Word: meteored
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Hawkins and Fred L. Whipple, chairman of the Department of Astronomy, outlined the project before the convention of the American Astronomical Association. They explained that they hope to determine in what ways meteors affect humans and to check the accuracy of some of the current contentions concerning them. One Australian scientist maintains that meteors or meteor dust cause the aurora borealis and torrential rains...
...atmosphere should be made of. Pure oxygen might be all right if its pressure were low enough (at atmospheric pressure, it is poisonous), but nitrogen also may be necessary for human health. In any case, the pressure in the spaceship should not be too low. If a meteor punctured the skin, a good thick atmosphere of oxygen diluted with nitrogen or helium would not be lost as quickly as a thin one of oxygen alone...
These are the missile people, high technologists all. Some of them brood with pencil and paper; others contrive tiny instruments of inconceivable delicacy; others work with great rocket motors that shake the earth with their roars. All of them are racing that day when an enemy-made meteor glows like a spark in the sky. Long before that day, the U.S. must have its own deadly "birds" and many other monsters...
...even worse, and it smacks the re-entry body with jarring deceleration forces 20 times gravity. The situation is complicated by the fact that the air sweeping past the missile is ionized by high heat. This absorbs some energy, but creates corrosive particles. It is also responsible for the meteor-like trail...
...nation may get hold of a missile or two and blot out the capital city of a nation that it hates. Or perhaps when the great nations are armed to the teeth with long-range missiles and nervously watching each other, some quick mistake will be made. An innocent meteor may be mistaken for an invading missile. There will be no time to check or debate, and the decision to fire "in retaliation" will be made by some low-ranking officer. Retaliation may result in counterretaliation, and in a few more minutes all the world's missiles...