Cosmic Snowballs

[RICHARD ROMEO]

first we had malevolent cheeses now...

Cosmic Snowballs Bombard Upper Atmosphere

WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Giant cosmic snowballs are bombarding the upper 
atmosphere, then
breaking up, adding water to Earth's oceans and possibly nurturing life 
on the planet, scientists
reported Wednesday. 

The snowballs are actually small comets about 40 feet in diameter, which 
appear to be streaking
toward Earth in a steady stream. 

However, according to data provided by NASA's Polar satellite, the 
snowballs are no danger to
people on Earth or to astronauts, spacecraft or airplanes because they 
break up at altitudes from
600 miles to 15,000 miles. 

At that height, the snowballs break up first into fragments and then 
exposure to sunlight vaporizes
the fragments into vast clouds which are in turn dispersed by winds. 

These cometary clouds eventually blend with normal weather systems and 
cosmic rain mixes with
the common variety, according to Louis Frank of the University of Iowa, 
who first theorized about
the phenomenon in 1986. 

"This relatively gentle 'cosmic rain' -- which possibly contains simple 
organic compounds -- may
well have nurtured the development of life on our planet," Frank said in 
a statement. 

The cosmic rain from these small comets accounts for only about one 
ten-thousandth of an inch of
water on Earth each year, scientists from the National Aeronautics and 
Space Administration said. 

The Polar satellite, which orbits high above the Arctic Circle, tracked 
the snowballs as they
disintegrated, and using a filter that detects visible light emitted by 
water molecules, Frank
determined that the snowballs consist mainly of water. 

Scientists have long believed that regular-sized comets, such as this 
year's clearly visible Comet
Hale-Bopp, are made up largely of water ice and cosmic dust. 

The finding that these mini-comets also contain water and that they are 
headed for Earth at a
furious rate -- possibly thousands each day -- bolster Frank's earlier 
theory about the cause of
what appeared to be holes in the atmosphere. 

Frank theorized in 1986 that these apparent holes were caused by the 
disintegration of small
comets in the upper atmosphere, but many colleagues discounted the theory 
and attributed the
apparent holes to an instrumental problem. 

Frank's findings were presented Wednesday at a meeting of the American 
Geophysical Union in
Baltimore. 


    


Richard Romeo
Coordinator of Cooperating Collections
The Foundation Center-NYC
212-807-2417
rromeo at fdncenter.org