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Doomsday Icarus



Celso and lists members:

Following you'll find a free translation of the article published last
Sunday on "La Nacion" the most popular daily newspaper of Costa Rica,
and a highly reputed one, from EFE's Spanish news agency and mentioned
by Celso Montalvo in his posting of today. His posting means that it has
been published at least in our two countries, and who knows in how many
more.

As much as I didn't agree with some of the ideas of Mr. David H. Levy's
article of last month's S&T, I must applaud and adhere to his comments
on March's S&T page 84 as to the danger of publishing such kind of news
over mass media. If C. Shramek's anouncement over the Net about the
Saturn-like object could have been a cause for the tragic events of
California's religious cult suicide, I just don't want to imagine what
this kind of news, being true or not, can cause on the common people's
beliefs.

Although I don't think I will be heard, I could not let this kind of
news pass uncommented and I already made my points of view known to the
newspaper. Coments will be welcome over the Net too.

The article reads as follows:

     <<	ASTEROID COLLISION FORESEEN

	EFE. Moscow

	Russian scientists said that the end of the world will take 
	place in eight years, when Earth will collide with an asteroid, 
	and only the joint effort of all countries could avoid the 
	dramatic ending.

	The name of the asteroid is Icarus, with a diameter of 1.5 Km 
	and a mass of several hundred tons, which approaches Earth at a 
	speed of 60 Km per second.

	Its impact with Earth would cause an explosion equivalent to a 
	thousand thermonuclear warheads with the power of one million 
	tons of dynamite each, according to calculations by 
	astrophysicists.
	
	Russian scientists alerted that the impact is "almost 
	unavoidable" and made a plea to all states to conform a common 
	front of action to carry out a sophisticated space project to 
	deviate or destroy the deadly planetoid with powerful nuclear 
	detonations.

	Icarus, discovered in 1949, comes near the Earth every 19 years, 
	but each time its distance to us is reduced and its velocity 
	increases, and scientists fear that its next visit, in the 
	summer of 2006, will be the last one.
	
	In 1949 it passed 28 million Km away from Earth on its way to 
	the Sun, but 19 years later, on June 14, 1968, its distance was 
	reduced to only 6.36 million Km.

	The scientist Valdimir Polevanov, geologist of the Russian 
	Natural Sciences Academy, says that the danger lies in Icarus 
	not having a permanent orbit, because it evolves in space under 
	he effect of the Sun and the rest of the planets.

	This fact makes that the threat of a collision of Icarus with 
	Earth be "more than probable", emphasized Polevanov in an 
	article published in the popular newspaper Trud.
	
	In the last 250 million years of Earth's history, the fauna and 
	flora of our planet has been erased 9 times, with an average of 
	every 30 million years and scientists opine that, at least once, 
	this was caused by "extraterrestrial" causes.

	The extinction of species registered in the Cretacean and 
	Tertiary eras of the geological history of the planet was due to 
	the collision of an asteroid that perforated the terrestrial 
	crust and caused "apocalyptic" consequences, said the academic.

	He quoted that, according to scientific data, some 1.500 
	asteroids with a diameter superior to 1 Km have collided with 
	Earth. He also said that those collisions are unavoidable and 
	that "the worst" is coming in 8 years.

	To avoid this end, "international measures are required at the 
	UN and its Security Council levels", and he proposed a world 
	project called "Save the Planet".

	His worry was shared by Col. Vladimir Tkachenko, chief of 
	experts of the Institute of Scientific Research on Space Systems 
	in Russia, who told the newspaper that this institution has 
	already elaborated a plan to "neutralize" Icarus.

	Many prestigious scientists believe that the collision of Icarus 
	with Earth is unavoidable and that governments must pay 
	attention to these voices.

	The project foresees the launch of a ship from which a rocket 
	would be send to Icarus with a space platform carrying several 
	modules that would be launched to the asteroid in turns.Upon 
	reaching its surface, each module would bore the ground and 
	would place powerful atomic heads which, activated 
	simultaneously, would destroy the asteroid.>>

Sorry to the lists for the lenghty post but it deserves some atention.
  _
/   \                                      
    /   Carlos Hernandez    
  o     Heredia, Costa Rica    
 /      "May your skies be 'pura vida' tonight"   
 \ _ /


 
> ----------
> > From: celsom-w 
> > To: EB@ATLASTRO.ML.ORG
> > Subject: [EB] Icaro
> > Date: Monday, March 09, 1998 7:52 AM
> >
> > Hi friends:
> >
> > Yesterday I read in the newspaper that some russian astronomers have
> > calculated that Icaro (asteroid, 1.5 km diam) will collide with > >earth in  2006 or so. This can be a global catastrophe similar to the
> > Chicxulub event, 65 million tears ago. Have you read or heard of > > > > this news?
> >
> > Saludos.
> > --
> > Celso Montalvo
> > ELECONT INGENIERIA S. A.
> > Lima-PERU
> > 12o S; 77o W.