Newly interpreted data shows we narrowly avoided possible mass extinction in 1883. - General

[quote] On August 12th, 1883, a pack of life-extinguishing comets came within a few hundred miles of slamming into the Earth, nearly killing everything on the planet. That's what scientists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico are saying after re-analyzing the findings of José Bonilla, a Mexican astronomer who may have unknowingly come close to witnessing the destruction of the world as we know it. Back in 1883, Bonilla observed 447 objects passing in front of the sun over two days from Zacatecas, Mexico; he published his findings in a French astronomy journal. But these objects weren't observed at larger observatories in Puebla or Mexico City, where much bigger-time scientists were standing their nighttime vigils. Why? At the time, nobody knew for sure. The editor of L'Astronomie, where Bonilla's findings were published, suggested that birds, insects, or dust may have passed in front of the telescope. The team at NAUM has a different explanation. They propose that what Bonilla observed were actually fragments of a massive, billion-ton comet, and the reason that no one else was able to observe the objects is that they passed so close to the Earth that they were only visible to observers perched on a very narrow slice of the planet. It's a parallax kinda deal. But here's where it gets crazier: Since Mexico City and Puebla are both only about 400 miles away from Zacatecas, the team at NAUM [B]calculate that the comet passed between 300 and 5,000 miles from Earth.[/B] 300 miles is about the distance from Philadelphia to Boston, and possibly all that stood between us and total extinction. So Bronilla may have observed 447 objects over 2 days, but he was only counting for a total of 3.5 hours. To calculate the actual total number of fragments, the researchers at NUAM took the average number of fragments Bronilla saw per hour and multiplied it out over the entire two-day event. The total: a mind-slapping [B]3,275 individual pieces, all of which they believe were as big or bigger than the Tunguska event meteor in 1908.[/B] The impact at Tunguska was by moderate estimations about 15 megatons, [B]or 1,000 times more powerful than Hiroshima[/B]. 3,275 of those bombarding the planet over two days would likely be, as the authors of the paper put it, "an extinction event." Comet fragmentation was a known phenomenon in 1883, but only two occurrences had been observed. That's probably why Bonilla and his bird-loving editor didn't put two and 447 together. Some of Bonilla's trajectories coincide with one of the comets that had been observed that same year, but it's just as possible that another, equally massive comet slipped by unnoticed and only missed destroying our planet by what is, in astronomical terms, a galactic hair's breadth.[/quote] [url=http://articlechase.com/In-1883-A-Comet-Nearly-Destroyed-The-Earth.php#.TuCqra4kOOM]Article[/url] It's quite terrifying if you think about how close we've come, and how many times this may have happened before but we just don't have any data for it. Does show how lucky we are that we are still alive.

It's actually really damn amazing how life even evolved on this very planet and the chances for it. All of the stuff that happened could have been extinguished just like that. Glad we're still here. Also holy shit that's close for comets and everything out there.

shame it wouldn't matter if it would've hit anyway, lol. because none of us guys would exist and we wouldn't know about it

[QUOTE=MingeCrab;33677661]shame it wouldn't matter if it would've hit anyway, lol. because none of us guys would exist and we wouldn't know about it[/QUOTE] Yeah, Those people that would of died possibly in pain don't mean anything.

I don't think I'd be dancing around in pain if the world got hit by a meteorite to be fairly honest, I'd be pretty dead.

[QUOTE=BloodFox1222;33677689]Yeah, Those people that would of died possibly in pain don't mean anything.[/QUOTE] I'd rather be in the direct impact zone. Instant incineration and a painless, but very cool death.

[QUOTE=BloodFox1222;33677689]Yeah, Those people that would of died possibly in pain don't mean anything.[/QUOTE]He probably meant it wouldn't matter to US, because we weren't alive and would have never been born if it had hit.

I bet this happens loads of times and goes unobserved

I once had a book that gave you the odds of death, and while I don't have it on me to cite specifically, the chance of dying from a meteor, asteroid, or otherwise any large object colliding with the earth was statistically larger then your odds from dying from a snake bite (I believe) and other deaths we commonly fear, but really shouldn't. I need to try and find that book again...

Fascinating, yet not. We probably come within some sort of earth changing event daily, or just any major disaster.

[QUOTE=Inspector Jones;33678182]I once had a book that gave you the odds of death, and while I don't have it on me to cite specifically, the chance of dying from a meteor, asteroid, or otherwise any large object colliding with the earth was statistically larger then your odds from dying from a snake bite (I believe) and other deaths we commonly fear, but really shouldn't. I need to try and find that book again...[/QUOTE] You're more likely to die on your way to the store to buy a lottery ticket than to win one.

Neat!

WHAT IF IT HIT US AND WE ALL DIED

[QUOTE=FreddiRox!;33677855]I bet this happens loads of times and goes unobserved[/QUOTE] The thought makes me really paranoid - Time to build a comet shelter.

[QUOTE=Killer900;33677828]He probably meant it wouldn't matter to US, because we weren't alive and would have never been born if it had hit.[/QUOTE] Yeah I would be totally okay with not being born.

[QUOTE=polarbear.;33678361]WHAT IF IT HIT US AND WE ALL DIED[/QUOTE] We'd be born as aliens.

[QUOTE=hl2poo;33678532]We'd be born as aliens.[/QUOTE] Are you sure? I briefly spoke with a naked man on the streets of new york and he told me that my next life would be as a bowl of salad.

The whole story just seems like sensationalism to me. It's fun to think "omg this almost happened and we didn't even know it!!!!1!!" Who knows it could have actually happened, but I'd like to see some other research on this too. If you guys want to really be scared though, read up on [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophis_asteroid"]Apophis[/URL]

[QUOTE=hobblinharry;33679938]The whole story just seems like sensationalism to me. It's fun to think "omg this almost happened and we didn't even know it!!!!1!!" Who knows it could have actually happened, but I'd like to see some other research on this too. If you guys want to really be scared though, read up on [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophis_asteroid"]Apophis[/URL][/QUOTE] oh god space asteroids are gonna kill us all

[QUOTE=Oman;33680039]oh god space asteroids are gonna kill us all[/QUOTE] Not if you[URL="http://www.play.vg/games/4-Asteroids.html"][/URL] prepare yourself! [URL]http://www.play.vg/games/4-Asteroids.html[/URL]

Glad to be alive.

Maybe this should be on 1000 ways to die :downs:. The most interesting thing about this to me is that they were able to interpret the data to find this out.

Thank Jupiter for his fat ass guiding most of the comets away you ungreatful fucks

[QUOTE=bobsmit;33678871]Are you sure? I briefly spoke with a naked man on the streets of new york and he told me that my next life would be as a bowl of salad.[/QUOTE] as soon as i got to reading the bowl of salad my mind decided to spell out bowel movement instead it'd be so awesome to be a bowel movement i am jack's turd

[QUOTE=NO ONE;33681394]Maybe this should be on 1000 ways to die :downs:.[/QUOTE] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfClxN8uXO4[/media] Close enough

[QUOTE=BloodFox1222;33677689]Yeah, Those people that would of died possibly in pain don't mean anything.[/QUOTE] If a person explodes into shreds, I doubt he'll feel anything as most probably brain will be first thing to die out, and so will your whole consciousness.

It's funny when you think of all the things you'd have never known had you not survived to be born. You'd just a smug-as-fuck nonexistent entity floating around in the ether. Just another brick in the wall, I suppose.

We're so frail

[QUOTE=polarbear.;33678361]WHAT IF IT HIT US AND WE ALL DIED[/QUOTE] Take a wild guess champ. [sp]We die.[/sp]

Oh yeah? Watch out 4in the future for [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis] Apophis [/url] astronomers actually predict that it most likely won't hit us, but enter our orbit, catastrophically fucking up the tides for a few years. THEN it will hit us. [editline]12th December 2011[/editline] SHITDICKING CUNTNIGGER