Asteroid Hitting Earth!

[armjan]

I just thought of something, What the hell would we do if a really big asteroid like the one from 65 million yrs ago was to hit earth?

 

it turns out that asteroids smashing into earth are a very frequent phenomenon when considering very large periods of time.

 

here is some tracking info...

http://neat.jpl.nasa.gov/

sort of like armageden.

 

I wonder when the next one will come?

Seriously, what can we do?

 

 

http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/bobalien99/azcrater_lpi.gif

 

 

Asteroid 2002 NT7

It is going to happen on Friday February 1st  2019, or at least that is the possibility, as a huge lump of rock that maybe over 10 billion years old, may hit Earth. The asteroid, may strike and it is thought that it may land in the middle of the Sahara Desert.  In any event it is quite exiting knowing that a huge chunk of life as we know it may be destroyed, or not.

Edited June 7, 2005 by armjan

[armjan]

put a bulls-eye on turkey!

[armjan]

If we were to discover tomorrow that a comet or asteroid is on an Earth- intersecting path, what could we do about it ? What would you recommend doing about it ?

 

Actually, some 100 bodies have already been discovered on orbits which take them so close to the Earth's orbit, that they could hit in the far distant future. This is because the orbits of these bodies change slowly with time. Although their orbits do not intersect Earth's orbit at present, they could hit in a few thousand years or more.

 

The scenario you have in mind is most likely to unfold as follows. In the course of our search for Earth-crossing asteroids, we could find one that will hit not in the next year, or even in the next ten years, but might hit in the next hundred years. We believe that the chance that we will find such an object is only 1 in 1,000, even after a complete search. If we do find such an object, we will have plenty of time to track it, measure its orbit more precisely, and plan a system for deflecting it from its current orbit (hopefully away from the Earth's). There will be no great hurry, and no great panic. It would be a project for all the world's nations to take part in. It could be a globally unifying event. Because we will have found it long before it actually hits the Earth, it probably would take only a small impulse (chemical rockets, or perhaps mass drivers) to divert it from a threatening path.

 

There is a much smaller chance that we would find one that could impact in the next 10 years. The chance of that happening is 1 in 10,000. If this were to happen, we would probably still have time to launch a crash program of scientific and technological research, with the goal of characterizing both the structure of the menacing asteroid, and the best means for diverting its orbit.

 

The least likely scenario is that we would find one that could hit in the next year. The chance is 1 in 100,000. In that case, there is probably little that we could do to divert it.

[armjan]

What plans are being drawn up to cope with this threat in the future ?

 

The most significant efforts currently being made are to find all the potentially dangerous asteroids long before they are ever likely to approach the Earth. JPL has initiated such a program, in cooperation with the US Air Force. The project is led by Eleanor Helin, who has a long record of accomplishments in the discovery of these bodies. She and her team of astronomers use a remote-controlled telescope on the summit of Haleakala crater in Maui. It is normally used by the Air Force to keep track of man-made satellites. Dr. Helin uses it 6 nights a month to look for Earth-approaching asteroids and comets.

 

Our plans are to scale this project to 18 nights per month on 3 Air Force telescopes, so that 90% of the Earth-crossers larger than 1 km would be found in 10 years. After this survey is complete, and we know more about the potential hazards, we can begin to think about how to divert an Earth-crosser from a threatening

[armjan]

What kinds of anti-comet or anti-asteroid steps are feasible and realistic ?

 

It is entirely feasible that we could divert a large asteroid from a colliding orbit with existing technologies, but it would depend on the lead time. If we can predict the event long in advance, by at least 10 to 100 years, then conventional rockets and/or explosives would probably be adequate, even for bodies as large as 1 km. However, if we discover the object only a few years before impact, these technologies might not be adequate.

 

In any case, before we can address the question of how to divert an asteroid, we have to find out if there are any that require diversion. If we conduct a survey to find all the potentially hazardous asteroids now, it is very likely that we will have plenty of time to plan corrective measures before any one object is found to be in a threatening orbit.

[armjan]

What's the danger of these bodies hitting Earth ? The consequences-- localized or global ?

 

What the effects would be from a large-scale impact are very uncertain. Most scientists believe that an object in the 100-m to 500-m range could penetrate the atmosphere and cause local damage if it either exploded in the atmosphere or impacted the land or ocean. If the impact took place near a major city, or if it occurred in the ocean near a major city and caused a tidal wave, it could be very deadly. Fortunately, however, most of the Earth is still unpopulated.

 

The chance of this type of impact is probably lower than once every 1,000 to 10,000 years. The bodies larger than 500 m are of much more concern. A single impact could cause global devastation. Calculations that were used to predict the effect of a global nuclear war have been applied to this problem. It is likely that such a large impact would raise enough dust into the atmosphere to change Earth's climate -- in effect, a "nuclear winter". Agricultural production around the world would be severely disrupted.

[gamavor]

put a bulls-eye on turkey!

style_images/master/snapback.png

 

 

Looks like terrorist act to me. My suggestion is to raise the federal taxes and impose more tax liability on the poor and middle class people, so that we can secure more funding for a war with wind-mills.

 

Then we can send our rich oil companies funded and guarded by the tax dollars paid by the poor and the middle class for new exploration operations.

 

When Americans are short of enemies Jurasik park is good enough....or huge body hitting the Earth. Note to self: Some Americans and Jews may suffer too

[Armen]

Guys, it's not good to drink on Monday evening. On a second thought, as I am done with my last quarter eva (I hope it's the last one in my life) I wouldn't mind a cup of J&B.