THE METEOR THREAT
Every day that we wake up and venture outside the safe confines of our home, we are putting our lives at a certain level of risk. If we cross a busy highway the level of risk increases. If we drive on these highways or fly in an aeroplane, the level of risk is heightened again. These everyday hazards are a common part of life. We feel that we have a certain level of control over such hazards because we can control when we choose to enter these potentially dangerous situations. In the case of driving a car, we feel comfortable because we are the ones steering the potential hazard, our life is in our own hands. However when the threat comes from something we dont have control over like a crazy psychotic killer in our street, we become afraid and lock our doors and windows to protect ourself from the outside threat. Now imagine that there are no police around to help, you cant lock the doors and your house is wide open with a big neon sign out the front saying "Kill Me". You are completely defenceless. This is the same kind of threat the Earth faces every day from comets and meteors.
We cant decide when we want to cross paths with a rock hurtling towards us from space. We dont have any control over the direction of these rocks. We cant hide from these rocks. We cant protect ourselves from these rocks. We cant negotiate with rocks. If a comet or meteorite wants to hit us, it will!
On 30-June-1908 over the skies of Tunguska in Russia, a meteorite no less than 50 meters in diameter travelling at approximately 60,000 mph penetrated our atmosphere, became heated to approximately 10,000 c and detonated 6 - 10 km above the ground. It released 10 - 50 Megatons of energy! The blast destroyed 2,200 square kilometres of forest leaving no trace of life and 30% - 50% of the ozone layer wiped out at the Northern hemisphere! The Tunguska rock came out of the Taurid Meteor storm that crosses Earth on a biannual basis like clockwork between 24-Jun & 6-Jul and 3-Nov & 15-Nov. The Taurid storm has 100 - 200 asteroids over 1 km in diameter that lay undiscovered. These rocks are travelling at approximately 46,000 mph! Recent evidence currently predicts that a hidden meteorite 30 km in diameter exists within the Taurid storm. A small meteorite 2 km in diameter would release a force of approximately 1,000,000 Megatons of TNT! A Tunguska-class event is expected to occur every 50 - 100 years, which means we are long overdue for another hit. If this sounds to frequent to be true, it is worth noting that we have only discovered less than 1% of the Earths scars left behind from previous impact events. Between 22 - 26 June 1975, the Moon was bombarded with numerous 1 Ton meteorites!
It is common fact that the possibility of an impact event is increased during high levels of solar activity from our Sun. The Tunguska event occurred during a peak of solar activity. The sun is currently entering what scientists call the Solar Maximum. This happens approximatley every 11 years and means the Suns activity is at its highest peak as we enter the year 2000 and cross paths with the Lenoids Meteor storm on 17-November-1999. The Lenoids storm peaks approximately every 33 years. Below is a diagram of the paths for the 100 largest known hazards that intersect the Earths orbital path around the Sun. The dot in the middle is our Sun, the Earth is somewhere amongst all those rocks! Remember, this diagram shows the paths for 100 meteorites (only 5% of total) and new ones are being discovered as you read this article.
The Sun has been disturbed recently with two comets smashing into it shown below from the SOHO satellite. This collision caused a monstrous Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). The Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) from a CME is capable of frying every piece of electronic equipment it comes in contact with, effectively stoping a large part of the Earth in its tracks. The typical size of a CME currently emanating from the Sun could cause air temperatures of up to 150 Fahrenheit for 8 - 10 hours. Hurricane force winds would also be experienced for approximately 12 hours with the possibility of massive earthquakes and floods. Just recently we had a near miss with one of these CMEs that possibly damaged satellites and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). NASA is currently preparing for a launch to go and fix the HST.
So to bring all this information a little closer to home, I would like to inform you of a recent close shave with a meteorite most likely from the upcoming Lenoid storm. On the 27-October-1999 a huge fireball was seen in the sky over Canada for approximately 12 seconds. It was visible as far north as Prince Edward Island and as far south as Boston. Witnesses included police officers and residents. Some people reported hearing a loud explosion before it disappeared after shaking housing foundations. The meteorite was described by witnesses as a large white ball of fire with an orange-black tail.
Are you prepared for an impact event? For more detailed information check out The Millennium Group web site.
