[Fwd: [meteorite-list] Book Review: Meteorite Hunter - The Search for Siberian Meteorite Craters]

From: drtanuki <drtanuki_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:54:02 2004
Message-ID: <3C64188B.55E75507_at_tkc.att.ne.jp>

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Dear Ron,
   Thank you for the excellent review! Sounds like the "Meteorite
Hunter" is a rare species in today's science. What a mentor! Dirk
Ross....Tokyo

BTW: Shoemaker, Hubble, Izett, and .....hundreds that have stood on the
backs of Turtles, Turtles, Turtles..........

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Message-ID: <3C6415E3.CA089150_at_tkc.att.ne.jp>
Date: Sat, 09 Feb 2002 03:16:04 +0900
From: drtanuki <drtanuki_at_tkc.att.ne.jp>
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To: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Book Review: Meteorite Hunter - The Search for Siberian Meteorite Craters
References: <200202081708.JAA12067_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
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Why not a hyper-velocity energized particle? The equivilent of the N-bomb x 10 to the nth?
dr..tokyo

Ron Baalke wrote:

> http://www.space.com/spacelibrary/books/library_gallant_020208.html
>
> Book Review
> space.com
> February 8, 2002
>
> Featured Book:
>
> Meteorite Hunter: The Search for Siberian Meteorite Craters
> by Roy A. Gallant
>
> For the last ten years Prof. Roy A. Gallant has been digging around the
> notoriously treacherous Siberian wastelands so (thankfully!) you and I don't
> have to.
>
> His mission: To uncover the mystery surrounding what's known today as the
> Tunguska Event, the 1908 meteorite impact that was so great it exploded with
> a force 2000 times the size of the Hiroshima blast, its shockwave circling
> the earth twice.
>
> But what was the object? A comet's nucleus? Or a stony asteroid? Braving the
> region's natural predators (from bears to blood-thirsty bugs), Gallant,
> using research never before seen outside Russia, attempts to find answers in
> a book that is part history, part travelogue and part scientific inquiry.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Q & A WITH THE AUTHOR
>
> SPACE.com: What's more dangerous, Siberian mosquitoes or rocks from space?
>
> Roy A. Gallant: I'll take the mosquitoes. At least you can hit back.
>
> SPACE.com: Because the 1908 meteor exploded aboveground, little is known about the
> object. What new insights can you give us? Was it a comet or an asteroid?
>
> Roy A. Gallant: Not really any new insights into the cause of the event, more a matter of
> accumulating evidence tending to support the notion that the exploding
> object was a comet nucleus. This is the collective opinion of most Russian
> investigators; although some say they cannot confidently rule out a stony
> asteroid. Although computer modeling can be helpful, it is not a reliable
> substitute for the types of field investigations I report in my book.
>
> SPACE.com: Based on your research, what did the event look like to an observer standing
> at a (barely) safe distance?
>
> Roy A. Gallant: There was blinding light from the explosion--violent flash accompanied by an
> extremelhy hot and violent wind, and there was a pressure wave strong enough
> to knock people down. Add to that thunderous noise sounding like batteries
> of artillery fire. Than the expansive forest burst into flame. Many close
> to the blast were temporarily deafened, struck dumb and speechless, and fell
> to the ground in a state of shock.
>
> SPACE.com: What would happen if a similar event occurred over a metropolitan region?
>
> Roy A. Gallant: If there had been a difference of one hour when the Tunguska object struck,
> it would have exploded over St. Petersburg and killed about 500,000 people.
>
> SPACE.com: Experts agree it's only a matter of time before a much larger object hits
> the planet. How worried are you about the survival of civilization?
>
> Roy A. Gallant: I'm not at all worried since there's nothing I or any one else can do to
> prevent a planet-crunching asteroid a few kilometers in diameter from
> largely destroying he civilized world. It's a numbers game. We simply have
> no way of knowing when we'll be hit aain.You read a lot of numbers--certain
> size asteroids striking Earth every 1000 or 50,000 or 500,000 years. If we
> haven't been hit for a long time, does that mean we are likely to be hit
> soon? Not necessarily. Any one versed in probability theory can tell you
> that the past occurrence of the sum of seven turning up on the next dice
> toss has nohing whatever to do with the number of times seven has shown up
> in the previous 20 or so tosses.
>
> SPACE.com: Who are your heroes and how have they influenced your work?
>
> Roy A. Gallant: I have many heroes in science, among them Charles Darwin and others like him
> who devoted a great part of their lives nurturing a old hypothesis and
> watching it evolve into theory, and eventually gain the status of scientific
> principle, all through theie tireless and methodical collection of evidence.
> But sciencetends not to be donw that way any more. Just turn to the title
> page of mose major articles in the journals NATURE and SCIENCE and see the
> multiple by-lines, sometimes up to a dozen or so investigators. The new
> technologies in biology and physics, for example, are making a rarity out of
> the potential Darwins or a Copernicus.
>
> SPACE.com: What most upsets you about science or scientists?
>
> Roy A. Gallant: There's nothing about science as a means of investigating the natural
> worldthat upsets me, even though a scientists' search for truth is bound to
> step on toes every now and then. For the most part, I think scientists are a
> pretty honest lot with well definedgoals. The scientists who do notfit that
> pattern are those who have sold out to the tobacco, nuclear,and certain
> other industries that try to convince us that their product or activity is
> perfectly safe, when they know just the opposite is true.
>
> SPACE.com: If you controlled a $1 billion foundation, what research effort would you
> fund?
>
> Roy A. Gallant: Since a billion dollars isn't all that much money these days, I'd look for a
> relatively modest research effort, perhaps one directed more toward
> education rather than expensive hardware that might teach us how to mine an
> asteroid. In the field of astronomy, perhaps an effort to identify the
> misconceptions young people hae about basic astronomy, space, space travel,
> the nature and probability of life elsewhere in the universe and the
> philosophical implicatioins of its discovery. The second, and major, part of
> my program would be the preparation, publication, and distribution
> ofeducational materials at the junior high and up levels. Such materials
> would be relatively inexpensive, and their funds generated would go back
> into the program to make it largely self-sustaining.
>
> SPACE.com: Why should we spend money on space exploration over research into deadly
> diseases?
>
> Roy A. Gallant: I see no reason why we shouldn't be doing both at the same time.
>
> SPACE.com: What is the most beautiful aspect to space?
>
> Roy A. Gallant: Its silence and profoundly humbling aspect.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> PREVIEW
>
> " ... The Russians? conquering hero of Siberia was Yermak Timofeevich,
> leader of a band of warriors called Cossacks. The name comes from a Tartar
> word meaning 'daredevil,' one who has shunned all ties with his social class
> and becomes a free spirit as ready to fight as gulp down a measure of vodka.
> The Cossacks came into their own in the 1500s when they avoided the Tartar
> yoke of feudalism and serfdom by fleeing to the 'Wild Field' where,
> according to Rasputin, 'They founded their own settlements, elected
> chieftains called atamans, established laws, and began a free, new life that
> was not subordinate to any khanate or czardom.' Nevertheless, to survive
> they eventually came to serve the czar and tirelessly vented their patriotic
> fervor by defending Russia against her perceived enemies, be they Turks or
> Tartars. Their stronghold was the land forming the lower reaches of the Don
> and Volga rivers. It was the Cossacks, under the leadership of Yermak, who
> played an almost supernatural role in opening up Siberia. They were a proud
> and ruthless lot of adventurers who let nothing stand in the way of their
> pursuit of wealth. But there were others before them.
>
> Who were the first Siberians, the mystery people who inhabited the forests
> and plains east of the great Rock, or Ural Mountains? Foreigners in ancient
> and medieval times reading Herodotus's History were told that 'at the foot
> of some high mountains dwell people who are bald from birth and have flat
> noses and oblong chins [and who] have goats' feet; and others living beyond
> them sleep six months out of the year.' As late as the 1500s, one Russian
> written source related old tales describing the Siberians as a people who
> ostensibly die to pass the harsh winter months and do not reawaken until
> spring.
>
> Siberia, from a Tartar word meaning 'sleeping land,' is a giant only
> slightly smaller than the United States. It extends eastward across northern
> Asia from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. From west to east in the
> north it borders first the Barents, then the Kara, then the Laptev, and
> finally the East Siberian seas across the Arctic. It sprawls southward,
> first across the tundra, then through the great north coniferous forest
> biome called the taiga, and finally over the steppes of Central Asia to its
> southern borders with Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China ..."
>
> -- from the Preface, 'Meteorite Hunter'
>
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Received on Fri 08 Feb 2002 01:27:24 PM PST