Hello scientists!
I'm not much a movie-goer, but if you've been watching TV lately, you may have seen the trailer for the new Godzilla movie that came out yesterday. Well, is Godzilla possible? If so, could we take care of it?
Well, certainly nothing alive could be as large as Godzilla, right? How big is Godzilla? The problem here is that he only appears in movies, and doesn't have a definite height. In 1954, when the original film came out, the tallest building in Tokyo was the National Diet Building, which is 215 feet tall. Godzilla was then made to be 164 feet tall so he could peer over most buildings in Tokyo if he wanted to. However, as time moved on, Tokyo's building got taller and Godzilla got relatively shorter. Filmmakers had to keep updating him to make him seem large in comparison. In the 2014 film, he's 305 feet tall.
The largest animal on land is the African Bush Elephant, which can be up to 13 feet tall at the shoulders. Keep in mind that Godzilla stands on two legs whole elephants stand on four. For final proof, the elephant weighs 6 tons, while Godzilla weighs up to 60,000 tons. You don't even need to do the math to see that Godzilla's bones couldn't support his own weight.
If he was possible and he was mad at us, we could be in trouble. Godzilla runs on nuclear power, due to his awakening being at Bikini Atoll when an atomic weapon was detonated. That means that he's (supposedly*) immune to any weapon that's not atomic. Any nuclear weapon, on the other hand, will help him. He would just absorb the energy and grow stronger. The best strategy is to used something like the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful bomb ever, releasing so much energy that it would just be too much energy for him to absorb. Either that or it would give him a heart attack.
Thanks for reading! Sorry for not submitting this on Friday, I was pretty busy. Better late than never, though, right? Anyway, make sure to comment below, and I'll see you in the next post!
Until next time,
Ben's jamin'
Benjamin
P.S. Make sure you check out John's math blog at http://johncooksmathblog.blogspot.com.
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Friday, May 16, 2014
Bilingual Birds
Hello scientists!
Today we're going to cover a biology topic, one that I have personally wondered for a long time. The question: how can parrots (and other birds) speak English?
Well, they don't have vocal cords. What they have learned to do is change the shape of their trachea and blow air over it, producing sound. Humans can do this too; it's called whistling. So yes, parrots aren't talking in the usual way, they are really just whistling in a special way.
All parrots are created equal, but some whistle more equally than others. The African Gray Parrot is considered the best species in speaking English, besides humans. Here's one:
Side note: these guys are endangered.
Although they're pretty, there doesn't seem to be an advantage to talking and imitating humans. What's it good for? Well, no one really knows. Some tests have pointed to them using speech for problem solving. They have also been observed imitating other species of birds in the wild, a useful disguise to fool predators. Others suggest it's to separate the flock from strangers. Some other hypotheses suggest that it's used to mark territory, to help other birds not get lost, or just a feature that was naturally selected and evolved.
Last question (yes, I know this is a short post, but no one knows a lot about this). Do they actually understand English? Scientists disagree with each other, but some experiments hinted that they actually do understand what they're saying, such as a parrot labeling things using the human language. It's hard to tell imitating and learning apart, however.
Thanks for reading! I know this is a short post, but not a lot of knowledge is actually known about this. As I mentioned before, geology is next. See you in the next post!
Until next time,
Ben's jamin'
Benjamin
P.S. Make sure you check out John's math blog at http://johncooksmathblog.blogspot.com.
Today we're going to cover a biology topic, one that I have personally wondered for a long time. The question: how can parrots (and other birds) speak English?
Well, they don't have vocal cords. What they have learned to do is change the shape of their trachea and blow air over it, producing sound. Humans can do this too; it's called whistling. So yes, parrots aren't talking in the usual way, they are really just whistling in a special way.
All parrots are created equal, but some whistle more equally than others. The African Gray Parrot is considered the best species in speaking English, besides humans. Here's one:
Although they're pretty, there doesn't seem to be an advantage to talking and imitating humans. What's it good for? Well, no one really knows. Some tests have pointed to them using speech for problem solving. They have also been observed imitating other species of birds in the wild, a useful disguise to fool predators. Others suggest it's to separate the flock from strangers. Some other hypotheses suggest that it's used to mark territory, to help other birds not get lost, or just a feature that was naturally selected and evolved.
Last question (yes, I know this is a short post, but no one knows a lot about this). Do they actually understand English? Scientists disagree with each other, but some experiments hinted that they actually do understand what they're saying, such as a parrot labeling things using the human language. It's hard to tell imitating and learning apart, however.
Thanks for reading! I know this is a short post, but not a lot of knowledge is actually known about this. As I mentioned before, geology is next. See you in the next post!
Until next time,
Ben's jamin'
Benjamin
P.S. Make sure you check out John's math blog at http://johncooksmathblog.blogspot.com.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
When Lightning Strikes More Than Twice
Hello scientists!
Today, I tallied up all the subjects I've covered and how often I covered them. The results are: five blogs on physics, three blogs on biology, four on astronomy, and two on geology (and one on myths, but that one doesn't count). So, to even things out, here's the schedule for the next few blogs:
Geology
Biology
Geology
Astronomy
Biology
Geology
When this happens, there will be five blogs for each of the categories. From there, we'll start the process over again. Just letting you know.
Anyway, as I said, today's blog is about geology. Today's topic is quite indescribable. If I had to put it into words, imagine if Zeus and the devil fought for many days for many weeks over Maracaibo, Venezuela. Chances are you thought of tons of lightning flashing in the dark sky over Maracaibo, Venezuela, wherever it is (in the very northwestern part). Chances are you thought of something like this:
Incredible. How does this happen? No one knows.
Thanks for reading! Make sure to comm
Just kidding. You really think I would leave it there? Before we end this, let's see what's going on.
First, let's gather some facts. Catatumbo lightning, named after the Catatumbo river, is the largest single producer of ozone in the troposphere. The clouds in the storm reach up to 3 miles in height, and it occurs about 150 nights a year, 10 hours every day, and as much as 280 times per hour.
What causes this storm that puts Mother Nature above humans? Well, this reeks of some scientific explanation about mountains affecting the wind, so topography would be nice to know. In the northwestern part of Venezuela, there's a large lake known as Maracaibo Lake. This passes through a narrow strait (next to which is the city of Maracaibo) before it empties into the Gulf of Venezuela, connected directly to the Caribbean Sea. One last note: the lake is surrounded by flat, swampy plains, which in turn are blocked by three mountain ranges: the famous Andes, the Perijá Mountains, and Mérida's Cordillera. There will be a test on this later.
When air blows into the lake, it travels over the lake and onto the plains. There, it is stopped by one of the three mountain ranges (called it!) and forced to collect there. Heat and moisture are collected as well. These two factors create electrical charges. As these charges are destabilized by the mountains, and therefore released, you get lightning. A lot of it. This isn't even considering the uranium in the bedrock, or the methane and oil humans have released into the coastal plains. That explains it. Kind of.
Anyway, thanks for reading! Yes, this ending is the real one. Sorry if today's entry is a little unclear, I don't really understand it well, and apparently the scientists don't either. There have only been a few studies on it. Make sure to comment below, and I'll see you in the next post!
Until next time,
Ben's jamin'
Benjamin
P.S. Make sure you check out John's math blog at http://johncooksmathblog.blogspot.com.
Today, I tallied up all the subjects I've covered and how often I covered them. The results are: five blogs on physics, three blogs on biology, four on astronomy, and two on geology (and one on myths, but that one doesn't count). So, to even things out, here's the schedule for the next few blogs:
Geology
Biology
Geology
Astronomy
Biology
Geology
When this happens, there will be five blogs for each of the categories. From there, we'll start the process over again. Just letting you know.
Anyway, as I said, today's blog is about geology. Today's topic is quite indescribable. If I had to put it into words, imagine if Zeus and the devil fought for many days for many weeks over Maracaibo, Venezuela. Chances are you thought of tons of lightning flashing in the dark sky over Maracaibo, Venezuela, wherever it is (in the very northwestern part). Chances are you thought of something like this:
Thanks for reading! Make sure to comm
Just kidding. You really think I would leave it there? Before we end this, let's see what's going on.
First, let's gather some facts. Catatumbo lightning, named after the Catatumbo river, is the largest single producer of ozone in the troposphere. The clouds in the storm reach up to 3 miles in height, and it occurs about 150 nights a year, 10 hours every day, and as much as 280 times per hour.
What causes this storm that puts Mother Nature above humans? Well, this reeks of some scientific explanation about mountains affecting the wind, so topography would be nice to know. In the northwestern part of Venezuela, there's a large lake known as Maracaibo Lake. This passes through a narrow strait (next to which is the city of Maracaibo) before it empties into the Gulf of Venezuela, connected directly to the Caribbean Sea. One last note: the lake is surrounded by flat, swampy plains, which in turn are blocked by three mountain ranges: the famous Andes, the Perijá Mountains, and Mérida's Cordillera. There will be a test on this later.
When air blows into the lake, it travels over the lake and onto the plains. There, it is stopped by one of the three mountain ranges (called it!) and forced to collect there. Heat and moisture are collected as well. These two factors create electrical charges. As these charges are destabilized by the mountains, and therefore released, you get lightning. A lot of it. This isn't even considering the uranium in the bedrock, or the methane and oil humans have released into the coastal plains. That explains it. Kind of.
Anyway, thanks for reading! Yes, this ending is the real one. Sorry if today's entry is a little unclear, I don't really understand it well, and apparently the scientists don't either. There have only been a few studies on it. Make sure to comment below, and I'll see you in the next post!
Until next time,
Ben's jamin'
Benjamin
P.S. Make sure you check out John's math blog at http://johncooksmathblog.blogspot.com.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
The Third Apocalyptic Friday
Hello scientists!
I'll get right to the point. We've all seen or heard those movies or conspiracy theroies about the Large Hadron Collider (or LHC) creating a black hole that will destory the Earth. Will it? Let's find out.
First of all, what is the LHC? The Large Hadron Collider is, in its simplest, two pipes shaped like an enormous circle underground. Two small things, such as atoms, are sped down these tubes in opposite directions near the speed of light. When scientists want to, they make one particle move to the other pipe, smashing them together with enormous force, seperating the atoms into its simpliest parts, useful for research. It has a 17 mile diameter and looks like this if it was aboveground:
![]()
We're worried about the atoms creating enough energy to kill off the Earth via black hole. First of all, let's make sure there's enough energy to create one.
Let's make something clear first. Atoms almost never actually touch. If you're sitting down right now, magnetic forces in between atoms repel each other, making a microscopic space between you and the chair you're sitting on. However, this isn't the case with the LHC. The atoms collide at almost twice the speed of light, forcing them closer than they usually get. The tiny force of gravity between the atoms then pulls them together and make them physically touch. This gives off much more energy than expected: enough to make a black hole.
So we can make a black hole (although it's an incredibly tiny one). Not a great start. Luckily, the man Stephan Hawking came to the rescue. He calculated that black holes give off radiation. If the black hole is too small, it overexerts itself by releasing too much radiation for its size and evaporates. We have a microscopic black hole; is that small enough? Well, the smallest possible stable black hole is about three times bigger than our Sun. So any black holes would dissipate if LHC made one, unless you want to question a widely accepted theory proposed by Steven Hawking. Only an idiot would do that
But we are idiots on this blog, so let's question it anyway. What would happen if one somehow stayed alive? Well, the energy made by the atomic collision was so strong that it would probably propel the black hole away from Earth and into space. About one out of one million black holes would be moving slowly enough to hang on to Earth's atmosphere.
What then, in case I somehow haven't assured you enough? Well, as gravity pulls things toward Earth's center, the black hole would obviously go to Earth's center. There it would stay, picking Earth away at a rate of a proton every 4 days. By the end of the universe's life, it will have only consumed a few milligrams of the inner core.
So there you have it. The Earth will lose .00000000000000000000002 pounds in your lifetime, but only in a one in a million chance, and only if Steven Hawking is wrong, and only if scientists at the LHC aren't careful. And they are.
Thanks for reading! Also, I always say this causally, but I really want to thank John from John's Math Blog for a shout-out to my blog. I will return the favor, but not because I owe him one, but because it's actually really interesting. If you like my stuff, you'll probably like what he has to say as well. Anyway, make sure to comment below, and I'll see you in the next post!
Until next time,
Ben's jamin'
Benjamin
I'll get right to the point. We've all seen or heard those movies or conspiracy theroies about the Large Hadron Collider (or LHC) creating a black hole that will destory the Earth. Will it? Let's find out.
First of all, what is the LHC? The Large Hadron Collider is, in its simplest, two pipes shaped like an enormous circle underground. Two small things, such as atoms, are sped down these tubes in opposite directions near the speed of light. When scientists want to, they make one particle move to the other pipe, smashing them together with enormous force, seperating the atoms into its simpliest parts, useful for research. It has a 17 mile diameter and looks like this if it was aboveground:
Let's make something clear first. Atoms almost never actually touch. If you're sitting down right now, magnetic forces in between atoms repel each other, making a microscopic space between you and the chair you're sitting on. However, this isn't the case with the LHC. The atoms collide at almost twice the speed of light, forcing them closer than they usually get. The tiny force of gravity between the atoms then pulls them together and make them physically touch. This gives off much more energy than expected: enough to make a black hole.
So we can make a black hole (although it's an incredibly tiny one). Not a great start. Luckily, the man Stephan Hawking came to the rescue. He calculated that black holes give off radiation. If the black hole is too small, it overexerts itself by releasing too much radiation for its size and evaporates. We have a microscopic black hole; is that small enough? Well, the smallest possible stable black hole is about three times bigger than our Sun. So any black holes would dissipate if LHC made one, unless you want to question a widely accepted theory proposed by Steven Hawking. Only an idiot would do that
But we are idiots on this blog, so let's question it anyway. What would happen if one somehow stayed alive? Well, the energy made by the atomic collision was so strong that it would probably propel the black hole away from Earth and into space. About one out of one million black holes would be moving slowly enough to hang on to Earth's atmosphere.
What then, in case I somehow haven't assured you enough? Well, as gravity pulls things toward Earth's center, the black hole would obviously go to Earth's center. There it would stay, picking Earth away at a rate of a proton every 4 days. By the end of the universe's life, it will have only consumed a few milligrams of the inner core.
So there you have it. The Earth will lose .00000000000000000000002 pounds in your lifetime, but only in a one in a million chance, and only if Steven Hawking is wrong, and only if scientists at the LHC aren't careful. And they are.
Thanks for reading! Also, I always say this causally, but I really want to thank John from John's Math Blog for a shout-out to my blog. I will return the favor, but not because I owe him one, but because it's actually really interesting. If you like my stuff, you'll probably like what he has to say as well. Anyway, make sure to comment below, and I'll see you in the next post!
Until next time,
Ben's jamin'
Benjamin
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Myths Rundown
Hello scientists!
Last time, I said that we were going to talk about physics, but I changed my mind. Physics will be next, though! Instead, let's go over some common misconceptions.
1. The Great Wall of China is claimed to be the only man-made structure visible from the Moon. This is wrong for two reasons. The first is that you can't see it when you're higher than 180 miles, much closer than the Moon. Although it is longer than 13,000 miles, it is only 30 feet wide, putting it at a great disadvantage. The second reason the myth is wrong is that there are many man-made things visible from the Moon, such as city lights. This is what it looks like from a low-Earth orbit:
And no, it's not that line running from top-left to bottom-right; that's a river. The wall runs from bottom-left to top-right. If you can barely see it, this picture is also zoomed in from a satellite that is no where close to the Moon.
2. As we all know, bulls hate the color red. Except they don't. Red isn't even a bright color to cattles' eyes. They instead charge the matador because they appear as a potential threat.
3. Pennies falling from the Empire State Building are feared of killing someone on the ground. However, there's a scientific principle called terminal velocity. This is when the drag, or air resistance, on something falling is as strong as gravity. This results on the object neither slowing or speeding up. The terminal velocity of a penny is 30-50 mph. At this speed, a penny won't have enough velocity to crack the human skull. Granted, it will hurt, but you'll survive.
4. This one is actually one that proves me wrong. The heating of a meteor is not actually caused by air rubbing against it, but air compressing in front of the meteor. So I was wrong about those Russian meteors from two entries ago.
5. Black holes are often thought to be violent eaters of the universe. That's true, but only if the objects are very close to it. After all, if they have the same mass as a star, they will have the same gravitational pull. In fact, if the Sun was replaced by a black hole with the same mass, Earth wouldn't notice (except humans would). The only difference is that a black hole is a lot denser.
6. Not all worms that are cut in half produce two new worms. The front half will usually live with its mouth, while the rear half will die. However, some flatworms can actually produce two worms from two halves, known scientifically as anterior regeneration.
7. This one may be the most surprising of all. For years I've likced ice cream only with the tip of my tongue to taste the most sweetness. As we've all seen at one point or another, different parts of the tongue are used to taste different things, such as sweetness and spiciness. Apparently, that actually isn't true. If you recognize this:
you know what I'm talking about. Turns out that every part of the tongue can detect each primary taste almost as well as the others, although it may differentiate from person to person. To add to that, the locations of sensitivity are never the same, and there are actually five primary tastes, not four. The fifth is called umami, used to describe tastes such as meat.
8. Speaking of senses, we often think that we have five senses: sight, taste, scent, touch, and sound. We actually have much more than that, including, but not limited to: balance, acceleration, pain, body position, temperature, time, itching, pressure, hunger, thirst, when to stop eating, when to go #1 and #2, and the most famous one of all, carbon dioxide levels in the blood.
9. Sugar doesn't make people hyper, especially children. In tests, children were both given sugar-free soda and soda with sugar that tasted and looked exactly the same. After the test, both children behaved the same and had the same amount of energy.
10. As you may have guessed by now, humans don't just use 10% of their brain. This can be simply proven with an MRI. The brain is incredibly complex, but one things scientists do know is that it uses more than 10% of it's neutrons. This source of this myth can be traced back to philosopher William James, who used the phrase metaphorically.
Thanks for reading! Make sure to comment below! As I mentioned, I promised something physics related and Apocalyptic Friday is coming up, so I'm thinking I'll just combine the two. Tune in then!
Until next time,
Ben's jamin'
Benjamin
P.S. Make sure you check out John's math blog at http://johncooksmathblog.blogspot.com.
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
The Best Animal Ever
Hello scientists!
It's obvious that humans rule the Earth now, but there is an animal that can survive a lot more than we can. It has survived almost every test we have performed on them, and most of us don't even know they exist. They are called tardigrades.
They look like aliens. They are tiny (1/50th of an inch), have eight legs, and kind of chubby. Here's a picture of them:
Pretty strange, huh?
Anyway, they are considered extremophiles, which are organisms that can live in conditions that would kill most other life forms. How tough is this "water bear"? Let's take a look.
How do they fare in the heat and cold? Well, they have been heated to 304 degrees Fahrenheit for a few minutes. To cool them off, scientists then placed them in a chamber cooled to -324 degrees Fahrenheit for days. Some were even able to survive at -428 degrees for a few minutes, just above the lowest physically possible temperature. A+.
What about pressure? Many deep sea fish are constantly pushing outward to compensate for the water pressure. When they are brought up to the surface, they still push their bodies outward, causing them to explode with no water pressure. Tardigrades are different story. They have survived being in a vacuum for 10 days without exploding (like the fish), and have had survived 6,000 times the pressure of the Earth's atmosphere, or the equivalent of six times the water pressure of the deepest point in the ocean. A+ again.
Camels can survive a long time without water. As famous as they are, they are put to shame by tardigrades. These little guys can go 10 whole years without water and survive. A leg twitch (which isn't really considered survival, but still) has been observed 120 years without water. A++.
Chernobyl is one of the world's most deadly nuclear disasters. It is still not safe to be around due to radiation. Tardigrades don't care. Surviving 1,000 times more radiation than other animals, scientists aren't sure how they do it. One explanation is that their low hydration (possible because they can survive without water for a while) ionizes the radiation, rendering it harmless. A+ again!
For its final act of survival, it will try to survive the most dangerous enviornment of all. As I've mentioned, it can survive a lot a radiation, and it can survive in a vacuum. Sounds like outer space to me. With an extreme change of pressure and no ozone layer to block radiation, the most hostile environment is no environment at all. Dehydrated tardigrades were sent into a low Earth orbit. Surprisingly, 68% of them survived. Pretty amazing. A+ for all of them.
Thanks for reading! Make sure to comment below as well! Next time, let's tackle a physics topic, shall we? Tune in then!
Until next time,
Ben's jamin'
Benjamin
P.S. Make sure you check out John's math blog at http://johncooksmathblog.blogspot.com.
It's obvious that humans rule the Earth now, but there is an animal that can survive a lot more than we can. It has survived almost every test we have performed on them, and most of us don't even know they exist. They are called tardigrades.
They look like aliens. They are tiny (1/50th of an inch), have eight legs, and kind of chubby. Here's a picture of them:
Anyway, they are considered extremophiles, which are organisms that can live in conditions that would kill most other life forms. How tough is this "water bear"? Let's take a look.
How do they fare in the heat and cold? Well, they have been heated to 304 degrees Fahrenheit for a few minutes. To cool them off, scientists then placed them in a chamber cooled to -324 degrees Fahrenheit for days. Some were even able to survive at -428 degrees for a few minutes, just above the lowest physically possible temperature. A+.
What about pressure? Many deep sea fish are constantly pushing outward to compensate for the water pressure. When they are brought up to the surface, they still push their bodies outward, causing them to explode with no water pressure. Tardigrades are different story. They have survived being in a vacuum for 10 days without exploding (like the fish), and have had survived 6,000 times the pressure of the Earth's atmosphere, or the equivalent of six times the water pressure of the deepest point in the ocean. A+ again.
Camels can survive a long time without water. As famous as they are, they are put to shame by tardigrades. These little guys can go 10 whole years without water and survive. A leg twitch (which isn't really considered survival, but still) has been observed 120 years without water. A++.
Chernobyl is one of the world's most deadly nuclear disasters. It is still not safe to be around due to radiation. Tardigrades don't care. Surviving 1,000 times more radiation than other animals, scientists aren't sure how they do it. One explanation is that their low hydration (possible because they can survive without water for a while) ionizes the radiation, rendering it harmless. A+ again!
For its final act of survival, it will try to survive the most dangerous enviornment of all. As I've mentioned, it can survive a lot a radiation, and it can survive in a vacuum. Sounds like outer space to me. With an extreme change of pressure and no ozone layer to block radiation, the most hostile environment is no environment at all. Dehydrated tardigrades were sent into a low Earth orbit. Surprisingly, 68% of them survived. Pretty amazing. A+ for all of them.
Thanks for reading! Make sure to comment below as well! Next time, let's tackle a physics topic, shall we? Tune in then!
Until next time,
Ben's jamin'
Benjamin
P.S. Make sure you check out John's math blog at http://johncooksmathblog.blogspot.com.
Sunday, May 4, 2014
The Second Apocalypse Friday
Hello scientists!
I'm sorry for not updating my blog recently. In the future, I will try to be better about doing something every day, or at least something close to it. So, without further ado, today's entry!
Today is Sunday, but this is going to be an apocalyptic blog. This topic is more related to astronomy than geology, like last time. This event has also happened before, and when it did, it wiped out Earth's dominant species. Asteroids!
The impact that we remember is the one that occurred in Russia on February 15, 2013. The damage didn't come from the meteor hitting the Earth, but rather an explosion caused by the friction of the meteor traveling through the atmosphere. Even so, the energy released was equivalent to 500 kilotons tons of TNT, or about 25 times more powerful than Little Boy, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
The most powerful strike in recorded history happened in Russia as well (I know, they have bad luck). Known as the Tungunka event, its destruction was caused by the meteor bursting in mid-air rather than colliding with the ground. The explosion that occurred on June 30th, 1908 released the same energy as 30 megatons of TNT, or 1,000 times greater than Little Boy, which was enough to flatten around 80 million tress around the impact site.
However, the most powerful impact ever has probably happened about 3.26 billion years ago. The meteor was probably about 30 miles wide., Scientists have only found evidence of the impact in South Africa in 2014. However, an actual crater has not been found yet.
So what's next? Well, an asteroid five miles or wider would trigger another mass extinction, like with the dinosaurs. The scary part? The Kuiper Belt, a ring of objects just beyond Neptune, contains about 100,000 objects more than 50 miles in diameter, many of which fall toward the Sun every year. Yikes.
On one last note, the Moon was created by a large asteroid the size of Mars smashing into a young Earth, and the debris created the Moon in a week. This is what probably happened:
Anyway, thanks for reading! Make sure to comment! Again, I'll try to be more active in the blog. Next time, we'll talk about biology, so check in next time!
Until next time,
Ben's jamin'
Benjamin
P.S. Make sure you check out John's math blog at http://johncooksmathblog.blogspot.com.
I'm sorry for not updating my blog recently. In the future, I will try to be better about doing something every day, or at least something close to it. So, without further ado, today's entry!
Today is Sunday, but this is going to be an apocalyptic blog. This topic is more related to astronomy than geology, like last time. This event has also happened before, and when it did, it wiped out Earth's dominant species. Asteroids!
The impact that we remember is the one that occurred in Russia on February 15, 2013. The damage didn't come from the meteor hitting the Earth, but rather an explosion caused by the friction of the meteor traveling through the atmosphere. Even so, the energy released was equivalent to 500 kilotons tons of TNT, or about 25 times more powerful than Little Boy, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
The most powerful strike in recorded history happened in Russia as well (I know, they have bad luck). Known as the Tungunka event, its destruction was caused by the meteor bursting in mid-air rather than colliding with the ground. The explosion that occurred on June 30th, 1908 released the same energy as 30 megatons of TNT, or 1,000 times greater than Little Boy, which was enough to flatten around 80 million tress around the impact site.
However, the most powerful impact ever has probably happened about 3.26 billion years ago. The meteor was probably about 30 miles wide., Scientists have only found evidence of the impact in South Africa in 2014. However, an actual crater has not been found yet.
So what's next? Well, an asteroid five miles or wider would trigger another mass extinction, like with the dinosaurs. The scary part? The Kuiper Belt, a ring of objects just beyond Neptune, contains about 100,000 objects more than 50 miles in diameter, many of which fall toward the Sun every year. Yikes.
On one last note, the Moon was created by a large asteroid the size of Mars smashing into a young Earth, and the debris created the Moon in a week. This is what probably happened:
Until next time,
Ben's jamin'
Benjamin
P.S. Make sure you check out John's math blog at http://johncooksmathblog.blogspot.com.
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