Articles in Asteroids
Asteroid 2012 DA14: Earth Impact in 2013?
An article has been appearing in blogs and at forums. It says, in part:
To avert a possible catastrophe – this time set for February 2013 – scientists suggest confronting asteroid 2012 DA14 with either paint or big guns. The stickler is that time has long run out to build a spaceship to carry out the operation.
NASA’s data shows the 60-meter asteroid, spotted by Spanish stargazers in February, will whistle by Earth in 11 months. Its trajectory will bring it within a hair’s breadth of our planet, raising fears of a possible collision.
The asteroid, known as DA14, will pass by our planet in February 2013 at a distance of under 27,000 km (16,700 miles). This is closer than the geosynchronous orbit of some satellites.
There is a possibility the asteroid will collide with Earth, but further calculation is required to estimate the …
SHTF vs EOTW vs TEOTWAWKI
This isn’t just a 2012 problem – in newspapers and tabloid television, “experts” can find it easy to dismiss a topic by misrepresenting it and then debunking it. This is unfortunate because most of the public learns about conspiracy-type topics from these experts. Let’s take a little look at how 2012 is misrepresented in popular media:
Nomenclature
In interviews I almost always get introduced in the same manner – Robert Bast, who believes the world will end in 2012. And every time I correct their sensationalism – I think the end of the world, as we know it (TEOTWAWKI) could occur in 2012.
It really is a double-edged sword. Most 2012ers are preparing to survive or become light-beings or ascend. None of these are the end of the world (EOTW), in which everything ends. Yet the media uses EOTW. And the experts drolly state “the Maya only believe in cycles, not an end“. …
New Comet, New Asteroid
The comet was discovered by Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS 1 telescope which scans areas of the sky for dangerous asteroids. It is early days, but they estimate that:
The comet will likely come within about 30 million miles (50 million kilometers) of the sun in February or March 2013 — about the same distance as the planet Mercury, researchers said.
During its closest approach to Earth in two years, comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) likely to be visible low in the western sky shortly after sunset, weather permitting.
…”The comet has an orbit that is close to parabolic, meaning that this may be the first time it will ever come close to the sun, and that it may never return,” said the University of Hawaii’s Richard Wainscoat in a statement.
The close to parabolic orbit means that this could actually be a long period comet, one that an ancient culture might have tracked previously. February/March 2013 is …
Rapid Magnetic Changes / Houston Dome / Another Tunguska
“a new study of ancient copper mines in southern Israel found that the strength of the magnetic field could double and then fall back down in less than 20 years.” This could be local, or global, they don’t seem sure. But it is certainly something scientists previously did not believe possible.
Why build bunkers when you can protect an entire city with a massive dome?
The concept would supposedly keep the city safe from a category-5 hurricane.
Tunguska was not the only explosion of its type last century – there’s actually a list of them at Wikipedia. A good candidate to add to that list is a powerful blast that struck British Guyana in 1935. An expedition “reported seeing an area some miles across where the trees had been broken off about 25 feet above their bases“, while numerous people witnessed a “large meteoroid/small asteroid entry“. One day a town or …
New Sinkhole / John Perkins / Asteroid Satellite
This time the sinkhole is in Germany, measuring 30 meters across, and 20 meters deep. Six houses were evacuated. Photo over at a News Corp site.
Author John Perkins (Confessions of an Economic Hit Man) has posted his thoughts on 2012 at the Huffington Post. He explains how the 2012 meme has become, proven by his numerous forthcoming speaking engagements, a “tidal wave of change that is flooding human consciousness“. And he quantifies his positive thoughts by referring to how the Popul Vuh describes how “people overthrow an egotistical regime characterized by exploitation and deception and replace it with an enlightened and compassionate one“.
The Association of Space Explorers, has prepared a report on the threat asteroids pose for Planet Earth. The UN is studying the report, which includes plans to detect and deflect any objects in space that might threaten us. The Canadian Space Agency plans to launch a $15-million …
Meteoroid Tracking / New 2012 Drink / Missing Sunspots
NASA is installing a network of smart cameras across the USA to track fireballs and meteoroids. Soon there will be 15, and then they plan to expand nationwide. These cameras are automated and linked together so that they can triangulate paths and orbits. If NASA was expecting an influx of fireballs (and alternative media outlets are suggesting this is already happening), such data could prove to be important. But it could just be that NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office is wanting to he more helpful when they get phone calls from the public. More info at PhysOrg, and the official NASA site has live and historical images from the cameras.
—
According to the website of Australia’s antidote to “energy drinks”, esc, if you are concerned about 2012, their drink will let you Escape into a zen state of mind!
—
The latest in a long line of solar cycle theories has just been published …
The Royal Society Laughs at 2012
A few days ago, the highly-regarded Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell gave a Royal Society lecture about the sham that is 2012. You can watch it online:
http://royalsociety.org/The-end-of-the-world-in-2012/
Now for some criticisms!
You have to wonder about a scientist who doesn’t understand how search engines work, yet we should trust her skills in analyzing the 2012 meme. Seven minutes into the lecture Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell tells us that there are 56 million Google results when she searches for end of the world in 2012, and the audience laughs. There aren’t, merely 56 million web pages that contain all of those words, somewhere on the page. Any professor should be smart enough to estimate that 56 million people have not made websites about 2012.
Searching for:
“end of the world” 2012
yields just 1.7 million results. Of these 95% or more will be computer-generated spam. Real websites with original content about 2012 probably number around one thousand. Not …
Noah’s Ark / Facebook Game / Bolide Data
With state-funding, a Christian ministry will build a $150 million theme park, featuring a full-size Noah’s Ark, complete with live animals. There will also be a Tower of Babel. Can’t wait to take my family, and it is aiming to open in 2014.
Those 500 million Facebook users now have access to a game all about 2012 – War of 2012. After a magnetic pole shift and solar flares, you are a member of “a tribe that happened to survive the pandemonium aboard the Genesis Ark“. Apart from the back story and the name, it is yet another Civilization clone… Far more interesting would be a prepping game where you have 2012-like deadline to prepare.
Tunguska-like atmospheric explosions occur several times a year, and we know this because NASA satellites spot them. Data on these “bolide” will soon be released so that scientists worldwide can better study them.
That Unacknowledged Asteroid
Imagine if you had spotted an asteroid or comet hurtling toward Earth. Or that you became aware of such via the Interweb. It would be very useful to calculate how the collision will affect you, where you are.
In case that unlikely scenario arises, here’s some software that promises to calculate the harm you face.
Lest you be unsatisfied with a simulation of a massive rock barreling down on us, the Web site also provides data on the aftermath, including the size of the crater, the extent of the fireball, and even the height of the tsunami wave, should the object crash into the ocean.
Cosmic Rays / Sting / Asteroid in 2182
A neutrino observatory consisting of strings of detectors buried deep in Antarctic ice has confirmed that more cosmic rays arrive from some parts of the sky than others, something already observed in the northern hemisphere
BBC movie show Talking Movies has an interview with Sting about the new 2012 doco called 2012: Time For Change
Spanish asteroid trackers estimate that asteroid 1999 RQ36 has a chance in 1,000 of crashing into our planet in the year 2182. NASA says 1 in 3,570. At over 500 metres in width, the impact would be catastrophic. Still, you’d expect we’d be able to shift the path of an asteroid by then…
Protecting Earth: Governments Finally Getting Serious
The timing could be better, because Dec 2012 is only 2.5 years away, but better late than never!
Last month, Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R – CA) introduced the new bill before Congress, H.R. 5587, titled: “To establish a United States Commission on Planetary Defense and for other purposes.”
The commission will investigate the role of the United States in identifying NEOs (Near-Earth Objects), and their capabilities for neutralising any potential impacts. The budget is a pitiful $2 million, and has me wondering why Congress is even needed to debate the worthiness of it. Most scientists working in this field would tell you that there is no doubt about what is required – a huge amount of money to be spent ASAP. We have the capability to protect our planet, and so far we are sitting on our hands…
Meanwhile over at Space Daily is a report on a meeting in Germany attended by …
NASA Discovers 25,000 New Asteroids
And as an example of how infrequent it is for an asteroid to crash into our planet, not one of the 25,000 is aimed for Earth.
It’s a pretty impressive haul for WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer), finding that number since last December, and also discovering 15 new comets. The telescope is up in space, just like the famous Hubble. Being infrared, it can “see through impenetrable veils of dust, picking up the heat glow of objects that are invisible to regular telescopes.”
While I wouldn’t pretend to know if the $320 million cost is a good investment for science, as an early warning system it is extremely cheap if we can somehow avert a disaster in 2012 or any other year.
Major Asteroid Impact circa 3114BC
While a lot of energy is being spent on the Mayan Long Count end date of 2012AD, very few investigators (if any) are looking into the start date of 3114BC and possible reasons for that date. My long held belief is that the only feasible event an ancient culture could have predicted for 2012 is the approach of a comet or asteroid. My article on Comet Caesar explains the potential for a comet that visits us every 1000 years or so to be the reason for the existence of the Long Count calendar. The theoretical last approach (approx 987AD) would not have been recorded because in the Dark Ages we don’t even have a record of Halley’s Comet. 3000+ years ago there aren’t any useful records of comets. And 2000 years ago Comet Caesar was big news.
Well, here’s a candidate for circa 3114BC:
A clay tablet that has baffled scientists for …
Conspiracy Update + June 23 Terrorist Attack?
There’s a very active thread over at Above Top Secret, which starts off like this:
To those who think that Operation Blackjack, that comic series published by the London Telegraph last year, was just a sick joke; It may come as a shock to learn that an earlier warning has been discovered and decoded. There are those that believe that the Illuminati publish their plans in encrypted ways, because it is necessary by their ‘order’ to involve us in the blood sacrifice?
…The actual decoding is very complex and may be posted in its entirety in a separate post. However, the following items were decoded and found contained within the terror article: * The number “33″ Illuminati marker of authentication. * The article claims that the terrorist shot tourist on December 24, 2007. * Then the article is decoded to warn of “dangerous winds” 912 days later, which happens to be June …
Asteroids: We Aren’t Prepared
NASA is looking, and does find asteroids. Unfortunately their efforts are far from comprehensive, and our planet is woefully under-prepared relative to our technical capabilities. A few months back New Scientist published what will hopefully be a wake-up call to politicians globally:
The asteroid is on a collision course with Earth. It is the size of a skyscraper and it’s big enough to raze a city to the ground. Oh, and it will be here in three days.
Far-fetched it might seem, but this scenario is all too plausible. Certainly it is realistic enough that the US air force recently brought together scientists, military officers and emergency-response officials for the first time to assess the nation’s ability to cope, should it come to pass.
They were asked to imagine how their respective organisations would respond to a mythical asteroid called Innoculatus striking the Earth after just three days’ warning. The asteroid consisted of …
