coincidences are odd
Meteors <or asteroids or meteorites … or just ‘big heavy rocks’ to us laypeople> are hitting the earth and just missing earth.
Two in one day as a matter of fact.
Coincidence?
We see one.
We don’t see another.
Same day?
Whoda thunk?
The one we didn’t see coming.
Hundreds of people in Russia were injured after a huge meteorite flared in the sky above the city.
The one we see coming.
It is gonna miss us and won’t even smash some of the unused satellite garbage we would have actually paid it to smash.
So … is this two meteors in one day a coincidence?
One source suggested the odds are 5.5 million to one that something like this happened <in other words … you have a better chance of winning the super Lotto than this happening>.
But.
In my pea like brain … the flyby of a big floating rock in space would seem to have a likelihood to probably drag a few friends <smaller rocks> along for the ride.
You would think some in front, some behind and some just hanging around for a look-see.
And if the friends weren’t paying attention … well … Doh! … face plant into planet Earth <just a reminder for all of us to pay attention to what is in front of us>.
Logic <well … at least mine> would seem like this Russia incident wasn’t just a coincidence.
But.
That is my non NASA pea-like brain.
Anyway.
I did some research.
Here is what some smart scientist like planetary guy said in the Guardian:
– Why did we not see this coming?
The Russian meteorite hit during the daytime. The glare of the sun masked its approach, like a fighter pilot using the sun to blind an enemy to the attack. There could be thousands of asteroids that orbit closer to the sun than the Earth, approaching our planet only occasionally and always from “out of the sun”. They are virtually impossible to spot from Earth because they are always masked by daylight. Only a space telescope could see these effectively.
– Is it connected with the asteroid close pass on Friday night?
No, the Royal Astronomical Society in London and the European Space Agency in Darmstadt, Germany, both say that the approach of Friday morning’s strike is unrelated to the approach of space rock 2012 DA14, which will draw extremely close to Earth on Friday night. According to Nasa’s Near-Earth Object Observation Programme, an asteroid like 2012 DA14 flies this close on average only once every 40 years – although it will still be some 17,100 miles above our heads. Nevertheless, this is closer to the Earth than many artificial satellites.
– How rare is this sort of event?
Around 40,000 tonnes of space rocks fall to Earth every year, mostly in the form of dust and relatively small meteorites. The last time something major struck the Earth was in 1908, when an asteroid about 50 metres across exploded in the air above the Tunguska region of Siberia. It flattened forests over an area of hundreds of square miles. Friday morning’s event was a tiny fraction of this magnitude. Something like this probably happens every decade but usually takes place over an unpopulated area.
Most of the Earth’s surface is uninhabited by humans, so meteorites usually fall over desolate areas or the oceans.
I tell you.
I am not really a coincidence guy.
Especially when the odds were so bad this happening.
But.
I will let the smarter folk think about this shit and wear a hard hat for the next couple of days.
If you are out tonight … do not just look both ways … but up.
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