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POPSJust Missed: Nov. 7th Asteroid 30x Closer Than Moon It was the third-closest known (non-impacting) Earth approach on record for a cataloged asteroid. But before you turn to another Clipmark note: THIS WAS THE SECOND ONE THIS YEAR. The one in March 2009 was close too. Look at the stats on that one 8 months ago: Asteroid's Near Miss A Cosmic Close Call Heavenly Body Buzzes Earth; Comes Within 48,800 Miles The asteroid named 2009 DD45 was about 48,800 miles from Earth. That is just twice the height of some telecommunications satellites and about a fifth of the distance to the Moon. CNN video report on that one here. Real footage Video of 1972 asteroid in Canada here --which actually is seen trailing then "bouncing" off earth's atmosphere.
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POPSSet Your Alarm For The Orionids!
"Last but not least, the display will be framed by some of the prettiest stars and planets in the night sky. In addition to Orionids, you'll see brilliant Venus, red Mars, the dog star Sirius, and bright winter constellations such as Orion, Gemini and Taurus. Even if the shower is a dud, the rest of the sky is dynamite." "According to Japanese meteor scientists Mikiya Sato and Jun-ichi Watanabe, 2006 marked Earth's first encounter with some very old debris. "We have found that the was caused by dust trails ejected from 1P/Halley in 1266 BC, 1198 BC, and 911 BC," they wrote in the August 2007 edition of Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. In their paper "Origin of the 2006 Orionid Outburst," Sato and Watanabe used a computer to model the structure and evolution of Halley's many debris streams stretching back in time as far as 3400 years. The debris that hit Earth in 2006 was among the oldest they studied and was rich in large fireball-producin
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POPSAfter the Bomb in Hiroshima - Photos I can't say a whole lot more than ... WOW! This is a pretty heavy topic, but these pictures say a tremendous amount about the destruction that occurred in World War II. Mostly, I just thought you'd be interested in the photos, if you haven't seen them yet. There's nothing gory, just destruction of buildings, homes, etc. But it's clear to see what it meant for anyone who was living there. The article has some good information in it as well.
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POPSMeteor Shower Tonight The Perseids are bits of debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, which has laid down several streams of debris, each in a slightly different location, over the centuries as it orbits the sun. Every August, Earth passes through these debris streams, which spread out over time. "They are typically fast, bright and occasionally leave persistent trains," says Joe Rao, SPACE.com's Skywatching Columnist. "And every once in a while, a Perseid fireball will blaze forth, bright enough to be quite spectacular and more than capable to attract attention even in bright moonlight." Low numbers of Perseids, including some bright fireballs, have already been reported as Earth began entering the stream in late July. Seasoned observers have counted up to 25 per hour already, or nearly one every two minutes. Most meteors are no bigger than a pea. They vaporize as they enter Earth's atmosphere, creating bright streaks across the sky. The Perseids appear to emanate from the constellation Pers
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POPSWe Pay our taxes to be left in the dark ? I for one would like to know if I have only awhile left to live. Like to say my farewells and close life at peace. I don't think it is right for them to be the only ones who know especially when it is our money that is paying for their salary's and projects. It's our government, not to be ruled like a dictatorship.
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POPSMilitary Hush-up: Incoming Space Rocks Now Classified "It's baffling to us why this would suddenly change," said one scientist familiar with the work. "It's unfortunate because there was this great synergy...a very good cooperative arrangement. Systems were put into dual-use mode where a lot of science was getting done that couldn't be done any other way. It's a regrettable change in policy."
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POPSCastle Bravo, The Biggest USA Atomic Bomb Test on the Bikini Atoll Castle Bravo was the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the United States, with a yield of 15 Megatons. That yield, far exceeding the expected yield of 4 to 6 megatons, combined with other factors to produce the worst radiological accident ever caused by the United States. When Bravo was detonated, it formed a fireball almost four and a half miles (roughly 7 km) across within a second. This fireball was visible on the Kwajalein atoll over 250 miles (450 km) away. The explosion left a crater of 6,500 feet (2,000 m) in diameter and 250 feet (75 m) in depth. The mushroom cloud reached a height of 47,000 feet (14 km) and a diameter of 7 miles (11 km) in about a minute; it then reached a height of 130,000 feet (40 km) and 62 miles (100 km) in diameter in less than 10 minutes and was expanding at more than 6 kilometers (4 miles) per minute.
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POPS Fireball Over Texas A fireball that bright would be from a big chunk, and they’d have tracked it. However, I really don’t think this was from the satellites; it was moving rapidly (deorbiting space junk tends to move far slower than incoming meteors) and in the wrong direction.]