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Wen: Kelly. Nugent
The meteor shower is beautiful and harmless, but what if it hits the Earth with a larger space object than gravel? Usually, nothing happens, because the surface of the earth is mainly composed of sea water. Most of the stones that fall from the sky will fall into the sea. In addition, although the terrestrial population reaches seven billion, There are still many regions. However, occasionally he will fall into the inhabited area.
November 1954, Anne. Mrs. Hodges was preparing to take a nap on the couch after lunch. She lives in a quiet town in the southern United States, about an hour's drive from Birmingham, Alabama. She stretched out on the couch, covered the quilt and fell asleep soon. Then there was a very rare chance: a space gravel, a meteorite, crossed the roof of his house, first hit the radio at home, then bounced and hurt Anne. Mrs. Hodges's side. Fortunately, there was a roof blanket and a blanket, she had no fracture anywhere, but her hips, head, and arms had large, shocking bruises.
The stone that inflicted on Mrs. Hodges was a gravel from an exfoliating asteroid: the gravel went through the atmosphere of the Earth from space and fell on the earth, called meteorite. The name of the meteorite is to see where it was found, so this shattering meteorite calls Sylacauga, and Mrs. Hodges lives near the city of Syracuse.
Although this meteorite did not cause the death of anyone, it nevertheless attracted the attention of the media and caused judicial conflicts. The owner of Mrs. Hodges claimed that the meteorite belonged to her because the meteorite had fallen on her property. When Ms. Hodges won the lawsuit and got the property of the meteorite, the public's heat for the meteorite was gone, she could no longer find the buyer, and eventually she had to donate the meteorite to the museum. Natural history of Alabama. History). Some people have hypothesized that the pressure and reputation of the trial led her to divorce her husband, 18 years later she died of kidney failure at age 52 years old.
In fact, you can be sure that the case of meteorites is very rare, but these data are difficult to verify in historical documents. It is therefore difficult to describe its rarity, but it can be said that Mrs. Hodges is the only one in the United States. The case that occurred. Although every few months you will see stories of people being hit or even killed by meteorites on the internet, but they are often suspicious and unbelievable. If the meteorite is sent to the expert, it can be easily identified, but the stone that is often considered a meteorite is only a strange stone that looks strange. Many explosions were blamed on the falling meteorites, in fact only because the site of the fall was only the old theater: uncleaned mines were in fact the main cause of the fall. explosion. The problem around life is much easier.
But not all meteorites are harmless. If it was not for the Syracuse meteorite that hit Mrs. Hodges, she broke through the roof, hit the radio, then squatted on the quilt that covered her, her injury did not happen. was certainly not so light, not to mention the meteorite. Only 3.9 kg (8.5 lb), the size is just like a little melon. What if a bigger meteorite flies?
On February 15, 2013, scientists predicted that a small asteroid (about 30 meters, 100 inches long) named 2012DA14 (later called Duende) would be close to the Earth and would move toward the Earth. geosynchronous orbit (geosynchronous) Everyone is ready to welcome an asteroid to the earth. The scientists followed this asteroid for a year and calculated its orbit, thinking that it is only close to the Earth and will not hit. The international scientific community plans to take this opportunity to observe asteroids further, and NASA is also preparing to hold a press conference and invites a group of experts and researchers to confuse the public. In short, it seems that everything is ready, there can be no mistake.
But the solar system does not care about these plans of humanity. In the morning, an unexpected event occurred near Chelyabinsk, Russia: a planet of about 20 meters long (66 miles) was ten times faster than a jet fighter. , cut in the atmosphere at a small angle. It moves at a fast speed, and even the molecules in the atmosphere are too late to escape, forming a layer of ions, causing a rapid heating of the asteroid. When it fell 38 kilometers (23 miles) from the surface, due to high temperature and high pressure, it exploded continuously in four seconds, leaving only scattered debris and overheated air.
Local residents saw a ball of fire flying past their heads, the fire was brighter than the sun at the same time, and a black shadow was reflected on the ground. Their faces can feel the heat flow of the explosion, and some even say that they have a burning sensation (probably because the skin of the Siberian inhabitants is less bloody and sensitive). The location of the explosion was located about 53 km from the city of Chelyabinsk, which means that locals saw the flash, heard the explosion and felt the fluctuations after two minutes.
Many cell phones, driving recorders and surveillance VCRs have documented the event as a whole, invaluable images that allow scientists to measure the brightness of the explosion and the trajectory of the event. ;asteroid. These images were quickly released on the internet, and even scientists saw this incident because they saw a Twitter.
One of YouTube's videos has a special feeling of being in the scene: there are several men in the film coming out to record the trajectory left by the changes in the clouds in the sky, suddenly a volatility wave accompanied by some rumblings. Huge, in an instant, the alarm bells of the car, the windows vibrate, even the camera lens seems to be distorted.
Although I do not speak Russian, I can feel their shock and emotion because of the voice of these men. I really want to know what these men say, so when I learned that a summer student working with us at Caltech was speaking Russian, I asked him to translate it to me, the film was full of intense insults and unbearable. The only content written in the book is this: they mentioned that "the ear must be waved by the waves". Another person said "is a comet", and another person shouted "The war is coming".
After pbading through the atmosphere, only one large piece of round stone in the meteorite survived and fell into Chebarkul Lake. Local residents gathered at the lake. One interviewee mentioned in a New York Times article: "At the time, Saturday, Bornininova, who was working at the bar, said:" This is really scary. "The other person joked:" Wait, strangers will come out and say hello. "
Some residents did not care, the New York Times also reported that a self-styled Dmitry The fisherman was fishing on the lake ice, he did not care: "It's just a meteor, that's moving, no one knows what will fall from the sky, finally, as long as There is no one.
I agree with Dmitry: although no one died, hundreds of people were injured by broken glbad, and even a man lost After seeing the flash, many people went to the window to see the clouds in the air Unfortunately, two minutes after the incident, the glbad of 3,600 buildings broke and injured many people. (So, if you happen to see a shooting star in the sky, better stay away from the window, find a safe place and hide for a while. five minutes for safety.)
The energy released by the explosion is enormous. It also produces ultra-low frequency sound waves, called infrasounds, that are spreading around the world. The United Nations has 283 infrasonic monitoring stations around the world to monitor nuclear explosions. The volatility of the Chelyabinsk bombings lasted three days, covering twice the globe and affecting 20 monitoring stations (including a station in Antarctica).
Remember that another asteroid would be unusually close to the Earth that day? The 2012DA14 asteroid had only a fifteen-minute focus and was later washed away by this uninvited guest. Scientists quickly determined that the two events were not relevant. Thanks to all the images recorded this time, it proves that the Chelyabinsk meteorite is in a completely different direction than the 2012DA14. To that end, another New York Times article quoted scientist Allen. What Alan Fitzsimmons said: "It's a coincidence of the universe, but it's so catchy."
The 2012DA14 asteroid quickly pbaded the land without any advertising, and it was worth it. We pay attention to the fact that scientists predict that its trajectory is accurate and that it does not destroy any satellite in orbit around the Earth. But why did not anyone notice it before the Chelyabinsk meteorite fell on the ground? In fact, in the case of asteroids, only about 20 meters (66 inches) of Chelyabinsk meteorites are quite small, even in the best case it is difficult to know where it is, and others. The more complicated reason, as it's because it falls from the direction of the sun, is just in the dead angle of the special telescope at night, so it's difficult to observe.
Fortunately, no one was killed because of the Chelyabinsk meteorite, so if the situation was slightly different at that time, it could go. Fortunately, the Chelyabinsk meteorite was cut off in the atmosphere under a small angle, so it took a long time to warm up the atmosphere, which allowed the power of the explosion of S & H. Extend to other areas. Fragile rock composition, otherwise the atmosphere can not be easily disintegrated.
Introduction to the Book
"Asteroid Hunter (Book TED Series): Will the Meteorite Really Fall At Your Home? Exploring the Unknown Threat in the Hidden Solar System, published by The World Magazine
Thanks to the link above to buy books, the "Key Review Network" will be donated to the Children's Alliance
Author: Kelly Nugent
Translator: Jin Yu
As an asteroid strikes the Earth, it can affect the survival of the Earth … Every night, at dusk, many astronomers start their day's work, they continue to explore the sky. Confirm that there are asteroids flying to Earth Today, we can not only discover these celestial bodies through technology, but also prevent such natural disasters from occurring.
Kelly Astronomer Nugent is an asteroid hunter and her work with her colleagues is exploring asteroids in the solar system and mapping the universe around the Earth. Faced with the threat of asteroids striking Earth, human beings have scientific evidence and scientific and technological strength, and do not need to sit still. The current priority is to find out if there are asteroids coming to us, so many astronomers continue to explore the sky each night.
This book will lead readers to understand the past events of asteroid collisions with the Earth, such as the cause of extinction of dinosaurs, and the impact of the same size of the comet Sumek-Levy 9 of Jupiter, the asteroids of Chelyabinsk How to shock the world, and the adventure of Ms. Anne Hodges unfortunately hit by meteorites.
Readers will discover the work of asteroid hunters around the world in this book, as well as the importance of exploring asteroids. In the end, it will prove that even this unimaginable catastrophe can be avoided in advance.
Photo Credits: The World Magazine
Publisher: Zhu Jiayi
Publisher: Weng Shihang
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