NOVA PBS "Origins"

[tom_hobbes]

<font color="yellow">About 20 comets, weighing as much as 20,000 to 40,000 kg are still absorbed in Earth's atmosphere every minute!</font><br /><br />Wow, that's a rather startling statistic! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#339966"> I wish I could remember<br /> But my selective memory<br /> Won't let me</font><font size="2" color="#99cc00"> </font><font size="3" color="#339966"><font size="2">- </font></font><font size="1" color="#339966">Mark Oliver Everett</font></p><p> </p> </div>

 

[qzzq]

It is quite startling, but...debated. 20 to 40 tons may sound like a lot, you should really imagine something the size of a house. <br /><br />This is the most recent article I found in the theory:<br /><br />From Space Daily:<ul type="square">UI Researcher Finds New Evidence For Small Comet Theory<br /><br />In a paper published in the March 1, 2001 issue of the American Geophysical Union's Journal of Geophysical Research, University of Iowa Physics Professor Louis A. Frank, says that he has found new evidence to support his theory that the water in Earth's oceans arrived by way of small snow comets.<br /><br />Frank reports that he obtained pictures of nine small comets among 1,500 images made between October 1998 and May 1999 using the Iowa Robotic Observatory (IRO) located at the Winer facility near Sonoita, Ariz.<br /><br />In addition, he says that the possibility of the images being due to "noise," or electronic interference, on the telescope's video screens was eliminated by operating the telescope in such a manner as to ensure that real objects were recorded in the images.<br /><br />...<br /><br />The small comet theory, developed in 1986 with UI research scientist John Sigwarth from data gathered using the Dynamics Explorer 1 satellite, holds that about 20 snow comets weighing 20 to 40 tons each disintegrate in the Earth's atmosphere every minute. Over the lifetime of our planet, the comets would have accounted for virtually all of the Earth's water.</ul><br /><br />This article is from 2001. So that's why I was wondering whether anyone has more recent news on this subject. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p>***</p> </div>

 

[mtrotto7287]

my friend just gave me his tape of this show, so i can finally watch it! from what you guys have been saying- i think i will learn a TON about our universe and current studies of it

 

[yurkin]

If anyone hasn't seen it, it can be downloaded here.<br />It’s where I got my copy. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br />http://www.suprnova.org/<br />