[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
(meteorobs) Fw: CC DIGEST 02/04/98 via Bigrock
----------
> From: Benny J Peiser <B.J.PEISER@livjm.acdot uk>
> To: cambridge-conference@livjm.acdot uk
> Subject: CC DIGEST 02/04/98
> Date: Thursday, April 02, 1998 9:40 AM
>
> CAMBRIDGE-CONFERENCE DIGEST, 2 April 1998
> -----------------------------------------
>
> (1) NEO DISCOVERY AND MISSION OF OPPORTUNITY
> Jim Benson <Jim@SpaceDev.Com>
>
> (2) LATE TRIASSIC MULTIPLE IMPACT EVENT ON EARTH
> J.G. Spray et. al., University of Brunswick
>
> (3) K/T IMPACT SPAWNED GIANT SUBMARINE AVALANCHES
> Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utorontodot ca>
>
> (4) SORRY ARTHUR, BUT EVIDENCE SUGGESTS CHICAGO FIRE WAS UNRELATED TO
> FIREBALL OBSERVATION
> Mark Bailey <meb@star.arm.acdot uk>
>
> (5) PRE-TELESCOPIC FIREBALL OBSERVATIONS DURING THE LAST 2000 YEARS
> Phil Burns <pib@nwudot edu>
>
> ========================
> (1) NEO DISCOVERY AND MISSION OF OPPORTUNITY
>
> From: Jim Benson <Jim@SpaceDev.Com>
>
> Greetings.
>
> I wish to draw two possibly important topics to your attention.
>
> First is the "$5,000 Benson Prize for the Amateur Discovery of Near
> Earth Asteroids." This was announced at the AAS conference last
> spring. More details can be found at:
> http://www.skypub.com/benson/prize.html. So far, two prizes have been
> earned, and interestingly enough, by the same person, Roy Tucker of
> Texas who is the first amateur to ever discover two NEOs and the only
> person to win Benson prizes (ten each at $500).
>
> Second, is the Near Earth Asteroid Prospector (NEAP) by my company,
> SpaceDev, Inc (www.spacedev.com). Yesterday (March 31), NASA opened the
> new round of the Discovery program. NEAP is considered by NASA to be a
> "Mission of Opportunity" and therefore instruments and experiments on
> NEAP eligible for funding through the Discovery program. SpaceDev is
> the world's first commercial space exploration company, and is simply
> selling fully insured rides on NEAP for instruments and experiments.
>
> I urge you to think about how the knowledge of NEOs might be advanced
> by placing an experiment on NEAP. One idea discussed is the placement
> by NEAP of a radio beacon on its target asteroid 1996 XB27 with the
> purpose of accurately tracking the beacon (NEO) over a period of years
> in order to better understand orbital perturbations and therefore
> improve our ability to model future orbital changes.
>
> Letters of intent must be furnished NASA by the end of April and
> proposals are due around the end of June. The proposal process should
> be relatively easy since you need only describe your experiment and
> not an entire mission, which we will do for you. The pre-proposal
> conference will be at the LPI in Houston on April 14. I will be there
> to assist those wishing to fly an experiment to our NEO. We launch in
> October of 2000 and arrive in July of 2001.
>
> Please help us get the word out about this unique and historical
> opportunity.
>
> Also, please help us in gathering more information about 1996 XB27 --
> its size, type, rotation, refined orbital elements, etc.
>
> Thank you for your help and consideration.
>
> Jim Benson
> (Jim@SpaceDev.Com)
>
> SpaceDev - NEAP (Near Earth Asteroid Prospector)
> -o- Commercial Space Exploration & Development of Space Resources -o-
> http://www.spacedev.com -o- Info@SpaceDev.Com
>
> ===============================
> (2) LATE TRIASSIC MULTIPLE IMPACT EVENT ON EARTH
>
> J.G. Spray*), S.P. Kelley and D.B. Rowley: Evidence for a late Triassic
> multiple impact event on Earth, NATURE, 1998, Vol.392, No.6672,
> pp.171-173
>
> *) UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK, DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY, FREDERICTON, NB
> E3B 5A3, CANADA
>
> Evidence for the collision of fragmented comets or asteroids with some
> of the larger (jovian) planets and their moons is now well established
> following the dramatic impact of the disrupted comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
> with Jupiter in 1994 (ref. 1). Collisions by fragmented objects result
> in multiple impacts that can lead to the formation of linear crater
> chains, or catenae, on planetary surfaces(2). Here we present evidence
> fora multiple impact event that occurred on Earth. Five terrestrial
> impact structures have been found to possess comparable ages (similar
> to 214 Myr), coincident with the Norian stage of the Triassic period
> These craters are Rochechouart (France), Manicouagan and Saint Martin
> (Canada), Obolon' (Ukraine) and Red Wing (USA). When these impact
> structures are plotted on a tectonic reconstruction of the North
> American and Eurasian plates for 214 Myr before present, the three
> largest structures (Rochechouart, Manicouagan and Saint Martin) are
> co-latitudinal at 22.8 degrees (within 1.2 degrees, similar to 110 km),
> and span 43.5 degrees of palaeolongitude, These structures may thus
> represent the remains of a crater chain at least 4,462 km long. The
> Obolon' and Red Wing craters, on the other hand, lie on great circles
> of identical declination with Rochechouart and Saint Martin,
> respectively. We therefore suggest that the five impact structures were
> formed at the same time (within hours) during a multiple impact event
> caused by a fragmented comet or asteroid colliding with Earth.
> Copyright 1998, Institute for Scientific Information Inc.
>
> =========================
> (3) K/T IMPACT SPAWNED GIANT SUBMARINE AVALANCHES
>
> From: Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utorontodot ca>
>
> [http://www.uncdot edu/news/newsserv/research/bralow2.html]
>
> News Services
> University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
>
> Contact: David Williamson or Bret Johnson, (919) 962-8596
>
> Release No. 281 March 30, 1998
>
> Embargoed until 6 p.m.Tuesday, March 31, 1998
>
> Ancient meteorite collapsed margin, spawned giant submarine avalanches
>
> By DAVID WILLIAMSON, UNC-CH News Services
>
> CHAPEL HILL -- After untold years of streaking across the galaxy, a
> giant meteorite smacked the Earth 65 million years ago with the force
> of a million atomic bombs.
>
> The collision, which scientists believe led dinosaurs and many other
> species to die off within a few years, also caused massive landslides
> along the edge of the continent north of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula,
> new evidence suggests. Six miles wide, the rock and metal chunk cut a
> hole 120 miles across and devastated an area from northeast Mexico to
> what is now the U.S. Gulf Coast.
>
> "Until now, little has been known about the effect of the impact on the
> continental margin closest to the crater, which is directly north of
> the Yucatan," said Dr. Timothy Bralower, professor of geology at the
> University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Because it happened so
> long ago, you can't even see the crater from the air or from space."
>
> In a paper published in the April issue of the journal Geology,
> Bralower and colleagues report evidence that the impact caused parts of
> the Yucatan margin to slide into the deep sea. Co-authors are Drs.
> Charles K. Paull, professor of geology at UNC-CH, and R. Mark Leckie of
> the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
>
> "In cores of sediment taken from the base of the margin by the Ocean
> Drilling Program, we found fragments of several types of rock and
> fossils of various ages matching the strata from different levels on
> the margin," Bralower said.
>
> Fragments were mixed with minute, round melted rock beads known as
> spherules flung from the impact site, he said. Such beads are direct
> evidence of an impact blast.
>
> "The blast shattered large chunks of the edge of the margin, and they
> literally slid down to the depths of the ocean," Bralower said.
>
> Collapsing margins triggered giant submarine avalanches that moved at
> up to hundreds of miles an hour and spread across the Gulf of Mexico
> and into the Caribbean.
>
> "We find the same mixture of fossils, rocks and spherules in Haiti and
> in the central part of the Caribbean suggesting that the submarine
> avalanches traveled great distances," Bralower said.
>
> Geologists cannot rule out the possibility that other margins collapsed
> because of the blast and that avalanches came from a number of sources,
> he said. But it's clear that the impact had a huge effect on Gulf of
> Mexico topography.
>
> Among the more spectacular results of the margin collapse, which
> suddenly displaced billions of gallons of water, were giant tidal waves
> that inundated coastlines around the gulf.
>
> Scientists named the event, which was like a cannon ball hitting a duck
> pond -- except on a vastly larger scale -- the Chicxulub impact, after
> the Yucatan crater site. Bralower and colleagues dubbed the mixture of
> microfossils, rock fragments and impact-created materials they studied
> the "Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary cocktail."
>
> Core sampling to about 3,000 feet took place aboard the 470-foot JOIDES
> Resolution, the world's largest scientific drill ship.
>
> The National Science Foundation and the Texas A&M University-based
> Ocean Drilling Program supported the research.
>
> Note: Bralower can be reached at (919) 962-0704.
>
> ===================
> (4) SORRY ARTHUR, BUT EVIDENCE SUGGESTS CHICAGO FIRE WAS UNRELATED TO
> FIREBALL OBSERVATION
>
> From: Mark Bailey <meb@star.arm.acdot uk>
>
> The suggestion made in the film `Target Earth', that the Great Peshtigo
> Fire was started by a meteorite or bolide does not fit with the
> evidence in both Father Pernin's (1874) account and that of Robert
> Wells (1968) [Refs: P. Pernin 1971, `Wisconsin Stories: the Great
> Peshtigo Fire', State Historical Society of Wisconsin; R. W. Wells
> 1968, `Embers of October', reprinted 1995 Peshtigo Historical Society].
> Wells, however, does mention a report by Phineas Eames, one of the
> Birch Creek farmers, who describes an event which closely resembles a
> bright fireball. This occurs one hour after the devastating Peshtigo
> Fire, and so could not have been the cause of the latter even if the
> fireball had touched ground.
>
> Mark Bailey
> Armagh Observatory
> meb@star.arm.acdot uk
>
> =====================
> (5) PRE-TELESCOPIC FIREBALL OBSERVATIONS DURING THE LAST 2000 YEARS
>
> From: Phil Burns <pib@nwudot edu>
>
> R. P. Greg's catalog of meteorites and fireballs from A.D. 2 to A.D.
> 1860 is available online in web page format:
>
> http://www.mplc.codot uk/eduweb/sites/bookman/meteorites/greg.html
>
> This is a subpage of the UK and Eire Meteorite Page, authored by Eric
> Hutton, which includes historical information on falls in these
> countries from the 14th century to the present.
>
> -- Phil "Pib" Burns
> Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. USA
> pib@nwudot edu
> http://pibwebdot it.nwudot edu/~pib/
>
> --------------------------------
> THE CAMBRIDGE-CONFERENCE NETWORK
> --------------------------------
> The Cambridge-Conference List is a scholarly electronic network
> moderated by Benny J Peiser at Liverpool John Moores University,
> United Kingdom. It is the aim of this network to disseminate
> information and research findings related to i) geological and
> historical neo-catastrophism, ii) NEO research and the hazards to
> civilisation due to comets, asteroids and meteor streams, and iii) the
> development of a planetary civilisation capable of protecting itself
> against cosmic disasters. To subscribe, please contact Benny J Peiser
> <b.j.peiser@livjm.acdot uk>. Information circulated on this network is
> for scholarly and educational use only. The attached information may
> not be copied or reproduced for any other purposes without prior
> permission of the copyright holders.
>
>
>