Environmental News

Discussion in 'Environmental Discussion' started by tochatihu, Oct 22, 2015.

  1. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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  2. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i think i recently read a book like that. i wish i could remember the name, but it wasn't the one that sued the movie for stealing their idea.
    i can't find it, so i must be misremembering
     
  4. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    "As an observer and operations engineer at the Catalina Sky Survey, a NASA-funded planetary defense program that utilizes the telescopes atop the Santa Catalina Mountains, he [David Rankin] spends hours looking for dangerous rocks that could cause catastrophic damage to Earth."

    Yes, the Catalina Sky Survey has been the greatest producer in the search for Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs), though a separate group named Pan-STARRS has also been a major producer over the past decade:

    Screenshot 2026-01-12 210855.jpg

    Though the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory might soon take the lead.

    Total known NEAs have been growing exponentially for a long time, but the discovery rate of the really big ones, over 1 km size, has dropped very sharply, from a peak of 79 in year 2000, to just 2 each in 2024 and 2025, statistically suggesting that most have already been found. The rate for rocks in the range of 140-1000 m, also quite serious, still appears stable, suggesting lots more to be found. The major growth now is in finding the little ones, under 140 meters.


    Screenshot 2026-01-12 210946.jpg

    Screenshot 2026-01-12 210920.jpg


    I just might get a chance to stop by the Mt. Lemmon observatory later this month. Original planned to ski there while in town for an unrelated event, but snow is seriously lacking, as in totally absent. So instead, make some Lemmonade . . .
     
    #3024 fuzzy1, Jan 13, 2026 at 12:21 AM
    Last edited: Jan 13, 2026 at 12:28 AM
    tochatihu likes this.
  5. BiomedO1

    BiomedO1 Senior Member

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    I didn't know where to drop this, so feel free to move it to an appropriate thread. As an old timer, I thought I was just cynical - didn't think I was correct?? But who knows; It's YouTube.....
     
  6. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Vera Rubin Observatory is in instrument startup phase and is already finding new rocks out there. It will indeed bust this field wide open.

    @fuzzy1 second image above reminds me of a procedure that arises in sampling for many areas of ecology. When the graph is still rising to the right, one's sampling remains incomplete.

    --
    If he can talk about Lemmonade, I can suggest that new observatory can bring Veracity to this field.
     
  7. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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  8. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    As a teen in the late '60s & loving scuba, friends & i went diving off a Palos Verdes area in Calif - closed off due to land & streets sinking & shifting. It appears it continues to this day
    Rancho Palos Verdes landslide moves as much as 4 inches a week, new NASA data shows | FOX 11 Los Angeles

    Nature; it likes taking back where we live our footprints. It'll be no surprise how quickly PCH again starts facing the same effects.