Rantburg

Today's Front Page   View All of Mon 06/02/2025 View Sun 06/01/2025 View Sat 05/31/2025 View Fri 05/30/2025 View Thu 05/29/2025 View Wed 05/28/2025 View Tue 05/27/2025
2025-05-29 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
3 city-killing asteroids could strike Earth within weeks — generating a million times more energy than Hiroshima atomic bomb
[NYPOST] Venus is concealing at least three city-killer asteroids that could strike Earth in weeks without warning, potentially wreaking havoc upon our planet before we can react.

"Twenty co-orbital asteroids [space rocks in the orbit of two celestial bodies] of Venus are currently known," the authors warned in the arockcalyptic study, which was published in the journal "Astronomy & Astrophysics."

The international research team, led by Valerio Carruba of São Paulo University in Brazil, wrote that at least three of the asteroids — 2020 SB, 524522 and 2020 CL1 — that circle the sun in tandem with our twin planet have unstable orbits that take them dangerously close to Earth, the Daily Mail reported.

If this shaky trajectory is shifted only slightly by a small gravitational change or other force, the asteroids could be set on a collision course with our planet, per the study.

''Co-orbital status protects these asteroids from close approaches to Venus, but it does not protect them from encountering Earth,'' the researchers warned, according to the Daily Galaxy.

Carruba & Co. came to this conclusion by using imitation space rocks to simulate a range of possible outcomes over 36,000 years.
Carruba & Co. came to this conclusion by using imitation space rocks to simulate a range of possible outcomes over 36,000 years, finding that there is a sizable population of low-eccentricity asteroids — those previously thought to be harmless — that could be propelled toward Earth via gravitational shifts and other factors.

To make matters worse, the aforementioned cosmic rocks' orbits make them almost invisible to Earthly detection devices.

While scientists at NASA and other space agencies routinely track potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids, the telescopes can't spot rocks in a suborbital path with Venus due to the sun's glare, which shields them like a cosmic cloaking device, WION reported.

Due to this interstellar blind spot, the Rubin Observatory in Chile would have only two to four weeks to spot deadly asteroids, leaving us little time if they were on a collision course.

For reference, a mission to engineer something that could deflect a killer space rock generally takes years to formulate.

''Low-e [low eccentricity] Venus co-orbitals pose a unique challenge, because of the difficulties in detecting and following these objects from Earth,'' the authors wrote in their conclusion.

It would be bad news if one of these intergalactic gravelstones hit home.

Asteroids 2020 SB, 524522 and 2020 CL1 measure between 330 and 1,300 feet in diameter, making each one capable of destroying entire cities and causing massive fires and tsunamis, the Daily Mail reported.

An impact would leave a crater over two miles wide and generate 1 million times more energy than the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.
Posted by Fred 2025-05-29 00:00|| || Front Page|| [248 views ]  Top

#1 I'd rather not know. Just hit me with your best shot. But after LA, SF, and NYC, please.
Posted by Bobby 2025-05-29 00:13||   2025-05-29 00:13|| Front Page Top

#2 #1^ beat me to it
Posted by NN2N1 2025-05-29 05:45||   2025-05-29 05:45|| Front Page Top

#3 We have our own.
Posted by Procopius2k 2025-05-29 07:38||   2025-05-29 07:38|| Front Page Top

#4 The old WWII GI acronym applies here: MDUSA
Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2025-05-29 08:00||   2025-05-29 08:00|| Front Page Top

#5 Scientists warn one of world's supervolcanoes is awakening: 'It will plunge the planet into chaos'
Posted by Skidmark 2025-05-29 08:33||   2025-05-29 08:33|| Front Page Top

#6 Increasing gas emissions - esp. if sulpherous -plus rhythmic earthquakes are an ominous sign. Any crustal deformation seen?

On a side note - while I love the Hysteria background - it does make it hard to read... just sayin'
Posted by Warthog 2025-05-29 09:43||   2025-05-29 09:43|| Front Page Top

#7 Ugh... so tired of the inflammatory Campi Flegrei stories. Yes, it may erupt again. Yes it matches the data so far for the 1608 eruption which was small. It isn't going to destroy the world. Or even Naples.
Posted by DarthVader 2025-05-29 10:17||   2025-05-29 10:17|| Front Page Top

#8 Any crustal deformation seen?

"For example, in the nearby town of Pozzuoli, the ground has risen by about 4.7 feet during the current phase. "
Posted by Skidmark 2025-05-29 10:56||   2025-05-29 10:56|| Front Page Top

#9 #5, 7, 8 -- adding thousands of tons of CO2 to the atmosphere. How do the climate changers say we should compensate? What do their models reveal? Calling Dr. Mann, Dr. Michael Mann? /sarc
Posted by Bobby 2025-05-29 11:20||   2025-05-29 11:20|| Front Page Top

#10 Yeah, pretty much at any time since the beginning of time.
Posted by ed in texas 2025-05-29 12:01||   2025-05-29 12:01|| Front Page Top

#11 Add washington DC please.
Posted by Gravilet Snanter4154 2025-05-29 16:27||   2025-05-29 16:27|| Front Page Top

#12 and so what if it does?
Posted by newc 2025-05-29 21:10||   2025-05-29 21:10|| Front Page Top










Paypal:
Google
Search WWW Search rantburg.com