Over 1000 Citizens of Chelyabinsk were not so lucky yesterday. A meteor weighing about 7000 tonnes screamed over the city at 30 km/sec and
Mike Bara, the world-famous astronomer, sought to impress the strippers and porn starlets who inhabit his FarceBook page by taking a totally gratuitous swipe at NASA.
"According to NASA (Never A Straight Answer) this has NOTHING to do with today's 17,000 mile near miss by a planet killing asteroid. Riiiiiighttttt..... Nothing to see here. Move along..."
Well, seriously now, what qualifications does Mike have that justify his scorn? Actually, none. Is it just the NASA NEO Tracking Office that says this? No—it's also being said by qualified astronomers at ESA, MIT, The Russian Academy of Sciences...
I've got another challenge for Mike Bara the world-famous unqualified astronomer: Please explain how a meteor in an equatorial orbit can
image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Update:Mike has provided an answer, although not to me. A contributor to FB, Christian Ijin Link, wrote "Well...the meteor did come from the wrong direction to be associated with today's cosmic batter-brush-back pitch." The world-famous astronomer replied:
"When you're in the middle of a meteor shower, it dosen't [sic] matter which direction they come from. They come at you from all directions."
So, so wrong.... it's really pitiful.
Update 2:
The good old Daily Torygraph has a graphic representation of the respective orbits of the two bodies.
Update 3:
On Coast to Coast AM last night, that world famous owner of inaccurate 30-year-old wristwatches Richard C. Hoagland took off into typical flights of fancy. The asteroid was a weapon, he told us, sent by a malevolent extraterrestrial force as a warning. And how did he know this? Easy—the closest approach was at 19.5 GMT.
Except it wasn't. It was at 19:24. That's 19.4, not 19.5. Elenin déjà vu (in that case he said the closest approach at 19:50 GMT was the same as 19.5.)
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1. Phil Plait wrote "exploded," then changed his mind, then changed it back again. I think I'll stick with the shock wave but I'm no expert.
28 comments:
"When you're in the middle of a meteor shower, it dosen't [sic] matter which direction they come from. They come at you from all directions."
What an idiot. If the meteors were coming at Earth from all directions then the meteor shower would dissipate and no longer be a meteor shower. What an idiot.
Expat, DA14 isn't in a polar orbit around the Sun. It is only inclined 10° to the ecliptic. Its path by the Earth is south to north but that's just from its relative motion.
Thanks, anon. You're perfectly right -- I've corrected my text.
Bara is priceless...I love his scientific use of 'Riiiight'...
"They come at you from all directions"
Mike was thinking of course of his brand new ultra jet streaming mist shower head he got installed last week in his bathroom.
All is connected... (I hope in his case, ever had a shower head come down on you?)
D.
Hoagland was just on Coast-to-Coast AM, and when George Noory suggested that the Russian meteor might have been part of this asteroid, Hoagland disagreed with him.
Hoagland then went on to explain that the Russian event was some type of orchestrated, intentional attack, designed to let the world's governments know how vulnerable they are.
"They come at you from all directions"
EP, I must complain, you're taking Mike out *TOTALLY* of context, he's merely discussing his last *STUNNING* Bukkake party...
What I'd love to see is Bara debating Bart Sibrel of the Fake Moon Landing fame.
On one side, Hoagland and Bara calling Sibrel a blithering idiot and a moron who should massage John Travolta's ass.
On the other side, Sibrel demanding Hoagie and Mike swear on the Bible that their theories are true.
In the middle,Buzz Aldrin acting as referee. With any luck he'll punch out all three of them.
Now that's a DVD I'll pay out money for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wptn5RE2I-k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=vGqZj5dci_M
From the C2C show description, Hoagie also seemed to believe that since the asteroid managed to avoid hitting a planet (as well as all the satellites orbiting it), it was intelligently controlled/aimed. Apparently Hoagland has never read any Doug Adams. "Space is big, REALLY BIG!"
The same ones who controlled Elenin undoubtedly controlled the asteroid and the meteor.
Science isn't an exact science, it's more of a... "general guides to the way stuff works. most of the time" - 19.5, 19.24, 19:50, it's all there or there abouts, ergo conclusivo proofo (as those Latins used to say) that aliens are throwing rocks at governments they dont like. He proved that elenin was a time capsule / spaceship / spacecraft / robotic / observatory mathematical sign / warning and by-golly, he's on to something here again!! there's a 19.somethin involved - what more do you need to know?!! (I can sense a 'paper' coming soon or another video conference of must-see, meal-missing importance!)
The sheer notion that it could possibly be anything else, is just absurd. The very consideration of any other explanation is just outright insanity.
(I don't suppose this asteroid/meteorite was tetrahedral shaped too, was it?!?)
Off the topic of the meteor, take a look at this...
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/00186/mcam/0186MR0927067000E1_DXXX.jpg
In the upper left corner, can this be just a rock? It seems to have a different textureto the rocks, it casts a shadow, its L-shaped with multiple right angle straight lines and looks like a sheet of torn metal.
Most convincing photo I've seen yet of non-natural anomalies. Thoughts?
Thanks for posting the jpg. The sun angle seems to be right at 12 o'clock, and shadows thrown toward the camera are exactly as expected. It does not look metallic to my eye.
"Easy—the closest approach was at 19.5 GMT."
Is there hyperdimensional magic at 7:30p in each and every time zone, or should we rename Zulu to Zeta?
Incidentally, I wonder what the dinosaurs' governments did to so enrage the aliens when we merely deserve a chunk of rock in Middle of Nowhere Russia.
"Is there hyperdimensional magic at 7:30p in each and every time zone?"
Oh, that's easy. The answer is, in whatever time zone suits Hoagland. Remember, Elenin's perihelion was Sept 11, even though it was only 11th in Japan, Australia and NZ. He said Sri Lankan time was what counted most, but he even got that wrong.
At the risk of sounding like Hoagie, even with the sun angles, surely it's too consistently-thin and multi-straight-edged to be a rock?! I wonder what size it is? It looks like a foot or two or three across, but without a scale, it's impossible to tell. Definitely interesting enough to keep one eye on all future photos though!
@Anonymous
You're right. I see what looks like a melted gauntlet, a few rectangular objects and a polaroid camera to the right of the hand. Definitely a conspiracy. Maybe they picked up the camera at Area 51 and lost it when the Romulans zapped them. Definitely a conspiracy. The US Gubmint is in cahoots with the Wookies.
As for the dinosaurs, poor things didn't have a great prophet like Hoagie to warn them of impending doom. I hear those dinos were a right bunch of Godless Kommies anyway so they probably deserved it.
Stay Tuned.....!
Phil Plait has now blogged at some length about the unrelatedness of the the two space rocks.
No point telling Mike Bara -- to him, Plait is just another blithering idiot.
Wow Strah - nice to know there is zero x infinity possibility of it possibly being anything other than a natural rock - I'm so glad you can state absolute fact with such wonderful eloquence that I don't have to use my own eyes or make up my own mind about it.
Another anonymouse took the trouble to write:
"I don't have to use my own eyes or make up my own mind about it."
This is the thing about science, at least the general accepted methods and philosophy which makes up science: that one not just keeps "using own eyes" and "ones own mind" but stops, pauses and deliberates, tests, shares, erects bodies of references to check, verify, falsify and build further upon, etc, etc.
It's all about distrusting what seems and all what comes to mind first even when it can still be very inspiring to take a fresk look at things at times. Luckily many good scientists went boldly before so we can all expand our vision easier and quicker than ever before!
D.
That's my point: there are enough possible-non-natural things about it that warrant scientific testing (or at least a closer look). Maybe it is just a natural rock with 3 seemingly right-angles and consistently thin throughout; which to me makes it the most interesting object in any of the photos so far (and there have been a few, some even addressed by NASA) - with something so seemingly unnatural looking (with valid reason), surely that should be a good enough reason for NASA to conduct actual scientific tests of it (or at least offer an explanation for its un-usualness as they've done with other items): perhaps fire the rovers lasers at it, or roll over to it and photograph it more to see if the 90angles are just optical illusion, or pick it up and take a sample etc - it certainly looks close enough to do, and what a monumental discovery that could be. It stands out far more than any other rock on any other photo - and I'd love to know if it's several feet or tiny pebble size (that may be a factor in how unnatural it looks on a photo with no scale). Either way, as interesting as it is, I don't think NASA have passed comment on it, and I've no reason to think they will as the robot rolls onwards.
You'd fit in well in Keith Laney's Hidden Mission Forum. It's chock full of redneck amateurs yelling NASA IS IGNORING OBVIOUS ALIEN TECHNOLOGY.
Really? Where exactly did I say "NASA is ignoring obvious alien technology"? I said it was (a) interesting and (b) that there was enough about it that it *seems* to look like a distinctly non-natural object, and [ideally] should be scientifically looked at as best as possible (if/where possible) by the rover to see if it might actually be anything more than just a rock - NOT start yelling "aliens! cover up! nasa is hiding bits of metal from a spaceship and the government knows about it and they don't want to get close to it" etc etc. But clearly, trying to make an inquisitive point with valid reason and suggesting NASA takes a look or at least comment on it (like with other strange objects) is pointless, especially when we can nonchalantly just dismiss the sheer notion of any possibility whatsoever of anything other than rocks. But hey, I guess even daring to ask the question makes me a "redneck amateur".
I apologize, anon, I was hasty there. I don't know exactly what criteria the Curiosity drivers use to decide priorities. I just suspect that "It looks like...." doesn't count for much.
Has anyone seen the apartments on mars video? Email me at dpaxton@me.com on this one. I will see if I can find the mosaic I put together on it. I think it is good for another thread.
Sounds interesting, anon. Can you post the vid somewhere? I'd rather not e you.
@Anonymouses
I live near a beach in Ireland which is pretty rocky. I spent many a summer afternoon there as a kid collecting rocks of all shapes and sizes. I can tell you that rocks come in some pretty strange shapes and in different colours. I've found rocks with strange protrusions on them that were hard to explain, with crystalline patterns that look like microchips and even rocks with holes bored through them (caused, I believe, by shellfish). Never have I heard anyone even suggest that aliens might be involved . Relatively flat surfaces, right angles and geometric shapes, including rectangles are not that unusual. I believe it's cause by the crystalline properties of the rock itself. Google "Giant's Causeway" sometime to see some interesting rock patterns.
If you go out into the wild sometime and examine rocks you find, you'll see what I mean. The alien technology that Hoagie and Mike claim to see on the Moon and Mars looks pretty normal to me (except for the photoshop work to make them look artificial).
As far as that Polaroid camera being real, I have about as much faith in Data's Head being the illegitimate offspring of C3PO and Jar Jar Binks' mom instead of just another rock.
You can rest assured that NASA went through those pix with a fine tooth comb and would have examined the camera or the sneaker if they thought it was real.
You make an excellent point Strahlungs. It seems every single claim of artificial objects in photos of Mars or the Moon is the result of ignorance or inexperience with either natural formations or photography itself.
Looks like the Martians are in need of a stern warning too.
http://m.scienceworldreport.com/articles/5349/20130304/newly-discovered-comet-hit-mars-watch-two-others-near-earth.htm
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