4 ms·

Is there any risk of contaminating Earth with something “not good” that normally would burn up when it entered our atmosphere

barkingcat 6y ago
ie some remnants of the venom symbiote
- jgbmlg 6y ago
  Does it seem like the first reel of a disaster movie?
ISL 6y ago
See: Andromeda Strain.
Arnavion 6y ago
The amount of space rock that naturally falls onto the Earth and reaches the ground is measured in tons per day.
- EE84M3i 6y ago
  Really? That's just the ground? Is it mostly a few bigger ones? I guess 1 ton of rock isn't that much, but this is still a pretty surprising fact.
  - Arnavion 6y ago
    Just to be clear, I don't mean "reaches the ground as opposed to falling in the oceans", I mean "reaches the ground as opposed to burning up in the atmosphere". If we include the space rock that burns up in the atmosphere that amount is measured in the hundreds or thousands of tons per day. There's a lot of rock in space, and the Earth is a big target. Tons per day is not a lot when compared to the surface area available for it to land on.
- kzrdude 6y ago
  Yes but that is disinfected by heat, these rocks were shielded
  - Arnavion 6y ago
    The heat ablates the outer layers, and depending on the composition of the rock it might not be a good conductor of heat, so the heat doesn't necessarily make its way throughout the rock before the hot outer layer ablates away. The rocks that land can sometimes be cold enough that they build up frost on themselves, because they've retained their low temperature from space and started condensing moisture from the atmosphere.
ojosilva 6y ago
It amazes me that the Australian government allowed this "dropoff" to even happen! Australia and its ABF (border force) is one of the most restrictive when it comes to preventing alien agents to come through theirs borders. Now, to risk contamination from outer space, that's the next level of "alien"... Imagine the capsule crashes into a water source or breaks up in the near atmosphere. Even if there's 1/1B chances there's some deadly alien bacteria in there that will wipe out the Australian ecosystem as we know it, just taking the risk of complete media paranoia over a crash is quite something, even for the Australians.
- lebuffon 6y ago
  "...that will wipe out the Australian ecosystem as we know it" You mean like Homo sapiens? :-)

barkingcat 6y ago

ie some remnants of the venom symbiote

jgbmlg 6y ago
Does it seem like the first reel of a disaster movie?

ISL 6y ago

See: Andromeda Strain.

Arnavion 6y ago

The amount of space rock that naturally falls onto the Earth and reaches the ground is measured in tons per day.

EE84M3i 6y ago
Really? That's just the ground? Is it mostly a few bigger ones? I guess 1 ton of rock isn't that much, but this is still a pretty surprising fact.
- Arnavion 6y ago
  Just to be clear, I don't mean "reaches the ground as opposed to falling in the oceans", I mean "reaches the ground as opposed to burning up in the atmosphere". If we include the space rock that burns up in the atmosphere that amount is measured in the hundreds or thousands of tons per day. There's a lot of rock in space, and the Earth is a big target. Tons per day is not a lot when compared to the surface area available for it to land on.
kzrdude 6y ago
Yes but that is disinfected by heat, these rocks were shielded
- Arnavion 6y ago
  The heat ablates the outer layers, and depending on the composition of the rock it might not be a good conductor of heat, so the heat doesn't necessarily make its way throughout the rock before the hot outer layer ablates away. The rocks that land can sometimes be cold enough that they build up frost on themselves, because they've retained their low temperature from space and started condensing moisture from the atmosphere.

ojosilva 6y ago

It amazes me that the Australian government allowed this "dropoff" to even happen! Australia and its ABF (border force) is one of the most restrictive when it comes to preventing alien agents to come through theirs borders. Now, to risk contamination from outer space, that's the next level of "alien"... Imagine the capsule crashes into a water source or breaks up in the near atmosphere. Even if there's 1/1B chances there's some deadly alien bacteria in there that will wipe out the Australian ecosystem as we know it, just taking the risk of complete media paranoia over a crash is quite something, even for the Australians.

lebuffon 6y ago
"...that will wipe out the Australian ecosystem as we know it" You mean like Homo sapiens? :-)