FALLING PLANET

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22932, 10 January 1938, Page 9

FALLING PLANET

EARTH IN DANGERNEARLY A COLLISION ASTRONOMERS EXCITED OCCURRENCE IN OCTOBER By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received January 9, 7.10 p.m.) . ; CAPETOWN. Jape's How the world narrowly missed a major terrestrial accident in October is disclosed by the Union Astrono mer, Dr. H. W. Wood, of Johannesburg Observatory. He" explained th£t when Dr. Reinmuth, an astronomer at the Heidelberg Obervatory, photographed a strange body in the skies he cabled the information to South Africa, Tyhere'it was also photographed. • Apparently the baby planet, probably -only a few miles in diameter,, on October 25 was moving straight ioward the earth. J

For five days disaster grew nearer but nobody cared as nobody knew that the planet would pass the. earth on October 30 at the small astronomical distance of 400,000 miles." This is the nearest the earth has ever been to a collision with another body in the period covered by astronomical observations. This is regarded. as a "close shave" by the South African astronomers, who added that if the . body had , struck the earth it "might 6omewhat have altered the international situation."

The South African, astronoiners are still conferring with their European and American confreres " regarding the pjanet, which has been christened "Reinmuth. 1937" in honour of its discoverer.. ; ■.

In a later message Dr. Wood recalled how he and 30 other astronomers" excitedly watched through giantf telescopes the approach of the baby , planet, which missed the earth by 5£ hours.

"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," said an Auckland amateur astronomer last evening. '"But then, in rapid succession, tiny objects were discovered which passed the earth at comparatively close distances. In 1936 M. Delporte and Dr. Reinmuth discovered small asteroids revolving in remarkable orbits, more closely.' approxi- . mating 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 February 7, 1936, at a distance of 8,000,000 miles. * "The Reinmuth asteroid described in the cablegram, however, has shattered that astronomical passing at less than twice the mtron'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 escapes from collision in October," "Continued the astronomer, "makes us wonder . just what would happen if an encounter actr uy occurred. There is, in Arizona, a i.vrge 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 meteorio iron and' a pit three-quarters of a* mile in diameter has been hollowed .out of the ground by the force of the explosion.' - " " r "The Arizona: crater,; however, may have been the product of a' large meteorite. An asteroid, "several hundred times larger, would <*eate correspondingly greater havoc ix it struck an inhabitea region of the globe. "A city of the size of Auckland probably would be wiped out by the impact of such a body in an inst&nt, 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 obcurred 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 bodv 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;"