Impact Events

10th April 2024

"It has been 12 days. Is there still any scope of being hopeful at all Kiran Sir?" Asked a journalist to Space Commission Member and Former ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar, who was associated with the mission. It was 12 days after Chandrayaan 3 made a successful soft landing, and there was no further update.

"We doubt it to be an impact event. As of now, we neither have proof nor any update about it, hence the word DOUBT," replied Mr. Kumar. "So you mean to say Impact Event has led to the failure of this mission?", asked one of the reporters. "How conveniently do you guys twist the words? Undoubtedly making money becomes easy. See Mam, I said I do not have proof of it, nor any update. Hence we are doubting it to be an impact event." replied Mr. Kumar sternly. "Sir it is our job to let the public know, share the result/conclusion with them." the reporter defended. "So that means you feed us words and we should say the same? Science is an experiment, there can't always be a success or a failure, there are learnings too. You could have instead taken this opportunity to educate people about Impact Events. But... Forget it!" Mr. Kumar had now lost his cool. "I was about to talk about it Sir, that was my next question. What are Impact events, and how soon or late can we study them or know about them?" The reporter tried to cover up.

"An impact event is a collision between astronomical objects causing measurable effects. Impact events have been found to regularly occur in planetary systems, though the most frequent involve asteroids, comets, or meteoroids and have minimal effect. When large objects impact terrestrial planets such as the Earth, there can be significant physical and biospheric consequences, as the impacting body is usually traveling at several kilometres a second (a minimum of 11.2 km/s)
"That's too fast! Do we have any history of missions failing because of such events?" the reporter counter questions.



"Impact events appear to have played a significant role in the evolution of the Solar System since its formation. Major impact events have significantly shaped Earth's history, and have been implicated in the formation of the Earth-Moon system. Impact events also appear to have played a significant role in the evolutionary history of life. Impacts may have helped deliver the building blocks for life (the panspermia theory relies on this premise). Impacts have been suggested as the origin of water on Earth. They have also been implicated in several mass extinctions. Throughout recorded history, hundreds of Earth impacts (and exploding bolides) have been reported, with some occurrences causing deaths, injuries, property damage, or other significant localized consequences. One of the best-known recorded events in modern times was the Tunguska event, which occurred in Siberia, Russia, in 1908. The 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor event is the only known such incident in modern times to result in numerous injuries."

"Ohh!" The reporter exclaimed.
"Impact events are not always disastrous. This time, this particular experiment may have failed, but there are chances they saved from some other mishaps. With this, I take your leave. A lot to work on ahead. Thank you." Mr. Kumar said.

"Thank you for enlightening us!" The reporter expressed her gratitude and left.

This post is a part of the #BlogchatterAtoZ challenge.