Falling Planet

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 13 January 1938, Page 9

Falling Planet

Notes on lhe News

A recent message reported how, according to the South African Union Astronomer. Dr. H. W. Wood of Johannesburg observatory the earth had a “close shave” (by 5J hours) from being hit by a baby planet some miles in extent. “Until about three years ago astronomers believed that the earth in its annual journey around the sun passed through a region free from other material,” an Auckland amateur astronomer told the “Herald.” “But then, in rapid succession, tiny objects were discovered which passed the earth at comparative close distances In 1936 M. Delporte and Dr. Reinmuth discovered small asteroids revolving in remarkable orbits, more closely approximating to those of comets than of asteroids, for the asteroids had been believed to be confined to a zone lying mainly between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. “The new objects, however, came much closer to the sun. Delporte’s object moving in almost to the orbit of Mercury, passing the earth on 7th February, 1936, at a distance of 8,000,000 miles. “The Reinmuth asteroid described in the cablegram, however, has shattered that astronomical record, passing at less than twice the moon’s distance from us. Apparently the better optical equipment and the keener scrutiny of the heavens by astronomers has given us this knowledge of the narrow escapes from disaster the earth has had in recent years. Possibly similar close approaches to small planetary objects have been occurring unnoticed throughout the history of the earth. “The earth’s narrow escape from collision in October,” continued the astronomer, “makes us wonder just what would happen if an encounter actually occurred. There is, in Arizona, a large crater dug out of the desert which some astronomers believe to be the scar of such a collision. The country for miles around is littered with meteoric iron and a pit three-quarters of a mile in diameter has been hollowed out of the ground by the force of the explosion. “The Arizona crater, however, may have been the product of a large meteorite. An asteroid, several hundred times larger, would create correspondly greater havoc if it struck an inhabited region of the globe. “A city of the size of Auckland probably would be wiped cut by the impact of such a body in an instant, while the air blast of its rapid approach, as it would travel with a velocity of many miles a second, might devastate considerably greater areas “Fortunately, no such disaster has occurred to the earth in historic times, and we can only hope that future bodies will not approach any closer than the Reinmuth object. If such a body did strike the earth it is quite possible that it would not be seen until within an hour or so of the impact, for even at a distance of only 400,000 miles such a body would remain only a faint telescopic object.”