asteroids

Earth's Water Likely Came from Very Early Asteroid Strikes

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Space.com - 10/2/13

GFP Commentary: Asteroids, meteors, and comets are often used to bring new life forms and codes to planets, as well as materials and water.

World Action Plan Emerging to Combat Asteroid Threat

Earth got most of its water from asteroid impacts nearly 4.6 billion years ago, shortly after the solar system first took shape, a new study suggests.

Researchers studying a meteorite that fell to Earth in 2000 found evidence that the water in its parent asteroid disappeared soon after the space rock formed, when its insides were still warm. Asteroids that slammed into Earth several hundred million years after the solar system's birth were thus probably relatively dry, scientists said.

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Did Earth Life Come from Space? Tough Algae Suggests Panspermia Possibility

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Space.com 0 9/22/13, Megan Gannon

An asteroid is shown crashing into Earth

Scientists have long debated the possibility of that the microbial seeds of life did not originate on Earth, but were perhaps delivered here from an alien source, encased in comets or meteorites from Mars.

But to get here, simple life forms would have had to endure a litany of harsh cosmic conditions, including ejection into space, freezing temperatures, fiery re-entry and impact.

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Asteroid QE2 an 'Entirely New Beast': The Cosmos is Changing

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Space.com - 6/15/13, Mike Wall

A big asteroid that flew past Earth last month belongs to a new category of space rock, scientists say.

Asteroid 1998 QE2 and its moon sailed within 3.6 million miles (5.8 million kilometers) of Earth on May 31, making their closest approach to our planet for at least the next two centuries. New radar images captured by the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico are revealing just how unique this binary asteroid is, researchers say.

For more information please see Space.com

Asteroids - The Good the Bad and the Ugly (Documentary)

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BBC - 5/27/13

 

 

 

 

Famed for their ability to inflict Armageddon from outer space, asteroids are now revealing the secrets of how they are responsible for both life and death on our planet.
Armed with an array of powerful telescopes, scientists are finding up to 3000 new asteroids every night. And some are heading our way.

But astronomers have discovered that it's not the giant rocks that are the greatest danger - it's the small asteroids that pose a more immediate threat to Earth.
Researchers have explained the photon propulsion that propels these rocks across space, and have discovered that some asteroids are carrying a mysterious cargo of frost and ice across the solar system that could have helped start life on earth.

 

 

 

Near Earth Asteroids

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Spaceweather.com-5/26/13

 

Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.

On May 26, 2013 there were 1397 potentially hazardous asteroids.

 

 

Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Near Earth Asteroids

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Spaceweather.com- 4/26/13

 

Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.

On April 26, 2013 there were 1397 potentially hazardous asteroids.

Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Large fireball streaks across eastern U.S. – seen in 7 states

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TheExtinctionProtocol-3/18/13

 

 

 

March 18, 2013 – HIGH POINT, NC – There are several reports from Saturday night of a meteor gliding across the Carolina skies. Eyewitnesses reported seeing a large bolide meteor that split into several pieces. First Warn Storm Spotter Stuart McDaniel caught it all on his sky camera. McDaniel lives in Northern Cleveland County.  In his video, the fast moving meteor moved rapidly across the sky growing bigger and bigger then fading away. McDaniel isn’t the only one who saw the meteor; the American Meteorologist Society received 55 reports about this fireball seen over Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Nearly half of the reports were from Ohio. –WCNC

 

 

Four Asteroids Buzz Earth In a Single Week

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Wunderground.com-3/11/13, Teriq Malik

 

The 460-foot asteroid 2013 ET is seen through a Slooh Space Camera telescope in the Canary Islands on March 9, 2013, during its close approach to Earth. The asteroid was just within 600,000 miles of Earth.

 

In the last seven days, an asteroid 131 feet across and three smaller space rocks have zoomed safely by Earth, the latest demonstration that we live in a solar system that some scientists have dubbed a "cosmic shooting gallery."

All four asteroid flybys occurred between March 4 and March 10. The asteroids were also all discovered this month, some just days ago.

 

For more information on this delightful story please go to Wunderground.com

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