Comet Impact Page #2

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Project Rockall...

Is all in the turmeric you see.

Is full of curcumin,

which is an anti-oxidant, so now you know.

Get the curry down you, ward off that

mental decay.

You should have some Josh.

That was a flight attendant on 419, the plan that

outran the wave,

well she's got the footage on her cell phone...

but she's heading back to the US tomorrow

so we need to see her now.

We can go.

- Thas ourterritory. - Yeah, yeah.

Here we go.

Oh we can get a time stamp on that.

- And thas good? - Oh thas very good.

Now is there any chance we could get

the flight path data...

to find out exactly where you were when you took t

Yeah, sure.

If we can get a fix on your exact position we can

cross-reference that with the light in this...

and then ill help us get a sense of

the trajectory of the N.E.O.

And then you can find out where

it came from right?

Exactly.

Have you got wireless connect on this cell phone?

Yeah you do.

Great its worked. Marcie, thank you very much,

you've been very helpful.

So, you guys are like spacemen?

We're not trained in aeronautics but

yeah we're part of NASA.

Now N.E.O. Why is at the heart of

the space industry.

You're called N.E. O? Like Keanu in 'The Matrix'?

You are so cool!

I'm kidding.

Charlie, how are you?

- Brendan... - Any news of the family?

No, nothing, nothing yet. Come here,

let me show you.

- Excuse me, we're from... - Just one second.

...we're from NASA, we, we need immediate access

to the disaster zone,

there's some permits here for us apparently.

Anyone know anything about permits for NASA?

Be here all day.

Yes.

We need another airlift ASAP but...

the main supply route is blocked,

so if you can't get a runway slot

we'll have to do the food drop by parachute.

Excuse me sir, are you from FEMA?

I... well yeah, I'm just helping out with

the International Disaster Response...

Neil Gant, with NASA.

Adam right? You care to help out a compatriot?

Adam Gregorski, the FEMA guy,

secured us permits within the hour,

we made straight forthe centre of devastation.

We needed to analyse the debris left

by the Tsunami before...

it was disturbed by the clear up operation.

To the trained eye this wreckage held vital clues

to the origins of the N.E.O.

That had so taken us by surprise.

We'll build a map of the debris pattern,

we'll learn more about the wave.

And we'll start to get a handle on Rockall.

Three days ago those rocks were at

the bottom of the sea.

You know, 1,000 years from now people will come

here like this was the Irish Stonehenge,

and they'll be thinking "how did they get

the rocks up there?" huh?

Cliff height is about 72 feet so we know...

the wave was at least that high as

it hit the coast.

Maybe they'll think of it

as a monument to 8/8.

The wave spilled overthe cliff and scattered

the debris across a vast area.

The scatter pattern and the inclination of once

vertical structures would...

tell us the precise strength and direction

of the wave.

The pressure must have been massive.

Josh! There's someone here,

there's someone in here!

I've got her head.

We've gotta get to a hospital.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven,

eight, nine, ten, eleven...

Neil, there's no pulse.

Neil, is too late.

There's an e-mail from that air hostess,

she's managed to get hold of the radar data and

the exact flight co-ordinates.

We need to get it into the mapping programme.

- I'll do it when we get back. - Huh?

- I'll do it when we get back. - Fine.

Tsunami death toll rises...

Turn it off!

...authorities struggling to cope with the number

of bodies.

- Churches and schools are being used

- Please.

- As temporary mortuaries.

- Thank you.

Is been four days since the Tsunami hit.

The roads are full of mud and dirt left behind as

the sea water retreated,

...and it is from this flotsam of broken walls,

timbers and other debris

...that the search for survivors continues.

Stay here tonight.

Wouldn't it be betterto head back?

I don't mind driving,

- we can be in Dublin by...

- Josh, we'll stay here tonight.

Go easy on him, his father lived here.

I'm looking for Bryan Kelly.

Daddy.

We let this thing through you know,

we let it through...

Neil! No-one could have predicted this.

Ourjob is to watch objects in space.

If is not our responsibility, whose is it?

Oh Neil, get real.

There's a lot less dust than I expected,

if it was an asteroid it was no more than

And an asteroid that small would

never reach the ocean?

No.

And even if it did, it would never have had

enough powerto...

generate a Tsunami with such a high amplitude,

I mean the wave height measurements were

fartoo large for an asteroid of only 50 metres.

So, it was a comet?

Then it could have been much largerthan

even if it exploded on impact there

would have been relatively little dust...

Because unlike an asteroid is composed

mainly of ice.

It would have been moving much fasterthan

an asteroid too, you know,

between 20 and 35 miles per second.

Definitely enough muscle to cause a Tsunami.

Yeah. Yeah. Lesjust match that with

the co-ordinates of...

Marcie's sighting and the satellite images...

and les see if we get...

- Here she comes.

- We get the point of impact.

Oh yeah, notjust that...

Now if we trace the trajectory backwards...

we should be able to find out where

she came from,

look the orbit is practically grazing the sun,

thas why we missed her.

A sling-shot back to there...

just to the left Betelgeuse off Orion's shoulder,

- Oh gotcha

- thas where she came from.

From the outset of our investigation we've known

that the Tsunami was caused by the impact of a,

a near-earth object, a, an N.E.O.

We've discovered that this was

a small long period comet,

approximately 200 metres in diameter, probably

formed in the very early solar system,

even before the planets existed,

and now, now we know where it came from.

Why wasn't the comet spotted in time?

Well there are teams of astronomers around

the world whose...

sole purpose is finding and tracking N.E.O.'s...

but sadly this particular one couldn't have been

predicted by them or anyone else...

Why is that?

Well because the comet approached earth

at an acute angle,

very small, obscured by the glare of the sun.

Like fighter pilots driving out of the sun to...

surprise an enemy, impossible to see

until is too late.

So another one could sneak up on us at any time?

No, no. No. An event like the Rockall comet

happens perhaps, oh, once

every few thousand years.

Rockall was incredible, something I thought

I would never bear witness to,

but sounds a bit odd, but it was a privilege,

a tragic one,

with... terrible consequences but

a privilege nevertheless.

The power of nature, for better orfor worse.

The scientific global community will continue to...

monitorthe comet for years to come but...

thanks to the work of Project Rockall the

foundation of that research is now in place,

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