RE: More education needed

["Franta, Jaroslav" <frantaj@AECL.CA>]

You wrote on Tuesday November 07, 2000 12:11 PM

<SNIP>
 The retraction was for the impact prediction,
not the outrageous statement about a nuclear blast.

          . . ..The object, designated 2000 SG344, is either an asteroid
about 200 feet in
                 diameter or a 35-foot-long Apollo-era rocket booster. It
was discovered
                 Sept. 29 through a telescope in Hawaii.

                 Before the new data was revealed, Yeomans had said that if
the object was
    >>>      an asteroid it could create a ``fairly sizable nuclear blast''
if it struck the Earth.

<SNIP>
<><><><><><><><><>

Comment:
Otrageous ? Perhaps. But not uncommon.

Check out this story from earlier this year....

http://www.skypub.com/news/news.shtml
Thursday, January 20 
Meteoric Blast over Canada
A chunk of interplanetary debris slammed into Earth's atmosphere over
western Canada on January 18th, exploding with what impact specialist Alan
Hildebrand (University of Calgary) calls "one of the largest ever airbursts
detected over land." The daylight event occurred at 16:43:26 Universal Time
(8:43 a.m. Pacific Standard Time) at 60.25° north, 134.65° west - a little
south of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Sensors aboard defense satellites
suggest that the airburst unleashed energy equivalent to at least
2,000-3,000 tons of TNT about 25 kilometers above the ground. 
[[ other publications used lines like "2 - 3 kiloton nuclear explosion" ]]
Residents of Whitehorse observed a lingering dust cloud for 2 hours.
According to Hildebrand, the impactor was most likely a stony object. He
asks eyewitnesses of the event to contact him at 403-220-2291
(hildebra@geo.ucalgary.edu). 
Later that day, amateur astronomers in the surrounding region noticed an
unusual display of noctilucent clouds hanging low in the western sky after
sunset. A "webwork of interwoven strands" formed a cloud band was about 15°
across, notes Michael Hoskinson of Edmonton, Alberta, creating "a silvery
radiance that far outshone the dying sky light." The meteoric dust particles
left in the stratsophere apparently served as condensation nuclei for the
dramatic cloud formation. "Noctilucent clouds normally occur in June or July
only," explains meteorologist Alan Whitman, who observed the band while
driving to his home in Penticton, British Columbia. 
<><><><><><><><><><><>

Comment:
The 2 - 3 KtTNT explosion was considerably more powerful than Air Force MB-1
"Genie" air-to-air unguided rockets (Mach 3; 60-mile range) formerly carried
by Canadian F-104 Starfighter jets (one each only, externally). The Genies
were the only nukes - besides BOMARC missiles - stationed in Canada. Their
219 lb, W-25 warhead had an explosive yield of only 1.5 KtTNT. The whole
weapon weighed 830 lbs and was 17.4" diam x 115" L. 
About 3,150 were built in the US between 1957 - 1963, and all were retired
by 1984.

Jaro
frantaj@aecl.ca
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