Doomsday!

Doomsday scenarios are bread and butter for the speculative fiction aficionado, and one of the more common of these is the meteor strike.  Instant chaos, instant destruction, and the world is transformed into a completely different place.  In light of this morning's Russian meteor strike, I think it fitting to compile thoughts on this subject and share them here.

First, let's put this into perspective.  This Russian meteor was a bolide, or in layman's terms an air-burst, meaning most of it broke up on impact with Earth's atmosphere.  It was reportedly about 10 tons, or roughly the size of a dump truck, and according to NASA, is totally unrelated to the asteroid 2012 DA14 passing through Earth's atmosphere today. It was traveling in the opposite direction, and thus was not a part of any debris traveling in the asteroid's wake.  It was also traveling at 10-20 miles a second.

It exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk, east of the Ural Mountains, and just over a thousand miles due east of Moscow.  It's a city of about 1.1 million people, and almost a thousand of them so far have sought medical attention as a result of the meteor, mostly those injured by shattered glass and building debris from the sonic boom.

For a better understanding of the effects of a bolide explosion, watch this next video.  I recommend cranking your speakers to full volume to get the full effect.  (No, don't do that - it's friggin' loud!  Understandably, it also contains a lot of swearing in Russian.)

This pales in comparison to the meteor that struck the Tunguska area of Siberia in 1908.  That one was the largest recorded impact event in history, and struck with the force of a 5.0 earthquake as measured on the Richter scale.  The Tunguska meteor is also largely considered to be a bolide, meaning most of it didn't even hit the ground.  Even so, it flattened everything within an area 830 square miles wide, with a blast estimated at between 10-15 megatons of TNT, or about 1,000 times the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

So how did we not see this most recent one coming?  How did it escape attention until it impacted our atmosphere, far too late for any warnings or advisories?  Well, scientists say size has a lot to do with it.  Space is a pretty big place to look for something the size of a dump truck.  That, and if it's coming at us from the direction of the sun, rather than from dark space, it could be very difficult to see even if we were looking for it.

These events of course fuel our imagination, and propelled by the media's infatuation with hyperbole, can lend themselves to some pretty interesting speculation.  It's not hard to imagine the chaos and destruction involved with a meteor or series of meteors that actually impact the earth.

The more of these events that happen, and are inevitably filmed and recorded from every possible angle, the more we understand them.  We see firsthand accounts of their destruction, and hear how they affected common people.

Just imagine for a moment that the 2012 DA14 asteroid that passes by Earth today was actually on a trajectory to impact Earth.  The Russian meteor earlier was a dump truck-sized rock of about 10 tons; Astroid 2012 DA14 is about 190,000 tons, and 160 feet long.  That seems gigantic, but the size and speed of it would put it lower than the lowest estimates of the one that struck over Tunguska in 1908, with the kinetic energy of only about 3.5 megatons of TNT.

So we're safe.  For now.  But there's still hope, doomsdayers.  Asteroids of this size are expected to hit Earth about every 1,200 years.  Better get your affairs in order.  The year 3108 is just around the corner!

An Egg from Space, or Something More Earthly?

Alien Egg, © Jonathan Dalar

There it is, folks.  In all its raw glory.  But what the hell is it?

I found it in my youth, circa 1980-1982.  It was lying on the surface of the ground in the middle of a wheat field in the heart of Eastern Washington's Palouse country.  It hadn't been unearthed.  It had no signs of being previously buried.  It was just sitting there on top of the dirt, so I took it home to find out what it was.

Wheat Fields in the Palouse, © Nikky Stephen

It's more or less egg-shaped, and consistent in material all around.  At five and a half inches long at its longest dimension, it tips the scales at somewhere over nine pounds.  The more interesting part is it's at least partially iron.  I'm guessing it's between 10% and 30% ferrous, which appears to vary some, depending on where you measure it.  It responds slightly to magnets, more so in certain areas of the surface than others.

Alien Egg, © Jonathan Dalar

I've dragged it around with me over the years, and have had a few interesting conversations over it.  A few folks thought it was a thunder egg, or geode.  At least initially.  They do until I point out the surface looks nothing like any geodes I've ever seen, and it does not feel hollow in the least.  It's too heavy.  It feels more like iron than a hollow stone.  One does not get the impression there are crystals on the inside, should it be cracked open.

Thunder Egg, © Joel Davis-Aldridge

The other thing often mentioned is a meteorite.  In spite of their relative rarity, it's easier to believe than a geode.  It's at least partially ferrous, which is a trait it holds in common with meteorites.  I haven't measured the exact percentage of iron it has, but the 10% to 30% common in meteorites isn't too far off.  You can feel the definite pull toward a magnet when you hold one to it, but it's weak enough they don't cling.

Meteorite, © Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales

It does not have any indication of rust, however, which is a trait commonly found in meteors.  After years of storage in various garages and back storage rooms, it would have certainly rusted by now if it's ever going to. In spite of the iron content it has, I doubt it ever will.

Holsinger Meteorite, © Samuel Hansen

It also does not have any true indication of pitting or thumbprints, also common in meteorites.  The surface is rough, and covered with small, shiny crystal faces.  They're flat and smooth, similar to those found with pyrite, or fool's gold.

Alien Egg, © Jonathan Dalar

It does, however share color and overall appearance with some types of meteorites, which makes the discussion a little more interesting.  The shape is also interesting.  While round rocks are not uncommon in nature, most have been shaped by water.  There is no evidence of such exposure to water with this rock.  It would be nice to find that it came from beyond our world.

2009 Leonid Meteor © Ed Sweeney

I'm still not sure what it is, and I'm not completely sold on any of the theories I've come up with over the years I've had it.  It's intriguing, if only for its feel and appearance.  It's probably just my overactive imagination, hard at work as usual, but there seems to be more to it than just a rock.  I'd like to think it's an alien egg, and that someday some sort of strange creature will emerge from it.  I'd like to think it's a chunk of some rare and distant metallic planet that somehow found its way to the fields behind my childhood backyard.  Maybe even from the same place as previous visitors to earth came from.

Easter Island © Stéphane Guisard

I haven't found out for sure what it is, primarily because of these fantasies.  Not knowing exactly what it is, however mundane that might be, keeps those wild and fanciful theories in the mix, even when I know they're not serious possibilities.

Someday my son and I will take it down to the University of Washington geology department, and see if we can't get someone there to take a look at it.  Someday we'll have a definitive answer.  We'll know exactly what it is and where it came from.  With that we'll rule out aliens, and probably even junk from outer space.  Until then, it's fun to think about the possibilities.