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Venus Observations
ANU 40" Telescope
Siding Spring |
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Even to this day, the exact age of the Earth is not known exactly. One of the primary reasons
for this, is that all of the original surface has recycled and destroyed by the process of 'plate tectonics'.
Ancient rocks dating to 3.5 billion years have been recovered from various locations worldwide, with some
examples discovered in Western Australia - dated to 3.4 - 3.6 billion years. The oldest rocks thus found so
far was recovered the Acasta Gneisses in northwestern Canada near Great Slave Lake - dated to 4.03 billion
years. These rocks are dated by a number of radiometric dating methods and the consistency of the results give
scientists confidence that the ages are correct to within a few percent.
During the missions to the moon, a number |
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of
Lunar rocks were returned - by using the same dating process, the oldest dated sample provided a window of 4.4
to 4.5 billions years. The benefit of samples from our nearest neigbour is that they have not been subjected
to plate tectonic movement. This provides a solid case for dating the moon to 4.5 billion years. The age
of 4.54 billion years found for the Solar System and Earth is consistent with current calculations of 11 to 13
billion years for the age of the Milky Way Galaxy, based on the stage of evolution of globular cluster stars,
and the age of 10 to 15 billion years for the age of the Universe, based on the recession of distant galaxies.
(Dalrymple, Brent, 1991, The Age of the Earth:
Stanford, Calif., Stanford Uni. Press, 474 p) |
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A very large number of meteoroids enter the Earth's atmosphere each day amounting to more than a hundred tons of
material. But they are almost all very small, just a few milligrams each. Only the largest ones ever reach the
surface to become meteorites. The largest found meteorite (Hoba, in Namibia) weighs 60 tons.
The average meteoroid enters the atmosphere at between 10 and 70 km/sec. But all but the very largest are
quickly decelerated to a few hundred km/hour by atmospheric friction and hit the Earth's surface with very little
fanfare.
(Ref. Source) |
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| Last
Remnant Of Moon Strikes Earth |
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| Earth
coorbital asteroid 2002 AA29 |
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The last such mass extinction led to the demise of the dinosaurs and has been found to
have coincided with a large asteroid impact; this is the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) extinction event. There is
no solid evidence of impacts leading to the four other major mass extinction's, though many scientists assume
that they are at least related to impacts.
Probably the most convincing evidence for a worldwide catastrophe was the discovery of the crater which
has since been named Chicxulub Crater. This so-called smoking gun is centered on the Yucatan Peninsula of
Mexico and was discovered by Tony Camargo and Glen Pentfield while working as geophysicists for the Mexican
oil company PEMEX. What they reported as a circular feature later turned out to be a crater estimated to be
180 kilometers in diameter. Other researchers would later find that the end-Cretaceous extinction event that
wiped out the dinosaurs had lasted for thousands of years instead of millions of years as had previously been
thought. This would be the final piece of evidence that convinced the vast majority of scientists that this
extinction resulted from a point event that is most probably an extra-terrestrial impact and not from
increased volcanism and climate change (which would spread its main effect over a much longer time
period). (Ref.
Source) |
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| The Peekskill
Meteorite, Oct. 1992 |
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These mass extinction's are listed as: (1) Ordovician-Silurian extinction approx. 439 million years ago.
(2) Late Devonian extinction, 360 million years ago. (3) Permian-Triassic extinction, approx. 251
million years ago. (4) End Triassic extinction, roughly 199 million ~ 214 million years ago. (5)
Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction, approx. 65 million years ago.
Many explanations for these extinction's through likely cometary impacts have been investigated. However,
as an alternative theory, I propose the possibility of a moon similar (in compostion) to Uranus's 470 kilometer
Miranda once having been captured into orbit around the Earth. This small moon, once described as being designed
by 'committee' (by Dr. Caroline Porco - NASA) having been subjected to an incomplete accretion process,
having run out of internal heat, that is, before all the heavy material could actually sink to the centre. A moon
like this could be easily assessed suspect to easy dis-assemble-ation by a strong tidal pull.
If a moon similar to this had been capture by the Earth, is it possible for this process (of breakup) to
have happened over hundreds of millions of years, the lighter icy-rock amalgamated (composite) material falling
first heavier pieces falling periodically causing known extinction cycles ?
This site examines that possibility, looks at the planet size object that struck the Earth, its possible
orbit, makeup and later debris accretion into our moon.
This paper is divided up into seven 'titled' topics: 1. A Fiery Encounter
/ 2. A Fateful Rendezvous / 3. A Celestial
Visitor / 4. Throes Of Gravitational Tides / 5. Circles Of Unrest
/ 6. The Impact Extinction's / 7. A Final Requiem. |
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