From: Dani Eder (danielravennest@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Dec 13 2005 - 16:05:50 MST
I was an astrophysics major in college. The correct
terms
are meteoroid while it is in space, meteor when it is
bright
entering the atmosphere, and meteorite when what is
left
is found on the ground.
Bolides (note spelling) are particularly bright and
long
lasting meteors, possibly with audible effects.
Meteoroids are small particles that approach the
Earth.
Big objects in solar orbit are called asteroids. I
don't
know if there is an official size limit, but I have
seen
20 meter objects passing close to the Earth described
as
asteroids. Anything much bigger than that would
certainly
be in the asteroid class.
The largest object in the inner asteroid belt - 1
Ceres -
is 1000 km in diameter. There are arguments over
whether
Pluto should be considered a planet or merely the
largest
of the Kuiper Belt objects which exist in the area
just
outside Neptune's orbit.
Daniel
--- Olie L <neomorphy@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
to call a
> small planet hitting another planet a "meteorite" -
> it would be a boloid.
> However, it seems that this term is neither in the
> dictionary, nor on
> particularly many webpages, so it's not a common use
> term. Any astro
> experts?
>
> ...
>
> Because (1) It might be useful for certain
> futurology purposes, and even
> planning; and (2) I Have something of a fondness
> for contemplating disaster
> scenarios; I would be interested to see a list of
> possible events that
> would have a significant impact on society, with one
> key measure being AI
> development.
>
> Furthermore, I would be interested to put together
> some informed opinions
> about the probability of some disaster scenarios.
> If the predictions are
> any good, they might be useful for developing
> policies, and whether the risk
> of pushing one tech might be offset the the benefits
> of averting a different
> risk- see the discussions on:
>
> Re: [sl4] Singularity, "happiness", suffering, Mars
>
> from back in Late September '05
>
> Note that things don't have to be existential risks
> to be globally
> problematic and singularity relevant... For
> instance, although economic
> stagnation is clearly not an existential risk, if
> there is enough economic
> stagnation, it could seriously interrupt AI
> development and consequently FAI
> singularity development, and consequently reduce our
> ability to address real
> existential risks.
>
> Another thing: although regional risks won't stop
> humanity, they are serious
> concerns for AI development. F'rinstance, if a
> supervolcano - particularly
> Yosemite - goes off, the US economy is rooted. The
> chances of this
> happening are, what, in the order of 3E-06 per year
> (once every three
> hundred thousand years or so)? Now, a supervolcano
> won't be a big issue for
> the whole of humanity, but if the US economy is
> kaput, it's going to wreck
> the global economy, and put a tangible dampener on
> AI development. How
> much? Well, just say it put FAI development back 20
> years (blind
> conjecture), that's 20 extra years of risk of
> another catastrophy that
> could... you get the picture.
>
> -- Olie
>
> >From: BillK <pharos@gmail.com>
> >Reply-To: sl4@sl4.org
> >To: sl4@sl4.org
> >Subject: Re: List of envisioned global catastrophic
> risks
> >Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 09:59:59 +0000
> >
> >On 12/12/05, Tyler Emerson wrote:
> > >
> > > I recall seeing a long list of envisioned GCRs.
> Anyone know the URL?
> > >
> >
> >You might be thinking of
> ><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_civilization>
> >
> >BillK
>
>
>
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