elaborated a plan to "neutralize" Icarus.
Many prestigious scientists believe that the collision of Icarus
with Earth is unavoidable and that governments must pay
attention to these voices.
The project foresees the launch of a ship from which a rocket
would be send to Icarus with a space platform carrying several
modules that would be launched to the asteroid in turns.Upon
reaching its surface, each module would bore the ground and
would place powerful atomic heads which, activated
simultaneously, would destroy the asteroid.>>
Sorry to the lists for the lenghty post but it deserves some atention.
_
/ \
/ Carlos Hernandez
o Heredia, Costa Rica
/ "May your skies be 'pura vida' tonight"
\ _ /
> ----------
> > From: celsom-w <celsom-w@AMAUTA.RCPdot net.PE>
> > To: EB@ATLASTRO.ML.ORG
> > Subject: [EB] Icaro
> > Date: Monday, March 09, 1998 7:52 AM
> >
> > Hi friends:
> >
> > Yesterday I read in the newspaper that some russian astronomers have
> > calculated that Icaro (asteroid, 1.5 km diam) will collide with > >earth in 2006 or so. This can be a global catastrophe similar to the
> > Chicxulub event, 65 million tears ago. Have you read or heard of > > > > this news?
> >
> > Saludos.
> > --
> > Celso Montalvo
> > ELECONT INGENIERIA S. A.
> > Lima-PERU
> > 12o S; 77o W.
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