Word: cometted
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...crashing comet, wayward black hole or alien spacecraft level the forest around Tunguska, Siberia, in 1908? None of the above. A computer model by NASA scientists revealed that the likely culprit was a stony asteroid -- 30 m (100 ft.) in diameter -- that exploded...
WHAT'S THE WORLD COMING TO? FIRST, ASTROPHYSIcists said comets killed the dinosaurs. Then they implicated asteroids in numerous other mass extinctions throughout the earth's history, setting the stage for the awful news in October that the comet Swift-Tuttle might crash into the planet in the year...
Finally a bit of good news: some astronomers have revised calculations on Swift-Tuttle, and predict that the big comet will breeze by us at a comfortable 15 million-mile distance. Of course, there is always the possibility that some other uncharted space rock may come crashing through the atmosphere. Best keep...
EVERY AUGUST THE EARTH PASSES THROUGH THE orbital path of Comet Swift-Tuttle. If the comet ever happened to be there, the 10-km-wide (6-mile) chunk of ice and rock could slam into the planet, carving an enormous crater, generating tidal waves and throwing up a worldwide pall of dust that could block sunlight for months. Plants would be largely wiped out, and so would many species that ultimately depend on plants for food -- including, perhaps, the human race. Just such a disaster, many scientists believe, killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. A smaller strike...
Luckily, planet and comet have never been in the same place at the same time. The only visible effect of the crossed paths is the annual Perseid meteor shower, caused when lingering comet dust burns up in the earth's atmosphere. But humanity may not be so lucky for long: there is a chance that the next time Swift-Tuttle comes around, probably in the year 2126, it will fall to earth. The odds are small -- 10,000 to 1 against -- according to the International Astronomical Union's Brian Marsden. But the downside is so great that Marsden has urged...