Saturday, August 16, 2014

1950 DA, and you never heard of it until now.

First online item encountered, off Google News, Daily Mail, here. Unsure of whether the source and its bizarre 1 in 300 chance of an earth collision in 2880 with an impact potential of "44,800 megatonnes of TNT" was sheer Brit tabloid fantasy, (doesn't it sound that way), led to googling, and getting a Nature and NASA pair of links, here and here, van der Waals cohesion theories and all.

Unfortunately, actuarial table realities suggest I will not be around to witness whether it's hit or miss. Will Ferguson, MO, be around for it either?

__________UPDATE___________
In terms of planetary strikes, 1994, comet Shoemaker-Levy, and impacts on Jupiter, e.g., here and here.

More about 1950 DA, here, here and here.