Skip to content
VISSINITI

VISSINITI

from reel to real

  • Asteroids & Comets
  • Rants & Raves
  • About
  • Goodbye 2020

Category: Meteoroids, Meteors & Meteorites

Posted on 20 December 20203 January 2021

It’s the Size of Texas

Ben Affleck has five - or is it six- important words to say to us in the film Armageddon (1998): It's the size of Texas.

Inspired by five words, or is it six, in the 1998 blockbuster Armageddon — a movie about an asteroid the size of Texas on course to destroy Earth in 18 days (and a team of deep core drillers sent to break the asteroid in two) — I wondered whether there were any quantifiable clues in …

Continue reading "It’s the Size of Texas"

Posted on 1 November 202027 December 2020

Every Asteroid and Comet Disaster Movie Ever Made

Earth-threatening asteroids and impacts

Last year I started digging around for space rocks — movies about space rocks — to compile a list of every asteroid and comet disaster movie ever made, from the very first silent, black and white offering in 1916, to the major blockbusters that launch at us every special effect that digital mastery can conjure …

Continue reading "Every Asteroid and Comet Disaster Movie Ever Made"

Posted on 21 September 202014 January 2021

Scent from Heaven

In blog post Scent from Heaven - an essay on the smell of meteors and meteorites and aroma of comets. Meteorite smell. Scent of a meteorite. Meteorites.

Apparently, if you smell a fresh meteorite it smells like sulphur, according to reports about the Tagish Lake meteorite and the aroma that filled the air during its fall in 2000. And the Aguas Zarcas meteorite that fell in Costa Rica in 2019 has been said to smell of compost, vanilla and Brussels sprouts, depending …

Continue reading "Scent from Heaven"

Posted on 31 December 201927 December 2020

80 Movies and TV Shows Featuring Earth-Threatening Asteroids and Comets

Impact Earth (2015) from the list of every asteroid and comet disaster movie ever made. Earth threatening asteroids and comets.

It's the end of the year and one particular tabloid newspaper is again warning us that it could soon be the end of the world — yes, asteroid 2019 AE3 is in our vicinity and the apocalypse is coming. In keeping with the tabloid drama, below is a list of all the film and TV …

Continue reading "80 Movies and TV Shows Featuring Earth-Threatening Asteroids and Comets"

Posted on 15 October 201924 November 2020

Asteroid Warning!

Asteroid 101955 Bennu

So there's another apocalyptic asteroid warning in the tabloid news headlines. The lead scaremongerer in the UK is the Daily Express, who started out playfully alerting us to asteroids that will skim by Earth in the coming days. It didn't take long for a war of the digital world to start warning of swarms of …

Continue reading "Asteroid Warning!"

Posted on 10 July 201926 December 2020

History of Asteroid Classification

Asteroid Taxonomies - Alluvial diagram showing the evolution of asteroid classification systems

I once read a quote in a conference abstract that stated the paper had been written to serve as “a historical guide to the asteroid literature for the perplexed”. That quote aptly sums up my desire for writing a piece on the history of asteroid classification and taxonomies, and the schemes currently in use. When …

Continue reading "History of Asteroid Classification"

Posted on 30 June 201914 January 2021

Making an Impact: Lights, Camera and Asteroid!

Impact of asteroid into city scene from film Earth Storm (2006)

More than 100 years have passed since the first film was shown in movie theatres that depicted events in the run up to a rock from space striking the Earth — although in that case it was a comet rather than an asteroid. That movie, a silent film called The End of the World released …

Continue reading "Making an Impact: Lights, Camera and Asteroid!"

Posted on 15 June 201914 January 2021

Real and Simulated Asteroid and Comet Impacts

Fictitious asteroid PDC 2019 orbit and position coincidental with Earth on 29 April 2027. Making an Impact: Real vs Simulated.

Many people will remember the day in 2013 when one asteroid stole the limelight from another. On 15 February 2013, all eyes of astronomers were on the close approach of a 30 metre-sized Apollo asteroid 367943 Duende (then known as 2012 DA14). The asteroid was not expected to be visible to the naked eye. Nor …

Continue reading "Real and Simulated Asteroid and Comet Impacts"

Posted on 1 June 201914 January 2021

Meteoroids, Meteors and Meteorites

Kamchatka Meteor (18 December 2018) imaged by Japanese Meteorological Agency Himawari 8satellite. . In blog post meteoroids, meteors and meteorites.

It’s a dilemma universally acknowledged in Hollywood that the makers of asteroid and comet disaster movies must ignore the laws of physical science and make events look the way moviegoers expect from their own experience on Earth, otherwise they won't believe it. And so asteroids and comets are called meteors, meteoroids and meteors are called …

Continue reading "Meteoroids, Meteors and Meteorites"

Top Posts (all categories)

  • Goliath Season 1: Rewriting Characters
    Goliath Season 1: Rewriting Characters
  • Goliath Season 3: The Weird and the Wonderful
    Goliath Season 3: The Weird and the Wonderful
  • Every Asteroid and Comet Disaster Movie Ever Made
    Every Asteroid and Comet Disaster Movie Ever Made
  • 80 Movies and TV Shows Featuring Earth-Threatening Asteroids and Comets
    80 Movies and TV Shows Featuring Earth-Threatening Asteroids and Comets
  • Bosch Asks: What's a Medical Physicist?
    Bosch Asks: What's a Medical Physicist?
  • Goliath Season 4: What You Need to Know
    Goliath Season 4: What You Need to Know
  • Goliath Season 2: Cover My Eyes
    Goliath Season 2: Cover My Eyes
  • Making an Impact: Lights, Camera and Asteroid!
    Making an Impact: Lights, Camera and Asteroid!
  • Asteroids and Comets Visited by Spacecraft
    Asteroids and Comets Visited by Spacecraft
  • Scent from Heaven
    Scent from Heaven

Contact

Use my initials mm in front of @vissiniti.com

  • Instagram

About

VISSINITI is the website of Margaret Murphy, an aspiring scriptwriter based in London who has an obsessive interest in anything masquerading as an asteroid or comet. She has spent countless hours watching, rewatching and writing about asteroid and comet disaster movies, but also posts rambling reviews of random TV dramas. She aspires to finishing a script and having an asteroid named after her—no matter how insignificantly small and lumpy. She is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Geological Society of London..