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...a]http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/asteroid_shower_040726.html]"...a slowly-delivered shower of debris..."
*Mondo cool article.
Chesapeake Bay area and Popigai crater in Siberia.
"A pair of 35-million-year-old craters on Earth thought to have been carved by comets now appears to be the result of a broken asteroid that generated a slowly delivered shower of debris over millions of years."
*Initially they considered comets had caused the craters, but the "signature" left behind is more common to asteroids. Says the chances of a comet -and- asteroid impact are very slim.
"Other studies have found that when asteroids collide and break apart, their fragments can move from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter to reach Earth's vicinity over long time periods. Earth can then be hit by successive pieces on its continual trip around the Sun.
Other evidence reveals extra space dust particles, perhaps the product of the asteroid's breakup in space, falling on Earth for 2.5-million-years around the same time as the two large impacts, Claeys said.
That suggests a slow rain of debris created increased rates of dramatic fireballs in the sky and possibly other large impacts. The drama might have spanned at least 10,000 years, he said, and other than the Chesapeake and Popigai craters, there would be little evidence today."
*Also speculating on asteroid projectiles falling into oceans.
--Cindy
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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