METEORITES & SOLAR STORMS
In this video I am going to outline some information about meteorites and solar storms, what they are, the occurrence and impact of these events. The damage that may occur if these events take place along with some basic actions community members can undertake.
Meteorites are objects that originate in outer space like comets or asteroids.
It should be noted that an object still out in space may either be called an asteroid or a comet but when it falls to Earth through our atmosphere, we refer to it as a ‘meteorite’.
Meteorite strikes could pose a danger to the community
For example, in the past a meteorite struck Western Australia as highlighted here, the Wolfe Creek crater. The crater is approx. 900m wide and 60 metres deep and formed approximately 300,000 years ago when struck by a meteorite.
Around the Earth, there are at least 176 known meteorite impact craters. Australia has at least 30 of these as shown on this diagram. This is not because Australia is more at risk from being struck – more that the continent represents a significant land area – and therefore, is a target – on the surface of the Earth
The Australian continent is very geologically stable and
this means the evidence for past impacts have not eroded away or been covered up. Impacts may be preserved on our land surface for a very long time.
No impacts have occurred over the past 200 years, but Aboriginal and Indigenous people have oral histories of objects falling from the sky and striking the land that provide insight in to their experience of meteorites before Europeans arrived.
Past meteorite impacts have left visible scars in the land surface that we can still see today
What do we do if meteorite was to affect Australia?
The Australian government does not have a
Meteorite impact monitoring or warning system, however we benefit from
The ‘Near Earth Object (NEO) Program’
Operated by NASA in the USA. NEO is identifies and tracks space objects including asteroids and comets that could collide with the Earth.
If the NEO program detected an asteroid or comet that was calculated to eventually fall to Earth as a meteorite, Australian authorities would be notified.
In Australia, we do not have specific meteorite disaster
Guidelines as we have not experienced such an event. The Federal government would develop a set of procedures for communities and emergency services to follow. It is likely a national agency such as Geoscience Australia would be tasked with providing scientific information about the hazard and existing emergency services including the police and military would possibly be drafted in to help communities prepare.
Now I will move on to discuss solar storms,
also known as solar flares.
What is solar storm? Our sun is a boiling, fiery star and
from time to time, massive flares erupt from the sun.
There are a number of different processes that are associated with solar storms. Of greatest impact are 'coronal mass ejections’ or CME's. A CME – a gigantic mass of plasma belches out from the sun at extremely high velocity. A large solar storm or CME directed straight at the Earth would be highly disruptive – even devastating in that the electrical charges associated with the CME could damage electrical transformers and power distribution, interrupting satellite communication systems and telecommunication networks.
Such an event could be catastrophic.
Research suggests a large solar
storm event occurred in 1859.
Luckily enough, back then we did not rely on technologies in the same way we do today.
Recent research suggests a large event (like the one that struck Earth in 1859) could cause US$2 trillion worth of damage and take more than a decade to recover from.
What would we do if a solar storm struck us?
There’s nothing we can do to prevent it. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology monitor and warn for major space solar storms and if one were likely they would issue alerts and warnings by advising the Office of the Prime Minister, and Federal Disaster Management personnel would be brought together to determine a suitable course of action.
The community would be informed and it would be important that
we all comply with directions issued by the relevant authorities.
This would be important especially because technology may not be able to function.
In summary,
Australia has been affected many times in the past by meteorite strikes, therefore such an event may happen again in the future.
If international authorities estimated a meteorite might strike Australia, the Federal government would begin a process of preparation and community warning.
BOM monitor for solar storms, and would inform government authorities so they could undertake a process of preparation and inform the community.
If either a meteorite or solar storm event were to occur, it would be necessary for everyone to work together to respond effectively