There is a meteorite called 2012 TTF5 of up to 270 meters due to miss Earth by 21 times the distance to the Moon on September 24. That's a long way away and it's not that big - every month we get several asteroids that big that do flybys of Earth and often closer than that.
For instance, in October, 36 flybys are predicted, some of them very small or very distant or both, but some are this size or larger and closer.
In fact, on October 4th, there's one more than double the size , 2015 FS332, 580 meters to 1.3 km in diameter, which will miss Earth by 18.5 times the distance to the Moon.
Last January there was a meteorite one and a half times the size of of 2012 TT5 which passed by at a little over three times the size of the Moon.
We get dozens of these flybys every month. But Earth is really small, and they generally pass further away than the distance to the Moon, so very far away too.
CERN is colliding together protons in the LHC. This is something that happens naturally in the atmosphere at far higher energies than the ones sed by CERN. There are theories that say that CERN could create mini black holes - which in the public mind is associated with wormholes, so she may be thinking about that. But if it does, it means these are also formed in the upper atmosphere and are bombarding Earth all the time. But they cause no harm. That's probably because they form for only a fraction of a second (if they exist) and then fall apart again by releasing "Hawking radiation". That's the leading theory at present of what would happen to mini back holes.
Of course nobody knows for sure as nobody has ever seen mini black holes or Hawking energy. They may not exist at all in our universe, or may be far harder to form than this. If we had to go by theory, we couldn't say CERN is safe. But because it duplicates conditions that happen naturally in space, we can say it is safe.
You might think - why do we need to do it in the LHC then. (Large Hadron Collider, operated in CERN)? Why not just watch the sky?
Well scientists do look at those collisions in the sky also. The problem is thye happen in the upper atmosphere, may be kilometers away from your telescope horizontally, and can't be predicted. While in the LHC, you produce, actually much lower energy collisions than those very energetic ones in the upper atmosphere - but you produce them on demand, so can position big complex machines as big as a multi-story house around the place where the collisions are happening.
Trying to watch these proton - to proton collisions in the upper atmosphere is a bit like trying to do a medical scan of someone falling out of the sky in a parachute several kilometers away. You could perhaps find out something, but it would be very low resolution and you'd be hard pushed to spot much internal structure at all.
See also my: September 24th, 2015 - Just Another Day In Space - Asteroid Flybys, "Blood Moons" And Armageddon Demystified
For instance, in October, 36 flybys are predicted, some of them very small or very distant or both, but some are this size or larger and closer.
In fact, on October 4th, there's one more than double the size , 2015 FS332, 580 meters to 1.3 km in diameter, which will miss Earth by 18.5 times the distance to the Moon.
Last January there was a meteorite one and a half times the size of of 2012 TT5 which passed by at a little over three times the size of the Moon.
We get dozens of these flybys every month. But Earth is really small, and they generally pass further away than the distance to the Moon, so very far away too.
CERN is colliding together protons in the LHC. This is something that happens naturally in the atmosphere at far higher energies than the ones sed by CERN. There are theories that say that CERN could create mini black holes - which in the public mind is associated with wormholes, so she may be thinking about that. But if it does, it means these are also formed in the upper atmosphere and are bombarding Earth all the time. But they cause no harm. That's probably because they form for only a fraction of a second (if they exist) and then fall apart again by releasing "Hawking radiation". That's the leading theory at present of what would happen to mini back holes.
Of course nobody knows for sure as nobody has ever seen mini black holes or Hawking energy. They may not exist at all in our universe, or may be far harder to form than this. If we had to go by theory, we couldn't say CERN is safe. But because it duplicates conditions that happen naturally in space, we can say it is safe.
You might think - why do we need to do it in the LHC then. (Large Hadron Collider, operated in CERN)? Why not just watch the sky?
Well scientists do look at those collisions in the sky also. The problem is thye happen in the upper atmosphere, may be kilometers away from your telescope horizontally, and can't be predicted. While in the LHC, you produce, actually much lower energy collisions than those very energetic ones in the upper atmosphere - but you produce them on demand, so can position big complex machines as big as a multi-story house around the place where the collisions are happening.
Trying to watch these proton - to proton collisions in the upper atmosphere is a bit like trying to do a medical scan of someone falling out of the sky in a parachute several kilometers away. You could perhaps find out something, but it would be very low resolution and you'd be hard pushed to spot much internal structure at all.
See also my: September 24th, 2015 - Just Another Day In Space - Asteroid Flybys, "Blood Moons" And Armageddon Demystified
About the Author
Robert Walker
Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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