Comments on: Death by meteorite

By: Are we alone? - Science Forums

Are we alone? - Science Forums — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 05:15:48 +0000

[...] (see the Tunguska link for how often and how big) If it was likely it would happen regularly. Death by meteorite | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine As for "are we alone", I would say absolutely not, the question is not are we alone but [...]

By: Delta Flight 253: We Love to Freak and It Shows : Edward Champion’s Reluctant Habits

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:58:36 +0000

[...] Chances that you will be killed by an asteroid: 1 in 700,000. (From astronomer Alan Harris, as reported at Discover) [...]

By: What Are Your Chances of Winning the Lottery? | Following The Goods

What Are Your Chances of Winning the Lottery? | Following The Goods — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:19:46 +0000

[...] a 1 in 50,000 chance of becoming a professional athlete, a 1 in 700,000 chance of being killed by a meteorite, and a 1 in 118,351 chance of dying due to a medical [...]

By: random guy

random guy — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:52:34 +0000

im not sure if anyone mentioned this (becuase there was far to much to read) but not only that from space our planet appears to be coverd in nats.From broken satalites and other debris so we have a sort of shield but not to mention(again) that we have comet swallowers(Gas Gaints(Iupitar,Satarn,Neptune,Uranis) in our solar system who will most likly prevent most celestial bombardment.By (with there gravity) pulling of comets and larger meators(from out of our sytem)into them selves or out of our way.

By: Melvin Goldstein

Melvin Goldstein — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:46:32 +0000

Question: question 12 in “Thinking Physics” – page 259
Inside a warm damp cave completely sealed off from the outside world could life flourish indefinitely?

Answer: No life forms could flourish indefinitely. In an isolated system, entropy always increases. Life tries to push entropy in the opposite direction. When life is created, entropy decreases in the cave but nature demands a greater entropy increase offset. The cave, being sealed, would mean that entropy would reach its max, thus energy necessary to sustain and generate new life would be unavailable. Maybe we should learn a lesson from this. Available energy is mandatory. Wealth may equate to available energy. If you want to live in a nation that is prospering make sure that its available energy supply is abundant.

Entropy is one of “Physics Foibles”

By: StevoR

StevoR — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 13:11:50 +0000

Thanks Tom.

Your answers are appreciated.

By: Tom Marking

Tom Marking — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:49:34 +0000

@StevoR: “slamming the Near Earth Asteroids into Venus and using that as a terraforming tool either?”

The problem is how much of the planetary atmosphere actually gets ejected from the planet? For impactors less than ~100 km the answer is probably not much. The ejecta travel through the atmosphere and may reach escape velocity. That does not necessarily mean that they impart such a velocity to the gas molecules themselves.