Should the world invest in protection against asteroids?

AlmightyCushion · 06-03-2010 08:38PM

Archeron wrote: »

is a immense ball of unstable gases burning at five and a half thousand degrees

Just to let you know that's only the surface temperature of the sun, the temperature of the core is over 15 million degrees celsius. So almost as hot as Rachael Bilson.

ChocolateSauce · 06-03-2010 08:41PM

In 1908 a 5-30 Megatonne explosion occurred in Russia, almost certainly due to an asteroid impact. It was in the middle of nowhere, but it could have killed millions if it had hit a major city.

It is a risk.

ejmaztec · 06-03-2010 08:47PM

Joey the lips wrote: »

I read this as hemeroids. Mind you most of what comes out of me looks like an asteroid and as for my farts they would wipe out the dino's again

I don't think that there are any, not after they got wiped out the first time.:P

ScumLord · 06-03-2010 08:57PM

ejmaztec wrote: »

I don't think that there are any, not after they got wiped out the first time.:P

The crocs defied the roids, maybe they'll come back for them?

landsleaving · 06-03-2010 09:36PM

It'll burn up in the atmosphere and whatever's left will be no bigger thana Chihuahua's head.

Or Aerosmith will save us.

EIther way, Que Sera Sera/I don't wanna miss a thing.

Duggy747 · 06-03-2010 09:48PM

Bruce Willis and his rag-tag of merry men will take care of it................cue awesome explosions and Paris being wiped out :pac:

Christopher Reeves would've sufficed but he's chilling out in his Fortress Of Solitude (he always will be the Superman :P )

Realistically though, it'll take a major assteroid disaster before it's ever seriously considered.

I just want be around for when they get a bloke / blokette on Mars........and when they set up that casino / strip-club on the moon!

Mr. Presentable · 06-03-2010 09:52PM

Protection from hemorrhoids would benefit more people

bonerm · 06-03-2010 09:54PM

dlofnep wrote: »

Should the world invest in protection against asteroids?

Nope, couldn't care less. We deserve to be extinct as a species.

But I was interested to learn .....

meteoroid : particle of debris in the Solar System
meteor : if the meteor enters the Earths athmosphere
meteorite : If a meteor reaches the ground and survives impact.

06-03-2010 10:00PM

Protection against Asteroids.
Enter the Moon!

ScumLord · 06-03-2010 10:05PM

bonerm wrote: »

Nope, couldn't care less. We deserve to be extinct as a species.

The human race is the greatest animal that has ever existed, I always find it astonishing that people don't recognise that more. Most of what people label as human kinds bad quality's are just basic animal behaviour. It's not unusual that we kill, rape or commit genocide. What is unusual is that we have trials, take care of our sick and think of the welfare of our prey.

fuelinjection · 06-03-2010 10:26PM

ScumLord wrote: »

The human race is the greatest animal that has ever existed, I always find it astonishing that people don't recognise that more. Most of what people label as human kinds bad quality's are just basic animal behaviour. It's not unusual that we kill, rape or commit genocide. What is unusual is that we have trials, take care of our sick and think of the welfare of our prey.

Thats true.
Dinosaurs ruled the earth a heck of a lot longer than we have been here - and ironically they were wiped out by a meteorite that allowed us to develop. Also our large brains and ability to make and use tools as well as a moral sense of right and wrong would make us pretty much unique.

artanevilla · 06-03-2010 10:30PM

If one big enough hits, chances are we won't know about it. Chances are it will happen eventually, but sure **** it.

thetonynator · 06-03-2010 10:35PM

theres actually fúck all that can be done to protect against it anyway . . .so its kind of a stupid poll. They could give an advance warning yeah, but all that would do is cause mass suicides . . .and then it would prob miss!!!!

dlofnep · 06-03-2010 10:45PM

thetonynator wrote: »

theres actually fúck all that can be done to protect against it anyway . . .

Oh, so you're an expert on asteroid defense - are you? How do you know there is nothing that can be done about it?

And if nothing can be done - then surely, wouldn't it be worthwhile to start figuring out HOW to protect us?

And yes - you are "that guy".

Mike 1972 · 06-03-2010 11:00PM

Archeron wrote: »

Super Volcanoes though, maybe we should consider spending money looking into how to stop those. Expanding foam maybe.

TBH while both of these scenarios might be cause for concern (although not as much as the emergence of new pandemics) I think what we really need to be focusing on is the probability of the human race making a mass collective bid for a Darwin award.

Earthhorse · 06-03-2010 11:13PM

Absolutely we should.

The thing about asteroids is, they can approach the earth from any angle. We are as vulnerable on one side as we are the other. So the first thing that needs to be done is the identification of the areas of space our orbit passes through in which there is most activity. The area of our sky, if you will, where an asteroid is most likely going to appear; call it "The Black Rectangle".

Then, we need some way of monitoring and protecting that space. We could use ground missiles. Trouble is, missiles are, by their nature, hit and miss. Believe me when I say you don't want to miss with something like this. Something more dynamic is clearly needed, something that, if it misses, can have another go engage in some pursuit.

A craft of some kind would be ideal but imagine what it would be like to live under "The Black Rectangle", watching that craft patrolling the skies every day. Unnerving, to say the least. The craft would ideally be transparent in nature, leaving only a frame visible to alert other objects. We should probably have three in total. The Black Rectangle is likely to be quite big. So if a craft flies out one side of it it should reappear on the other.

And you should be allowed to enter more than three initials, what the fuck is with that?

ScumLord · 06-03-2010 11:20PM

thetonynator wrote: »

theres actually fúck all that can be done to protect against it anyway . . .so its kind of a stupid poll. They could give an advance warning yeah, but all that would do is cause mass suicides . . .and then it would prob miss!!!!

As long as there's **** all of a chance we'll be able to survive you have to put money on the human race surviving, even if we where told it was impossible I'd put money on us surviving. Some of us at least.

TheKells · 06-03-2010 11:45PM

Aren't they already looking into things to protect us, like a giant solar sail. By all accounts missiles would have little impact.
Its the detection side of things that needs most work. But its really underfunded because lets face it, most people don't care about something that might not happen for another few thousand years even if there's a chance it might happen next year.

So that's a yes then.

DigiGal · 07-03-2010 12:07AM

minidazzler wrote: »

Seriously, the likelihood of us our even our great grand children dying because of a big ass asteroid is very unlikely.....then again....CHARGE THE LASERS!!!!!!

there is one on course for 2032...

dlofnep · 07-03-2010 12:15AM

DigiGal wrote: »

there is one on course for 2032...

2036, but it's Torino rating is very low.

Still - there are thousands of asteroids out there that we haven't tracked yet.

pirelli · 07-03-2010 12:31AM

The earth is orbiting around the sun, It is slowly being pulled towards the sun to possible destruction as are other planets. Ultimately we will have to leave earth and find a new planet. An asteroid might not be a bad thing and in fact might be just what the earth need to be reset on a new orbit.

It's odds weigh heavily against the laws of physics that it's impact will create a new and more sustaining orbit but that may be what faith and believe is all about. Yay we can zap a few smaller ones but the big bad one i am not so sure.

The best we can do is be on the moon for when it hits. ( *snigger* ) .......................or not ( * snigger* ) because in 200 million years the worlds continents will again reform together followed by a cycle of destrcution that wiped out and ended the triassic era. we will have to be on the moon in 200 million years or we will be very lucky not become extinct. At the very least we need to bring all earth life to the moon and store it there for this cataclysmic event.

Capt'n Midnight · 07-03-2010 01:32AM

pirelli wrote: »

The earth is orbiting around the sun, It is slowly being pulled towards the sun to possible destruction as are other planets. Ultimately we will have to leave earth and find a new planet. An asteroid might not be a bad thing and in fact might be just what the earth need to be reset on a new orbit.

It's odds weigh heavily against the laws of physics that it's impact will create a new and more sustaining orbit but that may be what faith and believe is all about. Yay we can zap a few smaller ones but the big bad one i am not so sure.

The best we can do is be on the moon for when it hits. ( *snigger* ) .......................or not ( * snigger* ) because in 200 million years the worlds continents will again reform together followed by a cycle of destrcution that wiped out and ended the triassic era. we will have to be on the moon in 200 million years or we will be very lucky not become extinct. At the very least we need to bring all earth life to the moon and store it there for this cataclysmic event.

Ouch, so wrong.

Radiation from the sun is pushing stuff outwards.
The destruction of our ecosystem and inner planets will be by the sun expanding and burning us, if we survive the Andromeda encounter.

An asteroid won't set the earth on a new orbit. To change the orbit by a snigficant amount you would need a bigger impact, like the one where a mars sized body crashed in to the earth to create the moon, it would liquify both planets, 0 chance of any survival. Being on the moon would help but you would still get rained upon by debris.

The continents are far older than 200My , they didn't reform. The Appilation mountains in the US were part of the same chain as those in Scotland. The Atlantic has grown inbetween. But parts of Scotland were on opposite sides of a previous ocean which closed over and they are now together. Iceland is very new indeed, but rocks on Greenland are 3,800My old.

Capt'n Midnight · 07-03-2010 01:38AM

minidazzler wrote: »

Seriously, the likelihood of us our even our great grand children dying because of a big ass asteroid is very unlikely.....then again....CHARGE THE LASERS!!!!!!

The chance of a hit are low
the consequences are huge
re-entry of debris from the KT caused fires worldwide in the first hour or so , most major population centres would get hit by secondary ejecta

someone will google it but if you try to work out insurance premiums it's a lot higher than many things we worry about

Capt'n Midnight · 07-03-2010 01:41AM

ChocolateSauce wrote: »

In 1908 a 5-30 Megatonne explosion occurred in Russia, almost certainly due to an asteroid impact. It was in the middle of nowhere, but it could have killed millions if it had hit a major city.

It is a risk.

If the collision had occurred 4 hours 47 minutes later, it would have completely destroyed the city of St. Petersburg.

Capt'n Midnight · 07-03-2010 01:45AM

ScumLord wrote: »

The human race is the greatest animal that has ever existed, I always find it astonishing that people don't recognise that more. Most of what people label as human kinds bad quality's are just basic animal behaviour. It's not unusual that we kill, rape or commit genocide. What is unusual is that we have trials, take care of our sick and think of the welfare of our prey.

Lots of animals exhibit altruism. Few kill for anything other than food or self-defence and even then it's usually to hone hunting skills.

Elephants care for their sick too.
killer whales have been filmed pushing seal cubs to the shore.

Trials ?
Half that lot in Leinster house would have been abandoned by the herd during the first winter.

magicianz · 07-03-2010 01:47AM

Cmon guys everyone knows how this ends! If we shoot it with a laser from our ship it just breaks in two! If we shoot them then they break into two! Its a vicious cycle and our shiP can only spin around so fast

Tech3 · 07-03-2010 01:55AM

But is there an actual solution to prevent an asteriod from hitting the planet? I assume a nucleur weapon is the only option. I would rather take my chances living on Mars tbh. In the whole context of things we wont make a dent on the investment required. Maybe ask George Bush and his Saudi bin laden mates to cough up the cash they have made over the the last number of years from the war in Iraq!

wyrn · 07-03-2010 01:59AM

I had to write an essay about this a couple of years ago and I came across SPACEGUARD! No not Rendezvous with Rama Spaceguard but this one.

Don't worry, we'll be grand. NASA wrote up a report for congress some years back so someone is looking into it. NASA have people staring at monitors which looking like a collection of dots (stars) and they have to see if any of these dots move or disappear. I can't remember why they couldn't let the PCs do it.

The way I figure it is that we'll either have a worldwide mass panic attack a la Y2K and it'll miss us by miles OR we're fecked!

EDIT: Or more likely some supernations/powers will get trigger happy and we'll end up accidentally nuking ourselves in the foot!
Hehe I nearly wrote Skynet instead of Spaceguard!

ScumLord · 07-03-2010 02:02AM

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

An asteroid won't set the earth on a new orbit. To change the orbit by a snigficant amount you would need a bigger impact,

Didn't some scientists claim that the recent earthquakes could have effected earths orbit?

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Lots of animals exhibit altruism. Few kill for anything other than food or self-defence and even then it's usually to hone hunting skills.

Animals will kill anything that's smaller than them or an apparent threat to their food sources the domestic cat is the most prolific killer on the planet, but we killed for the same reasons, if we wipe out an entire species in a particular place so that we can make use of their territory it's nothing any other animal would do in our place if they could.
We view our actions with our own morality the fact is nature demands survival of the fittest and we're the fittest so by natures rules we should kill everything in our path but we have seen the folly in that and have began to turn against our natural urges to kill anything that could possibly be a threat.

killer whales have been filmed pushing seal cubs to the shore.

That is odd but they are cruel animals that will play with seals as if they're toys. Maybe they're like fishermen that will throw back small fish in the hope they'll catch them again when they're bigger and worth catching.

kryogen · 07-03-2010 02:34AM

Deleted User wrote: »

Protection against Asteroids.
Enter the Moon!

if the moon goes we are ****ed anyway, and it is actually going, very very very slowly, each year it gets a little further away in fact

wont make a difference to me or you but in the very distant future it may be a problem

one way or the other, we will have to leave this planet to continue the species, the sun wont last forever, the moon will head off to pastures new, disease, we nuke ourselves, asteroids, aliens

one way or the other, this place is only temporary

of course to go the fundamentalit route, if an asteroid hits, its Gods will, if it misses its Gods will, if you get hit by a bus, its Gods will

lol

Should the world invest in protection against asteroids?

Comments