Poems and Thoughts    by Frank Maurer

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There was Chicxulub and now Nadir? Why can't freakin' science just leave things be!? We are aware of the 'Chicxulub' meteor, 66 million years ago, Leaving a 124 mile-wide crater under the Gulf of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, and basically wiping out the dinosaurs. (But, of course, birds are still around!) As has been assumed, this asteroid acted alone. But wait--another 5 mile-wide crater, formed at around the same time, Has been found off the coast of West Africa and named the Nadir Crater. The rim of the crater itself is about 9,200 meters wide, With 22,000 meters of concentric circles called the brim. The approaching 450-500 meter-wide asteroid became a fireball, Twentyfour to 25 times the size of our sun, Hitting the Earth at about 72,00 km per hour. Along with this was a 70 magnitude earthquake. Of course, it is unusual to have two large impacts so close in time, Both occurring at the end of the Cretaceous period, The period when the dinosaurs became extinct. Today Bennu, about the same size as the Nadir asteroid, Is currently the most hazardous object orbiting near Earth. With a probability of 1 in 2,700, Bennu could hit Earth about September 2182. By that time the art of nudging asteroids out of orbit may be totally perfected !?! Frank Maurer 13 October 2024 1315 Hours.