And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
— Revelation 8:8-10 King James Version (KJV)
Meteorite strikes central Russia, hundreds injured
Is this event related to the asteroid 2012 DA14 (which might be surrounded by harder to detect objects)?
A meteor streaked through the sky and exploded Friday over Russia’s Ural Mountains with the power of an atomic bomb, its sonic blasts shattering countless windows and injuring more than 750 people. The spectacle deeply frightened thousands, with some elderly women declaring the world was coming to an end.
In this photo provided by Chelyabinsk.ru a meteorite contrail is seen over Chelyabinsk on Friday, Feb. 15, 2013. A meteor streaked across the sky of Russia’s Ural Mountains on Friday morning, causing sharp explosions and reportedly injuring around 100 people, including many hurt by broken glass (The Associated Press)
Its estimated weight was about 10 tons when it entered the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of at least 54,000 km/h, shattering about 30-50 kilometres above the ground, according to The Russian Academy of Sciences.
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The asteroid 2012 DA14, which will come within about 17,000 miles of Earth on February 15, is about half the size of a football stadium, and in a collision would generate an explosive energy equivalent to 2,500 kilotons of TNT. In comparison, the atomic bomb over Hiroshima that instantly killed more than 70,000 people released “merely” the equivalent of 17 kilotons of TNT. Seventeen-thousand miles seems like plenty of room, but in cosmic terms, it’s an awfully close shave. “Remember, the Earth is a moving target, traveling around the sun at 65,000 miles per hour,” former astronaut Ed Lu said in a public appearance at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research earlier this month. “So [the asteroid] is missing us by only about 14 minutes.”
To be clear, the asteroid is not going to collide with Earth. But if it did, it’d have a devastating impact — one that highlights Earth’s vulnerability to a tough-to-detect mainstay of the cosmos: mid-sized asteroids capable of delivering nuclear-sized blasts. Comparable in size to the asteroid that destroyed 1,000 square miles of trees and reindeer in Tunguska, Siberia in 1908, 2012 DA14 would be very bad news in a direct collision with a populated area. Imagine a giant explosion in the sky, followed by a blast wave that would level buildings, knock the Golden Gate Bridge into the sea, and subject an area between San Francisco and San Jose to total destruction. A Spanish dental surgeon and amateur astronomer named Jaime Nomen first spotted 2012 DA14 last year –- hence the “2012” in its name –- so you might think that would give officials ample time to come up with an asteroid-deflection plan. But no. “With one year’s notice, there’s absolutely nothing we can do,” Lu said. “There’s no launch opportunity –- the asteroid is orbiting back around the sun. Had it been coming back to hit us, the only option would have been to evacuate. That’s not a good option.”
The good news: With enough warning — preferably decades — an asteroid headed for Earth could be deflected. Ramming a remotely controlled spacecraft against an asteroid to change the velocity by just millimeters per second can avert a collision with Earth. If, that is, we have at least 10 years notice before a collision. With less time, the change in velocity needs to be far greater. “The curve goes from millimeters per second to meters per second pretty quickly,” Lu told Popular Science. “The job rapidly goes from ‘easy- easy’ to almost impossible starting at about a decade.”
There are about one million asteroids larger than 40 meters that scientists consider “near Earth objects,” because their paths around the sun criss-cross the Earth’s orbit. NASA’s near-Earth object office in Pasadena, California, reports that humans have spotted about 94 percent of the really large, civilization-ending near-Earth asteroids – in the 1- to 10- kilometer range, like the monster that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago – and concluded that none so far discovered will hit Earth in the next hundred years. But due to budgetary constraints, Lu points out that we have identified the orbits of only 1 percent of the still potentially dangerous medium-sized asteroids of at least 40 meters – like 2012 DA 14 or the Tunguska asteroid. Read more >>
Record-Setting Asteroid Flyby
On February 15th, 2013 an asteroid about half the size of a football field will fly past Earth only 17,200 miles above our planet’s surface. There’s no danger of a collision, but the space rock, designated “2012 DA14”, has NASA’s attention.
“This is a record-setting close approach,” says Don Yeomans of NASA’s Near Earth Object Program at JPL. “Since regular sky surveys began in the 1990s, we’ve never seen an object this big get so close to Earth.”
Earth’s neighborhood is littered with asteroids of all shapes and sizes, ranging from fragments smaller than beach balls to mountainous rocks many kilometers wide. Many of these objects hail from the asteroid belt, while others may be corpses of long-dead, burnt out comets. NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program helps find and keep track of them, especially the ones that come close to our planet.
2012 DA14 is a fairly typical near-Earth asteroid. It measures some 50 meters wide, neither very large nor very small, and is probably made of stone, as opposed to metal or ice. Yeomans estimates that an asteroid like 2012 DA14 flies past Earth, on average, every 40 years, yet actually strikes our planet only every 1,200 years or so.
The impact of a 50-meter asteroid is not cataclysmic–unless you happen to be underneath it. Yeomans points out that a similar-sized object formed the mile wide Meteor Crater in Arizona when it struck about 50,000 years ago.
“That asteroid was made of iron,” he says, “which made it an especially potent impactor.” Also, in 1908, something about the size of 2012 DA14 exploded in the atmosphere above Siberia, leveling hundreds of square miles of forest. Researchers are still studying the “Tunguska Event” for clues to the impacting object.
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“2012 DA14 will definitely not hit Earth,” emphasizes Yeomans. “The orbit of the asteroid is known well enough to rule out an impact.” Even so, it will come interestingly close. NASA radars will be monitoring the space rock as it approaches Earth closer than many man-made satellites. Yeomans says the asteroid will thread the gap between low-Earth orbit, where the ISS and many Earth observation satellites are located, and the higher belt of geosynchronous satellites, which provide weather data and telecommunications. “The odds of an impact with a satellite are extremely remote,” he says. Almost nothing orbits where DA14 will pass the Earth. NASA’s Goldstone radar in the Mojave Desert is scheduled to ping 2012 DA14 almost every day from Feb. 16th through 20th. The echoes will not only pinpoint the orbit of the asteroid, allowing researchers to better predict future encounters, but also reveal physical characteristics such as size, spin, and reflectivity. A key outcome of the observing campaign will be a 3D radar map showing the space rock from all sides. |
During the hours around closest approach, the asteroid will brighten until it resembles a star of 8thmagnitude. Theoretically, that’s an easy target for backyard telescopes. The problem, points out Yeomans, is speed. “The asteroid will be racing across the sky, moving almost a full degree (or twice the width of a full Moon) every minute. That’s going to be hard to track.” Only the most experienced amateur astronomers are likely to succeed.
Those who do might experience a tiny chill when they look at their images. That really was a close shave.
For more information about 2012 DA14 and other asteroids of interest, visit NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program web site: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov
Author: Dr. Tony Phillips |Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA
Near-Earth Asteroid “2012 DA14” to Miss Earth on February 15, 2013
Paul Chodas, Jon Giorgini & Don Yeomans
NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office
Discovered by the LaSagra observatory in southern Spain, the small asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass within about 3.5 Earth radii of the Earth’s surface on February 15, 2013. Although its size is not well determined, this near-Earth asteroid is thought to be about 45 meters in diameter. Asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass inside the geosynchronous satellite ring, located about 35,800 km above the equator. Its orbit about the sun can bring it no closer to the Earth’s surface than 3.2 Earth radii on February 15, 2013. On this date, the asteroid will travel rapidly from the southern evening sky into the northern morning sky with its closest Earth approach occurring about 19:26 UTC when it will achieve a magnitude of less than seven, which is somewhat fainter than naked eye visibility. About 4 minutes after its Earth close approach, there is a good chance it will pass into the Earth’s shadow for about 18 minutes or so before reappearing from the eclipse. When traveling rapidly into the northern morning sky, 2012 DA14 will quickly fade in brightness.
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news174.html
According to scientists, asteroid 2012 DA14 has a length of 100 meters and in the case of hitting the Earth, can be released the energy, which equivalent to the explosion of the hydrogen bomb. On February 15, 2013 will be the first recorded case in which an asteroid can fly at a small distance from the Earth, we note, that the asteroid 2005 YU55, which caused the attention of scientists in November 2011, flew at a distance of 325 000 kilometers from Earth, more than 10 times higher, than the distance of the asteroid 2012 DA14, so some scientists do not rule out a collision the Earth with asteroid, because 27,000 kilometers – the distance, that may be in the range of errors of astronomical calculations, and this short distance is actually evidence of real probability of a collision, so other planets of the Solar system can change the trajectory of this asteroid.”
Feb 8, 2013 UPDATE
NASA Tries to Calm Fears of Near Miss Asteroid
NASA held a media teleconference yesterday (Thursday) Feb. 7th, to discuss asteroid 2012 DA14 which will have a very close flyby of Earth on Feb. 15, 2013. Also discussed are NASA’s efforts to find potentially hazardous near-Earth objects.
I would suggest NASA is a bit more nervous than they project. I believe I counted between 11 and 15 disclaimers during their conference. They also produced three videos – also with punctuated disclaimers. I’m not saying they are hiding information, I’m just saying there’s probably a few beads of sweat on those monitoring.
Below is a portion of a question and answer session:
Q: What is asteroid DA14
A: Asteroid 2012 DA14 is a small near-Earth object – approximately 150 feet (45 meters) in diameter. On Feb. 15, 2013, the asteroid will pass by our planet at a remarkably close distance, but the asteroid’s path is understood well enough that there is no chance of a collision with the Earth.
Q: What date and what time will the asteroid be closest to Earth?
A: Asteroid 2012 DA14 will be closest to Earth on Feb. 15 at approximately 19:24 UTC (2:24 p.m. EST/11:24 a.m. PST). This time may change by a minute or two as the asteroid is tracked on its approach and predictions are refined. At the time of closest approach, the asteroid will be over the eastern Indian Ocean, off Sumatra — approx. latitude: -6 deg South. / longitude: 97.5 deg East.
Q: How far away will asteroid 2012 DA14 be at time of closest approach?
A: Asteroid 2012 DA14 will be only about 17,200 miles (27,700 kilometers) above Earth’s surface at the time of closest approach on Feb 15, 2013. This distance is well outside Earth’s atmosphere, but it is inside the belt of satellites in geostationary orbit, which is located 22,200 miles (35,800 kilometers) above Earth’s surface. The close-approach distance is only about one-tenth the distance between Earth and moon. Another way to express the distance between asteroid and Earth at time of closest approach is 4.4 Earth radii from Earth’s surface – or about twice the diameter of the Earth.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=159378831
Q: Could asteroid DA14 impact Earth?
A: No. The orbit of asteroid 2012 DA14 is well understood – it will not come any closer than 17,150 miles (27,650 kilometers) above Earth’s surface during its flyby on Feb 15, 2013.
The asteroid’s orbit around the sun is roughly similar to that of Earth, and it makes relatively close approaches to our planet’s orbit twice per orbit. But, the 2013 flyby is by far the closest the asteroid will approach our planet for many decades. The next notable close approach to Earth will be on February 16, 2046, when the asteroid will pass no closer than 620,000 miles (1,000,000,000 kilometers) from the center-point of Earth.
Q: What makes 2012 DA14 special?
A: The flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14 is the closest ever predicted Earth approach for an object this large.
Q: How long will asteroid 2012 DA14 be within the Earth/moon system?
A: Asteroid 2012 DA14’s will be within the Earth/moon system for about 33 hours. Its orbit will bring it within the Earth/moon system (approach within one lunar distance, 237,000 miles of the Earth) on Feb. 15 at about 0300 UTC (7 p.m. PST on Thursday, Feb. 14). The asteroid will exit the Earth/moon system on Feb. 16 at about 1200 UTC (4 a.m. PST).
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=159372691
Q: Is there a chance that asteroid 2012 DA14 could be eclipsed by Earth?
A: Because of its trajectory, there is no chance that asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass through Earth’s shadow.
Q: How big is asteroid 2012 DA14?
A: Asteroid 2012 DA14 is currently estimated to be about 150 feet (45 meters) across and has an estimated mass of about 130,000 metric tons. If radar observations of this asteroid are successful, we might have a more accurate estimate of the asteroid’s size after its close approach.
Q: How fast will the asteroid be traveling at closest approach?
A: Asteroid 2012 DA 14 is traveling at about 17,450 miles per hour (28,100 kilometers per hour), or 4.8 miles per second (7.82 kilometers per second) relative to Earth.
Q: Who discovered asteroid DA14?
A: Asteroid 2012 DA14 was discovered by the La Sagra Sky Survey operated by the Astronomical Observatory of Mallorca in Spain on Feb. 23, 2012. The asteroid was about 2.7 million miles (4.3 million kilometers) distant when it was detected. Their observations were reported to the NASA funded Minor Planet Center, operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for the International Astronomical Union, where all observations from observatories worldwide are combined to maintain the database on all known asteroids and comets in our solar system.
Q: How many asteroids are out there similar in size to asteroid DA14?
A: Scientists believe there are approximately 500,000 near-Earth asteroids the size of 2012 DA14. Of those, less than one percent have been discovered.
Q: How many times do asteroids the size of DA14 fly this close?
A: Scientists at NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office in Pasadena, Calif. estimate that an asteroid the size of 2012 DA14 flies this close every 40 years on average and that one will impact Earth, on average, about once in every 1,200 years.
Q: Is there a chance that asteroid DA14 will collide with one or more satellites?
A: There is very little chance that asteroid 2012 DA14 will impact a satellite or spacecraft. Because the asteroid is approaching from below Earth, it will pass between the outer constellation of satellites located in geosynchronous orbit (22,245 miles/35,800 kilometers) and the large concentration of satellites orbiting much closer to Earth. (The International Space Station, for example, orbits at the close-in altitude of 240 miles/386 kilometers.). There are almost no satellites orbiting at the distance at which the asteroid will pass.
Q: What will asteroid DA14’s close pass do to Earth’s rotation/tides/fault lines/etc.
A: The gravitational influence upon Earth and its inhabitants by the flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14 will be infinitesimally small.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=159458241
Q: What would happen if DA14 were to impact Earth?
A: Asteroid 2012 DA14 will not impact Earth, but if another asteroid of a size similar to that of 2012 DA14 (about 150 feet across) were to impact Earth, it would release approximately 2.5 megatons of energy in the atmosphere and would be expected to cause regional devastation.
A comparison to the impact potential of an asteroid the size of 2012 DA14 could be made to the impact of a near-Earth object that occurred in 1908 in Tuguska, Siberia. Known in the asteroid community as the “Tunguska Event,” this impact of an asteroid just slightly smaller than 2012 DA14 (approximately 100 – 130 feet/30-40 meters across) is believed to have flattened about 750 square miles (1,200 square kilometers) of forest in and around the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia.
Q: Can I see the asteroid during its close approach?
A: Asteroid 2012 DA14 is small, so even though it will make a close flyby of Earth, the asteroid’s apparent magnitude is expected to peak at about only 7.4 – too dim to be viewed by the naked eye. To view the asteroid, you will need a good pair of binoculars, or even better, a moderately powered telescope.
During the closest approach, and dependent on local weather, the asteroid will be visible from parts of Europe, Africa and Asia. The asteroid will appear to be moving relatively quickly as it crosses the sky from the south to the north.
Q: What is NASA doing about asteroid 2012 DA14?
A: As there is no chance of impact, there is nothing that needs to be done about the asteroid. However, the flyby of 2012 DA14 is a great opportunity for science. NASA’s Goldstone Solar System Radar, located in California’s Mojave Desert, will observe the asteroid on Feb. 16, 18, 19 and 20. Due to the asteroid’s small size, the radar images generated are expected to be no more than a few pixels across. It will also be observed by numerous optical observatories worldwide to attempt to determine its spin rate and composition.
Q: What is NASA doing about Near-Earth Objects?
A: NASA has several ongoing programs regarding asteroid discovery and science.
The NASA Near Earth Object Observation (NEOO) Program detects and tracks asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The network of projects supported by this program, commonly called “Spaceguard,” discovers these objects, characterizes a subset of them and plots their orbits to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.
All observations from observatories worldwide are sent to the NASA funded Minor Planet Center, operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for the International Astronomical Union, where they are combined to maintain the database on all known asteroids and comets in our solar system. The Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL manages the technical and scientific activities for NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program of the Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The NEO Program Office performs more precise orbit determination on the objects, and predicts whether any will become an impact hazard to the Earth, or any other planet in the solar system. The NEOO Program also performs orbit analysis on the discovered Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) at Goddard Space Flight Center to determine which ones may become good robotic or human spaceflight destinations in the near future.
NASA’s 70-meter (230-foot) Goldstone antenna, located about 35 miles north of Barstow on the Ft. Irwin Military Base, is part of NASA’s Deep Space network. The antenna is one of only two facilities capable of imaging asteroids with radar. The other is the National Science Foundation’s 1,000-foot-diameter (305 meters) Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
The capabilities of the two instruments are complementary, and NASA’s NEOO Program supports the radar capability at both these facilities. The Arecibo radar is about 20 times more sensitive, can see about one-third of the sky, and can detect asteroids about twice as far away. Goldstone is fully steerable, can see about 80 percent of the sky, can track objects several times longer per day, and can image asteroids at finer spatial resolution. JPL manages the Goldstone Solar System Radar and the Deep Space Network for NASA.
NASA has also started several basic research and technology demonstration projects to better understand the nature of asteroids and how they might best be deflected from an Earth impacting trajectory, or to develop the space technology required to do this.
This development work includes improved Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) systems that could push or pull an asteroid for an extended time, and close proximity operations and grappling mechanisms to work in and around asteroids and manipulate their surfaces. This technology will also be useful for future robotic and human missions to these objects, and even potentially resource mining operations.
The above update courtesy of Mitch Battros – Earth Changes Media
NASA Hosts Feb. 7 Media Teleconference On Asteroid Earth Flyby
WASHINGTON — NASA will hold a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EST, Thursday, Feb. 7, to discuss an asteroid 150-feet in diameter that will pass close, but safely, by Earth on Feb. 15. The flyby creates a unique opportunity for researchers to observe and learn more about asteroids.
The teleconference participants are:
–Lindley Johnson, program executive, Near-Earth Object (NEO) Observations Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington
–Timothy Spahr, director, Minor Planet Center, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.
–Donald Yeomans, manager, NEO Office, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.
–Amy Mainzer, principal investigator, NEOWISE observatory, JPL
–Edward Beshore, deputy principal investigator, Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer Asteroid Sample Return Mission, University of Arizona, Tucson
Reporters can obtain dial-in information by sending an email to Dwayne Brown at dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov by noon Thursday. Requests must include the reporter’s name, affiliation and telephone number.
- Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at: http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio
- Related images for the teleconference will be available at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/news/telecon20130207.html
- For detailed information concerning the Earth flyby of 2012 DA14, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/asteroidflyby.html
- A Ustream feed of the flyby from a telescope at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will be broadcast from 9 p.m. to midnight EST on Feb. 15. To view the feed and ask researchers questions via Twitter about the flyby, visit: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc
PS1 Satellites around the Earth
The skies above Earth are teeming with man-made objects large and small. The U.S. Space Surveillance Network uses radar to track more than 13,000 such items that are larger than four inches (ten centimeters). This celestial clutter includes everything from the International Space Station (ISS) and the Hubble Space Telescope to defunct satellites, rocket stages, or nuts and bolts left behind by astronauts. And there are millions of smaller, harder-to-track objects such as flecks of paint and bits of plastic.
Gravitational pull will ensure that anything we’ve ever put in orbit will eventually make its way back to Earth. And though thus far no one has ever been killed by reentering space debris, NASA estimates on average one piece returns to Earth each day. [ read more: http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/solar-system/orbital/ ]
Real-time Satellites in Google Earth
This collection by Analytic Graphics Inc. shows real-time positions of 13,000 satellites around the Earth in Google Earth.
Links
- Earth – A Moving Target
- 2012 Doomsday – Bullshit or Present Danger?
- http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/2012da14.html
- http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2012+DA14;orb=1
- http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread813706/pg1
- http://hainanwel.com/en/unusual-world/1565-asteroid-2012-da-14.html
- http://en.rian.ru/science/20120226/171543660.html
- :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2J-vfFAFmY&feature=plcp&context=C35c3…
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPn5W7KtF0o
- http://spaceobs.org/en/
- http://spaceobs.org/ru/
- http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/earth-will-likely-be-im…
- http://rt.com/news/paint-asteroid-earth-nasa-767/
- http://spaceobs.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/2012DA14-20120228.png
PS2 Blasts of the Past
People at the headwaters of the Murray River, presumably of Wiradjuri stock again, remembered an occasion well before 1925 when a conspicuous fireball provoked an earthquake and a rupture of the earth’s surface:
“Then came a wonderful and inexplicable thing. It was a great bright light, burning blue, and travelling at an enormous rate. It came down out of heaven and no one knew who had caused it, but all believed that it must have been some sorcerer greater than any ever known. The earth trembled because of its speed. The air was filled with a hissing sound. The glare dazzled everybody, and in a fraction of time it had struck. The ground heaved and was rent. Stones went up, masses of earth flew, and a terrific explosion roared. The noise of the burst was deafening, and it reverberated around and amongst the hills and through the bush until all the world was just a great, full noise. … During the ensuing night more heavenly fires darted hither and thither. The frightened people grew somewhat accustomed to them and they watched them.”
The neighbouring Wadi Wadi, a subgroup of the Dharawal nation (Burragorang Valley, southeastern New South Wales), relayed an experience dwarfing the recent Russian event. At the end of an extremely hot day in the distant past, the sky and all its denizens appeared to shake:
“Then the sky moved. In the darkness, with just a shred of the red of the burning west left, and with the stars showing brightly, and a rising moon putting an inquisitive edge over the haze of the east, the sky heaved and billowed and tumbled and tottered. The moon rocked. The stars tumbled and clattered and fell one against the other. The Milky Way … also billowed and it split, and in some places is never joined together again, leaving blank spaces that we call ‘Magellan’s Clouds’.”
Unless these celestial bodies were directly affected, the most economic interpretation of this account appears to be the passage of a dense meteor shower producing optical distortion in the atmosphere. Then came the fireball, bursting into fragments that left permanent scars on the landscape:
“The great star-groups were scattered, and many of them, loosened from their holds, came flashing to the earth. They were heralded by a huge mass, red and glowing, that added to the number of falling stars by bursting with a deafening roar and scattering in a million pieces which were molten. The people were too scared to move. The disturbance continued all night. When the smoke and the clamour had died away and morning had dawned it was seen that the holes had been burnt into the earth, and great mounds were formed by the molten pieces, and many caves were made. The burning was still going on, for molten masses and flame were being belched forth.”
A storm of impacting meteors responsible for all this havoc must have been rare indeed. Yet even worse calamities come down from Australian lore. Polly Brown was a Barkindji (western New South Wales) who, sometime before 1927, told the hoary tale of a ‘fallen star’:
“AND THEY COULD SEE THE SKY WAS LIT UP … AND THERE WASN’T ANY MOON, SO THEY TOOK NOTICE OF THIS, AND THEY GOT SCARED … THEN THEY HEARD THIS RUMBLING NOISE FROM THE SKY, LIKE THUNDER … AND AS IT CAME DOWN CLOSE, THERE WAS RED STREAKS, AND A GREAT BIG BALL OF FIRE COMING DOWN … AND THERE WAS SMOKE …” (capitals and bold typeface in the original)
A tragic loss of human life ensued:
“AND A LOT OF THEM GOT TRAPPED … THEY JUST COULDN’T MOVE BECAUSE IT CAME DOWN TOO QUICK … AND WHERE IT FELL, SOME OF THEM DIED THERE, AND SOME OF THEM GOT BURNT … THERE WAS FIRE IN IT. … THE OTHERS DIED THERE. … THEY HAD TO MOVE QUICK BECAUSE OF THE RAIN THAT WAS COMING BEHIND.”
The fireball appears to have left a crater where it fell, on the river east of Wilcannia, at the third bend before Mount Murchison:
“THIS BIG CIRCLE OF ROCK IS WHERE THE STAR FELL. YOU CAN ONLY SEE IT WHEN THE RIVER DRIES UP. THE OLD PEOPLE CALLED THIS BEND ‘PURLI NGRANGKALITJI’ … THAT’S ‘THE FALLEN STAR’ IN PARKANTJI LANGUAGE.”
In the wake of the impact, the landscape was flooded:
“THEN IT STARTED TO RAIN … AND IT RAINED FOR DAYS … AND DAYS … AND DAYS … AND THEY KEPT MOVING, THIS GROUP OF PEOPLE … THEY HAD TO GET TO THE HIGHER GROUND. … ALL THE SWAMPS WAS FULL, THERE WAS JUST A SEA OF WATER EVERYWHERE. THERE WAS NO WAY THEY COULD HAVE A REST EXCEPT IF THEY FOUND A LITTLE ISLAND SOMEWHERE. … AUNTIE POLLY BROWN SAID ‘THAT’S WHY YOU’LL SEE FINGERPRINTS AND FOOTPRINTS IN THE ROCKS THERE TODAY … BECAUSE THEY WERE THE PEOPLE GOING UP AND COMING DOWN THESE HILLS; AND THE ROCKS USED TO BE SOFT.”
Moreover, the Barkindji discovered curious stones at the site of the impact:
“YEARS AGO, WHEN WE CAME OUT HERE, THERE WAS SOME DIFFERENT COLOURED STONE AS WELL AS WHAT YOU SEE NOW. THERE WAS A LOT OF BLACK STONE HERE … THAT SORT OF DULL BLACK LIKE YOU SEE IN OUR PEOPLE’S OLD FIREPLACES. AND IT HAD SHINY BITS LIKE BLACK MARBLE, TOO, AND BITS OF GREEN, AND BITS THAT WERE WHITE-ISH LIKE THE FAT IN A SHEEP.”
As discussed earlier, the description seems to match Australites, yet to suggest that this class of tektites was any more recent than 800,000 years is anathema to scientific consensus.
Have geologists examined the location fingered by the Barkandji? Did the Barkindji and the Wadi Wadi people refer to the same event? Could this be related to the Henbury crater (central Australia), which is associated with a meteorite impact dated to 4,200 years BP? And is there any way the Australites could be much more recent than commonly thought? With the paucity of available evidence, such questions understandably meet with a sonorous silence.
More extreme still is the well-known myth of the Greek demigod Phaethon, the ‘son of the sun’ whose bold adventure incinerated a large part of the world, while he himself crashed into the river Eridanus. Valerius Flaccus was a Roman poet (1st century CE) who envisioned Phaethon as a meteor, his charred remains a ‘black ball’ or ‘dark globe’ (ater globus). The Greek chronicler John of Antioch (7th century CE) similarly portrayed Phaethon as a ‘fiery ball’ (sphaira pyròs) hurled onto the Celtic lands from the sky with devastating consequences. As with the Barkandji, the event was associated with curious objects on the ground, amber in this case. A trickle of modern scholars has followed the interpretation of Phaethon as a meteor, but a definitive explanation of the myth has not yet emerged.
Many aspects of meteoric activity remain beyond our ken. The assumed coincidence that the explosion over Chelyabinsk occurred hours before the uneventful flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14 only underscores this. If pre-scientific records of the sky are allowed to shed some light on the phenomenon, perhaps the material presented above will blaze a trail and contribute to a boom in atmospheric studies.
Rens Van Der Sluijs, Mythopedia.info
Source: http://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/daily-tpod/
PS3
by Elijah
PS3 75 days from Dec 3, 2012 – Feb 15, 2013
Is the upcoming asteroid another “candidate” for the end of the world?
Is there any connection between “2012DA14” asteroid and the 75 days of Daniel?
From and including: Monday, December 3, 2012
To and including: Friday, February 15, 2013
It is 75 days from the start date to the end date, end date included.
- And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
- And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
- And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
- But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
- Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river.
- And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?
- And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
- And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?
- And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
- Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
- And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
- Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.
- But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.
The 1290 days (Dan 12:11) and the 1335 days (Dan 12:12) are combinations of “a time, times, and half a time” (Dan 12:7).
Let us take each number of days as composed of two elements
First element: 1260 days (convert to three-and-a-half symbolic years —360 symbolic days to a year).
Second element: A remainder of days (convert to symbolic months —30 symbolic days to a month).
Consider the second element in each case. From the number 1290, we have a remainder of 30 days (1290-1260=30). This is one symbolic month. From the number 1335 we have a remainder of 75 days (1335-1260=75). This is two months and half a month (75 is 2 times 30 plus a half of 30, ie 60+15=75).
So the remainder of 1290 is one month, the remainder of 1335 is two months and half a month. This is a time, times, and half a time in symbolic months, just as the original element in the numbers was a time, times, and half a time in symbolic years.
The two numbers of days can be considered not as separate periods but as one period of 1260 days with a burden added. In the first instance (1290) there is a burden of one month added, whilst in the second instance (1335) there is added a greater burden of of two months, then a lesser burden of half a month. [ Source >> ]
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