Scientists Like Deer Caught in Headlights with new Asteroid Belt object

Top scientists at NASA have been unable to categorize a newly discovered Asteroid Belt object known as P/2010 A2 (LINEAR) . It appears to be the result of two or more asteroids and/or meteoroids colliding, according to sources.

This raises the question of deflected objects resulting in major Impact Events from a pool ball effect (3-dimensional, interplanetary pool). The mathematics are obviously quite complicated and more research will be needed to produce a working model of asteroid/meteoroid collisions.

April 6, 2011 -- 8:22 PM; Tullahoma, Tennessee

The NASA Meteoroid Environment Office in conjunction with the University of Tennessee Space Institute and the Georgia-based Walker County Science Center joined forces to monitor and analyze a meteoroid that was estimated to be 2 feet in diameter, 200 pounds, with a velocity of 32,400 mph (9 miles per second). The object reportedly did not explode and is thought to have broken up and rained small fragments somewhere near the Kentucky border. This announcement has triggered a search for the fragments. Happy hunting!

Source: Space Daily (SpaceDaily.com)
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Meteoroid Airburst, Park Forest, Illinois, March 27, 2003

If you were asleep, just before midnight in your Park Forest home, you may have been awakened by a series of explosions. At least one 13 year old boy did not wake up to the noise, but achieved some level of situational awareness when a 5 pound rock crashed through the ceiling of his room and rolled across the floor, a few feet from his bed.
In addition to the obvious physical evidence of multiple building and vehicle strikes, which were the fragments from the air burst and became meteorites upon impact, the event comes complete with video and was observed first-hand by local scientists.

Eventually, we will have injuries from these events, and we may develop a plan to predict them and give a warning to those on the ground. One positive indication is the Torino Impact Hazard Scale which is published on the NASA website. It will be sad day if an event of this type causes injury or death, before we come up with a plan to mitigate the effects and react appropriately.

Tunguska the Benchmark

     On June 30, 1908, above a remote area of Siberia, a rock from space, about half a football field in size, estimated to be travelling at 33,500 mph impacted the atmosphere of earth at an altitude of about 5 miles. Because of the particular type of rock, in terms of density and composition, the pressure of impact caused the object to detonate. It is rare for such things to happen because the conditions have to be just right, from the angle of entry to the velocity and density of the object. The result of this event produced an explosion estimated to have been an unbelievable 185 times the force of the (28 kiloton) bomb that destroyed the city of Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.