Goldilocks Universe - 4
The Goldilocks Universe 4 article was to highlight the role that the outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune play in protecting our Earth from catastrophes caused by Asteroids and Comets. Then in early March 2013 Asteroid DA14 flew at 5 miles a second pass the Earth at a distance of 17,000 miles. In Astronomy terms, this was a near miss of the Earth by a 150 foot rock weighting 143,000 tons that could have created a blast of a 180 nuclear bombs if it entered the earth’s atmosphere. Even a small directional course deviation for instance caused by the Sun’s solar flares would have spelled disaster for us.
It is time to change this articles series name from the “Goldilocks Universe” where things are “JUST RIGHT” for us to be here to the “Armageddon Universe”, because “WE ARE ALL DOOMED”. But an inner voice shouts, “You’re Wrong Doomsday Breath” Jupiter and the Outer planets “Do Protect Us”. That 143,000 ton rock used to be part of a multimillion ton rock that Jupiter and its planet friends broke up into smaller pieces at the early stages of our Solar System's formation (See Goldilocks 3). So instead of a 143,000 ton rock just passing us by, it could have been its parent maybe weighing 10 million tons or more visiting us and due to mutual gravity, removing a few continents from our planet.
Lest we forget in July 1994, a series of 21 Comet fragments from the Oort Cloud region of our Solar System name “Shoemaker – Levy 9, Comet” crashed into Jupiter at a velocity of 38.5 miles per sec with the largest fragment 2.5 miles wide. The total energy of the blasts was equivalent to the force of all the nuclear bombs multiplied a few hundred times. Yes Jupiter took the hit and prevented them from entering our neighborhood.
There are 4 regions of Asteroids and Comets orbiting our Sun. The first is the Asteroid Belt, beginning at about 100 million miles from Earth with a width of about 100 million miles, located between the planets Mars and Jupiter. The second are the Trojan Asteroids in the same orbital plane as Jupiter about 400 million miles from Earth. On the outside of our Solar System behind the orbit of the planet Neptune at a distance of 3.5 billion miles from Earth orbits a mix of rocks and ice known as the Kuiper Belt region.
The fourth region at a distance of 6.6 trillion miles from Earth, harbors Comets and leftover materials from our Sun and Planet formations 5 billion years ago. This region named the Oort Cloud surrounds the entire Solar System.
In addition there are freelance Asteroids that the planet Jupiter did not corral into Asteroid Belt and are still hanging around the vicinity of the Earth and the other rocky planets. It must be noted in general that most Asteroids and Comets are not in circular orbits, but in elliptical orbits that result in collisions. The resulting dynamics sometimes lead them to stray into Earth’s Neighborhood.
The makeups of the Asteroids: 75% are black carbon-rich bodies with a rock composition. 17% are mix of silicate and stony-iron rock. The remaining 8 % of Asteroids are metallic with a composition like that of the Earth’s core.
In the Asteroid Belt there are four large Asteroids, named Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, and Hygeia. Ceres is spherical dwarf planet (contributed to Pluto’s demotion to a dwarf planet) is the largest with diameter of 612 miles. About 200 Asteroids have a diameter over 60 miles across, 200,000 are bigger than 6 miles and 200 million are more than 0.6 miles. Asteroids larger than 180 miles are nearly spherical, smaller ones are irregular.
In the Kuiper Belt orbit non-spherical rock and ice objects, under 600 miles across, estimated to number over many tens of thousands. It takes the Kuiper Belt objects 250 years to orbit the Sun.
If you view our Solar System from the outside, you would be looking at a disk of planets and Asteroids orbiting the Sun. Encompassing our Solar Disk on all sides like a spherical bubble (Oort Cloud) are trillions of Comets. They are composed of silicate rock, water ice, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane and ammonia.
See Picture Titled "Oort Cloud" at:
www.explore-universe.weebly.com ( click tab: OORT Cloud)
There are three famous Comets that visit our Solar System periodically. The most famous is the Comet Halley that crosses our path every 76 years. Comet Ikeya Zhang goes around our Sun every 366 years and Comet Borrelly every 6.8 years.
The outer edges of the Oort Cloud are susceptible to the gravitational influences of passing Stars. This means that a passing Star could dislodge Comets in the Oort Cloud and send them hurling towards our Earth’s neighborhood.
To end this article on a happier note, NASA is building a heavy lift rocket to replace the Space Shuttle under the Space Launch System Program (SLS). One of the goals is to visit and maybe land Astronauts on an Asteroid. Asteroid DA14 would have been a great opportunity if this rocket was ready.
The first test launch of SLS rocket is planned for 2017. The first launch with 4 Astronauts aboard will be in 2021. Most likely the destination will be an Asteroid or the moon. See Picture Titled "SLS Rockets" at.
www.explore-universe.weebly.com (click tab: SLS Rockets)
This rocket could also be used to divert dangerous Asteroids and Comets headed in our direction. Future articles about the SLS Rocket will be posted on this web page. Stay Tune.
As promised in earlier Goldilocks Universe articles, I will return to elaborate on the Outer Planets, beginning with Jupiter.
The Goldilocks Universe 4 article was to highlight the role that the outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune play in protecting our Earth from catastrophes caused by Asteroids and Comets. Then in early March 2013 Asteroid DA14 flew at 5 miles a second pass the Earth at a distance of 17,000 miles. In Astronomy terms, this was a near miss of the Earth by a 150 foot rock weighting 143,000 tons that could have created a blast of a 180 nuclear bombs if it entered the earth’s atmosphere. Even a small directional course deviation for instance caused by the Sun’s solar flares would have spelled disaster for us.
It is time to change this articles series name from the “Goldilocks Universe” where things are “JUST RIGHT” for us to be here to the “Armageddon Universe”, because “WE ARE ALL DOOMED”. But an inner voice shouts, “You’re Wrong Doomsday Breath” Jupiter and the Outer planets “Do Protect Us”. That 143,000 ton rock used to be part of a multimillion ton rock that Jupiter and its planet friends broke up into smaller pieces at the early stages of our Solar System's formation (See Goldilocks 3). So instead of a 143,000 ton rock just passing us by, it could have been its parent maybe weighing 10 million tons or more visiting us and due to mutual gravity, removing a few continents from our planet.
Lest we forget in July 1994, a series of 21 Comet fragments from the Oort Cloud region of our Solar System name “Shoemaker – Levy 9, Comet” crashed into Jupiter at a velocity of 38.5 miles per sec with the largest fragment 2.5 miles wide. The total energy of the blasts was equivalent to the force of all the nuclear bombs multiplied a few hundred times. Yes Jupiter took the hit and prevented them from entering our neighborhood.
There are 4 regions of Asteroids and Comets orbiting our Sun. The first is the Asteroid Belt, beginning at about 100 million miles from Earth with a width of about 100 million miles, located between the planets Mars and Jupiter. The second are the Trojan Asteroids in the same orbital plane as Jupiter about 400 million miles from Earth. On the outside of our Solar System behind the orbit of the planet Neptune at a distance of 3.5 billion miles from Earth orbits a mix of rocks and ice known as the Kuiper Belt region.
The fourth region at a distance of 6.6 trillion miles from Earth, harbors Comets and leftover materials from our Sun and Planet formations 5 billion years ago. This region named the Oort Cloud surrounds the entire Solar System.
In addition there are freelance Asteroids that the planet Jupiter did not corral into Asteroid Belt and are still hanging around the vicinity of the Earth and the other rocky planets. It must be noted in general that most Asteroids and Comets are not in circular orbits, but in elliptical orbits that result in collisions. The resulting dynamics sometimes lead them to stray into Earth’s Neighborhood.
The makeups of the Asteroids: 75% are black carbon-rich bodies with a rock composition. 17% are mix of silicate and stony-iron rock. The remaining 8 % of Asteroids are metallic with a composition like that of the Earth’s core.
In the Asteroid Belt there are four large Asteroids, named Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, and Hygeia. Ceres is spherical dwarf planet (contributed to Pluto’s demotion to a dwarf planet) is the largest with diameter of 612 miles. About 200 Asteroids have a diameter over 60 miles across, 200,000 are bigger than 6 miles and 200 million are more than 0.6 miles. Asteroids larger than 180 miles are nearly spherical, smaller ones are irregular.
In the Kuiper Belt orbit non-spherical rock and ice objects, under 600 miles across, estimated to number over many tens of thousands. It takes the Kuiper Belt objects 250 years to orbit the Sun.
If you view our Solar System from the outside, you would be looking at a disk of planets and Asteroids orbiting the Sun. Encompassing our Solar Disk on all sides like a spherical bubble (Oort Cloud) are trillions of Comets. They are composed of silicate rock, water ice, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane and ammonia.
See Picture Titled "Oort Cloud" at:
www.explore-universe.weebly.com ( click tab: OORT Cloud)
There are three famous Comets that visit our Solar System periodically. The most famous is the Comet Halley that crosses our path every 76 years. Comet Ikeya Zhang goes around our Sun every 366 years and Comet Borrelly every 6.8 years.
The outer edges of the Oort Cloud are susceptible to the gravitational influences of passing Stars. This means that a passing Star could dislodge Comets in the Oort Cloud and send them hurling towards our Earth’s neighborhood.
To end this article on a happier note, NASA is building a heavy lift rocket to replace the Space Shuttle under the Space Launch System Program (SLS). One of the goals is to visit and maybe land Astronauts on an Asteroid. Asteroid DA14 would have been a great opportunity if this rocket was ready.
The first test launch of SLS rocket is planned for 2017. The first launch with 4 Astronauts aboard will be in 2021. Most likely the destination will be an Asteroid or the moon. See Picture Titled "SLS Rockets" at.
www.explore-universe.weebly.com (click tab: SLS Rockets)
This rocket could also be used to divert dangerous Asteroids and Comets headed in our direction. Future articles about the SLS Rocket will be posted on this web page. Stay Tune.
As promised in earlier Goldilocks Universe articles, I will return to elaborate on the Outer Planets, beginning with Jupiter.