Meteorite Injures 500

[kantuckyII]

Emergency officials had reported no deaths by Friday afternoon, but administrators in the city of Chelyabinsk said that more than 750 residents had sought medical care and 31 had been hospitalized.

Russian experts believe the blast was caused by a 10-ton meteor known as a bolide, which created a powerful shock wave when it reached the Earth’s atmosphere, the Russian Academy of Sciences said in a statement. Scientists believe the bolide exploded and evaporated at a height of around 20 to 30 miles above the Earth’s surface, but that small fragments may have reached the ground, the statement said.

The governor of the Chelyabinsk district reported that a search team had found an impact crater on the outskirts of a city about 50 miles west of Chelyabinsk. An official from the Interior Ministry told the Russian news agency Interfax that three large pieces of meteorite debris had been retrieved in the area and that 10,000 police officers are searching for more.

A small asteroid, known as 2012 DA14, is expected to pass close to Earth later on Friday, NASA reported on its Web site. Aleksandr Y. Dudorov, a physicist at Chelyabinsk State University, said it was possible that the meteorite may have been flying alongside the asteroid.

“What we witnessed today may have been the precursor of that asteroid,” said Mr. Dudorov in a telephone interview. Video clips from the city of Chelyabinsk showed an early morning sky illuminated by a brilliant flash, followed by the sound of breaking glass and multiple car alarms. Meteorites typically cause sonic booms as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere. On Friday, the force was powerful enough to shatter dishes and televisions in people’s homes.

“I saw a flash in the window, turned toward it and saw a burning cloud, which was surrounded by smoke and was going downward — it reminded me of what you see after an explosion,” said Maria Polyakova, 25, head of reception at the Park-City Hotel in Chelyabinsk, which is 950 miles east of Moscow. A video made outside a building in Chelyabinsk captured the astonished voices of witnesses who were uncertain what it was they had just seen.

“Maybe it was a rocket,” said one man, who rushed outside onto the street along with his co-workers when the object hit, far out of sight. A man named Artyom, who spoke to the Moscow FM radio station, said the explosion was enormous.

“I was sitting at work and the windows lit up and it was as if the whole city was illuminated, and I looked out and saw a huge streak in the sky and it was like that for two or three minutes and then I heard these noises, like claps,” he said. “And then all the dogs started barking.”

He said that there was a blast that caused balconies to shake and windows to shatter. He said he did not believe it was a meteorite. “We are waiting for a second piece, that is what people are talking about now,” the man said.

The object was visible from the city of Nizhniy Tagil, around 220 miles north of Chelyabinsk, where so many people called an emergency assistance number that it stopped working, the Novy Region news service reported.

The government response on Friday was huge. Seven airplanes were deployed to search for places where meteorites might have fallen and more than 20,000 people dispatched to comb the area on foot, according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations. There were also 28 sites designated to monitor radiation. No unusual readings had been detected, the ministry reported.

The area around Chelyabinsk is also home to “dozens of defense factories, including nuclear factories and those involved in production of thermonuclear weapons,” said Vladimir Lipunov, an astrophysicist at the Shternberg State Astronomy Institute.

“No one needs to be told what the Urals is,” Mr. Lipunov told the NTV television station. “A second hit in the same area is unlikely and everything could have been much, much worse.”

Siberia stretches the length of Asia, and there is a history of meteor and asteroid showers there. In 1908 a powerful explosion was reported near the Tunguska River in central Siberia, its impact so great that trees were flattened for 25 miles around. Generations of scientists have studied that event, analyzing particles that were driven into the Earth’s surface as far away as the South Pole. A study published in the 1980s concluded the object weighed a million tons.

In the United States, NASA alluded to the Tunguska incident when it said that it was watching closely an asteroid 150 feet in diameter expected to whiz past Earth on Friday at a distance of around 17,200 miles, the closest for many decades.

In a statement on its Web site, NASA said on Friday that there was no risk that the asteroid, 2012 DA14, would collide with Earth. But it would pass within “the belt of satellites in geostationary orbit, which is 22,200 miles above Earth’s surface.”

The asteroid is set to pass Earth at around 2:25 p.m. Eastern time, NASA said. “At the time of closest approach, the asteroid will be over the eastern Indian Ocean, off Sumatra,” the agency said.

“Asteroid 2012 DA14 will not impact Earth, but if another asteroid of a size similar to that of 2012 DA14 were to impact Earth, it would release approximately 2.5 megatons of energy in the atmosphere and would be expected to cause regional devastation,” NASA said. The asteroid will not be visible to the naked eye, the agency added.

Referring to the “Tunguska Event,” NASA said the impact of an asteroid just smaller than 2012 DA14 “is believed to have flattened about 825 square miles of forest in and around the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia.”

Viktor Klimenko contributed reporting from Moscow, and Alan Cowell from London.

[caglewis]

How did you learn about this? From the MEDIA? Oops - and it's SCIENTIFIC info, right? Don't you claim that the media and science proclaim lies? Guess God must have sent it. That's His job - to rain down death and destrution and glory in it!!

[kantuckyII]

Now they are saying that there have been 950 people that were injured by it in one town alone and two in very serious condition.

There will be meteors striking the earth during the six seal judgment of The Tribulation. There will be a great earthquake, the sun will be darkened, the moon will turn red like blood and many meterors will fall from the sky. It will terrorize people so bad they will be wanting the mountains to fall on them to hide they will be in such fear. Those that are have accepted Christ before the tribulation will not have to endure it, they will be raptured away from God's judgment that he pours on the planet

[dazed&confused]

The age of the Earth is 4.54 ± 0.05 billion years (4.54 × 109 years ± 1%).[1][2][3] This age is based on evidence from radiometric age dating of meteorite material and is consistent with the ages of the oldest-known terrestrial and lunar samples. Following the scientific revolution and the development of radiometric age dating, measurements of lead in uranium-rich minerals showed that some were in excess of a billion years old.

Given this age, what are the odds we would witness a meteor strike sometime in our lietime? Pretty high. Still, if you want to run to the hills, be my guest! Shut your computer down first, though! 8)

[kantuckyII]

Is carbon dating accurate?

Is carbon dating accurate? Only to a certain extent. In order for carbon dating to be accurate, we must know what the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-14 was in the environment in which our specimen lived during its lifetime. Unfortunately the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-14 has yet to reach a state of equilibrium in our atmosphere; there is more carbon-14 in the air today than there was thousands of years ago. Furthermore, the ratio is known to fluctuate significantly over relatively short periods of time (e.g. during the industrial revolution more carbon-12 was being produced offsetting the ratio a bit).

Carbon dating is somewhat accurate because we are able to determine what the ratio was in the unobservable past to a certain extent. By taking a carboniferous specimen of known age (that is, a specimen which we are able to date with reasonable certainty through some archaeological means), scientists are able to determine what the ratio was during a specimen's lifetime. They are then able to calibrate the carbon dating method to produce fairly accurate results. Carbon dating is thus accurate within the timeframe set by other archaeological dating techniques. Unfortunately, we aren't able to reliably date artifacts beyond several thousand years. Scientists have tried to extend confidence in the carbon dating method further back in time by calibrating the method using tree ring dating. Unfortunately, tree ring dating is itself not entirely reliable, especially the "long chronology" employed to calibrate the carbon dating method. The result is that carbon dating is accurate for only a few thousand years. Anything beyond that is questionable. This fact is born out in how carbon dating results are used by scientists in the scientific literature. Many scientists will use carbon dating test results to back up their position if the results agree with their preconceived theories. But if the carbon dating results actually conflict with their ideas, they aren't too concerned. "This attitude is clearly reflected in a regrettably common practice: when a radiocarbon date agrees with the expectations of the excavator it appears in the main text of the site report; if it is slightly discrepant it is relegated to a footnote; if it seriously conflicts it is left out altogether." (Peter James, et al. (I. J. Thorpe, Nikos Kokkinos, Robert Morkot and John Frankish), Preface to Centuries of Darkness, 1991)

So, is carbon dating accurate? It is for specimens which only date back a few thousand years. Anything beyond that is problematic and highly doubtful.

[dazed&confused]

Is carbon dating accurate?

Is carbon dating accurate? Only to a certain extent. In order for carbon dating to be accurate, we must know what the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-14 was in the environment in which our specimen lived during its lifetime. Unfortunately the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-14 has yet to reach a state of equilibrium in our atmosphere; there is more carbon-14 in the air today than there was thousands of years ago. Furthermore, the ratio is known to fluctuate significantly over relatively short periods of time (e.g. during the industrial revolution more carbon-12 was being produced offsetting the ratio a bit).

Carbon dating is somewhat accurate because we are able to determine what the ratio was in the unobservable past to a certain extent. By taking a carboniferous specimen of known age (that is, a specimen which we are able to date with reasonable certainty through some archaeological means), scientists are able to determine what the ratio was during a specimen's lifetime. They are then able to calibrate the carbon dating method to produce fairly accurate results. Carbon dating is thus accurate within the timeframe set by other archaeological dating techniques. Unfortunately, we aren't able to reliably date artifacts beyond several thousand years. Scientists have tried to extend confidence in the carbon dating method further back in time by calibrating the method using tree ring dating. Unfortunately, tree ring dating is itself not entirely reliable, especially the "long chronology" employed to calibrate the carbon dating method. The result is that carbon dating is accurate for only a few thousand years. Anything beyond that is questionable. This fact is born out in how carbon dating results are used by scientists in the scientific literature. Many scientists will use carbon dating test results to back up their position if the results agree with their preconceived theories. But if the carbon dating results actually conflict with their ideas, they aren't too concerned. "This attitude is clearly reflected in a regrettably common practice: when a radiocarbon date agrees with the expectations of the excavator it appears in the main text of the site report; if it is slightly discrepant it is relegated to a footnote; if it seriously conflicts it is left out altogether." (Peter James, et al. (I. J. Thorpe, Nikos Kokkinos, Robert Morkot and John Frankish), Preface to Centuries of Darkness, 1991)

So, is carbon dating accurate? It is for specimens which only date back a few thousand years. Anything beyond that is problematic and highly doubtful.

...and your source for this "scientific" reasoning is.....?

[kantuckyII]

I don't know, why don't you look it up? Instead of parroting everything that a few people told you

[dazed&confused]

I don't know, why don't you look it up? Instead of parroting everything that a few people told you

You made the assertion...back it up!

[kantuckyII]

I made a statement, It's up to you to research it. You probably won't, you're scared to death of learning anything that will shake you up your world

[mister b]

Watched some video on this and it was amazing.

Thank God no more were hurt or killed. It could have been much worse.

As pointed out on some of the video I watched, this happens more than we know. If this was over an ocean, it likely would have gone undetected as this one was not picked up on radar.

As for the topic of the end of times; I would suggest the following..."Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero." (Seize the Day, putting little trust as possible in the next day."

[dazed&confused]

I made a statement, It's up to you to research it. You probably won't, you're scared to death of learning anything that will shake you up your world

No, you obviously quoted some paper or posting someone else published. I merely asked for the source so I can verify it for myself!

[dazed&confused]

I found your paper; it talks about discrepancies in the dating of items related to the Iron Ages. You cannot interpolate those results to a broader time spectrum and conclude all carbon-dating is wrong. Nice try. You really need to watchThe Big Bang Theory more often.

[mister b]

I found your paper; it talks about discrepancies in the dating of items related to the Iron Ages. You cannot interpolate those results to a broader time spectrum and conclude all carbon-dating is wrong. Nice try. You really need to watchThe Big Bang Theory more often.

I love The Big Bang Theory.

BAZINGA!!!

Knock, knock, knock, Penny? Knock, knock, knock, Penny? Knock, knock, knock Penny?

[kantuckyII]

I made a statement, It's up to you to research it. You probably won't, you're scared to death of learning anything that will shake you up your world

No, you obviously quoted some paper or posting someone else published. I merely asked for the source so I can verify it for myself!

I know it's not accurate if it says millions of years..you think it, I know it

[farmer]

I made a statement, It's up to you to research it. You probably won't, you're scared to death of learning anything that will shake you up your world

I did on some of your claims against me and proved you wrong but you are scared of me along with the truth. Which you just would ignore like it didn't happen. I posted on here because you started a new topic on this one. Then mentioned my name/FARMER.

[noreply66]

I made a statement, It's up to you to research it. You probably won't, you're scared to death of learning anything that will shake you up your world

I did on some of your claims against me and proved you wrong but you are scared of me along with the truth. Which you just would ignore like it didn't happen. I posted on here because you started a new topic on this one. Then mentioned my name/FARMER.

It should have been researched before putting on here.