Should the world invest in protection against asteroids?

ballsymchugh · 07-03-2010 02:59AM

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

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.

the plan is to paint one side of the asteroid black, and the other side white, so that one side will absorb more energy from the sun and gently veer off it's course.

that's what this guy said. and he knows more than me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Kruszelnicki

pirelli · 07-03-2010 08:24AM

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

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.

Hey captn

I did leave a header on my post stating all my facts come from discovery channel documentaries. So I do not have the authority to argue with you on whether the earth is being pulled slowly towards he sun and or the effects of radiation pushing out. Some guy with alot of letters after his name wearing a a flashy shirt said it was being pulled towards the sun to its destruction on a documentary on discovery. My gods lets hope it never happens.

I have also seen the documentaries about the sun eventually exploding and i think it's alot more writings and research on that. However i am not sure which comes first. As for the earth continents moving, I think its common knowledge that everything is moving in a direction. It will happen do you not agree?

Frac it, I am sure someone can shed some light on these scenarios.

As for the asteroid yes I do mean a signifigant sized asteroid that would form a new planet and a new moon. We would have to be living on either the moon or mars when this occours. Perhaps even in a space station far out in the universe or even another galaxy. We would carry the future of the earth. The moon would most likely be part of that impact. The only worry about this theory is if the delicate but essential balance between the earth and the moon be recreated when there is larger mass now that has to accounted for.Perhaps there would now be two moons and a larger planet earth.

I wonder what would happen to the earth if mars was hit by such an asteroid?

**Battlestar galactica Theme music slowly increases as superman style words fly at the Screen. **

We cannot change destiny
We can create destiny in Gods image

neil_18_ · 07-03-2010 02:12PM

Couldn't we just invest in a giant trampoline and move it to the area where the asteroid will land...

Its a great day out for the whole family AND it saves lives.

Win-Win

dlofnep · 07-03-2010 02:13PM

neil_18_ wrote: »

Couldn't we just invest in a giant trampoline and move it to the area where the asteroid will land...

Its a great day out for the whole family AND it saves lives.

Win-Win

What happens if it hits the ocean? I don't know of any ocean-fairing trampolines, do you?

neil_18_ · 07-03-2010 02:16PM

dlofnep wrote: »

What happens if it hits the ocean? I don't know of any ocean-fairing trampolines, do you?

Damn, didnt think of that...

Capt'n Midnight · 07-03-2010 03:08PM

ScumLord wrote: »

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

it would not Affect the orbit.

it affected the rotation on it's axis / length of day - the year is unchanged though it now has slightly fewer days

Capt'n Midnight · 07-03-2010 03:11PM

pirelli wrote: »

I wonder what would happen to the earth if mars was hit by such an asteroid?

Remember the meteorite that NASA found down in Antartica that they thought had Martian micrbes in it ?

Guess how that piece of rock got from Mars to Earth ?

Yes an impact on a teresterial planet will result in secondary debris. Only that Jupiter has such a huge escape velocity means that Shoemaker-Levy 9 didn't dust us with shrapnel.

Agricola · 07-03-2010 03:29PM

Maybe we should all just have an old pray..............maybe God will help us!

Mike 1972 · 07-03-2010 04:37PM

Should the world invest in protection against asteroids?

Given that the world cant even agree on how much each country should invest in protection against manmade climate change.............

El Futurismo · 07-03-2010 05:24PM

Ireland doesn't have any significant landmarks and therefore will not be effected.

bnt · 07-03-2010 09:50PM

Compared to what's being spent on bailing out banks, an asteroid warning and protection system is well within our budget, globally. Preventing in impact doesn't have to be a heroic last-minute scramble, like in the movies. If you can spot one coming sufficiently early, you could alter its trajectory with a simple rocket attached to a lander of some sort. A small nudge at the right time would turn an impact in to a miss. (Or vice versa?)

07-03-2010 10:31PM

Considering this picture.
http://news.sky.com/sky-news/content/StaticFile/jpg/2008/Apr/Week3/1669835.jpg

Then we will soon block out the sun with debris.

pirelli · 07-03-2010 11:29PM

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Remember the meteorite that NASA found down in Antartica that they thought had Martian micrbes in it ?

Guess how that piece of rock got from Mars to Earth ?

Yes an impact on a teresterial planet will result in secondary debris. Only that Jupiter has such a huge escape velocity means that Shoemaker-Levy 9 didn't dust us with shrapnel.

The Moon provides the earth with protection form solar winds etc. However the two moons that orbit Mars are too small to protect it and subsquently mars is a barren wasteland. In the future should an asteroid hit mars it might create a moon sufficent for mars to form an athmosphere

I remember that meteorite captn midnight. It had allegedly micro-organisms and hinted at life on mars but i think we were presauded it was just atmospheric processes. Those men in black at work... Nah I am not a conspiracy fan.

Although while that peice of mars did land here it was from a small asteroid impact. while we might be showered with debris would the explosion from such a huge impact not effect the earth and moon.

stovelid · 07-03-2010 11:32PM

Adequate protection already exsits....

Coriolanus · 07-03-2010 11:37PM

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, 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.

Really? I read the last earthquake in chile altered the rotation of the earth. I would have thought that the orbit would be as "easy" as that.

pirelli · 08-03-2010 01:53AM

stovelid wrote: »

Adequate protection already exsits....

Cool! All we need to do is to build a massive triangle like in the Joy and shoot peas at the asteroids.

pehoe shooter

dlofnep · 08-03-2010 01:55AM

Deleted User wrote: »

Considering this picture.
http://news.sky.com/sky-news/content/StaticFile/jpg/2008/Apr/Week3/1669835.jpg

Then we will soon block out the sun with debris.

Obviously they aren't to scale - but it is amazing spaceships can even reach space with the amount of clunk out there.

ScumLord · 08-03-2010 02:27AM

pirelli wrote: »

The Moon provides the earth with protection form solar winds etc. However the two moons that orbit Mars are too small to protect it and subsquently mars is a barren wasteland. In the future should an asteroid hit mars it might create a moon sufficent for mars to form an athmosphere

I thought the reason Mars was a barren wasteland was because it's molten core solidified which meant it had no magnetic field to protect itself from the suns radiation?

Bonito · 08-03-2010 03:38AM

Archeron wrote: »

We are on a small lump of rock and iron flying around in an ever expanding universe at 67,000 mph, and the only thing keeping us on course for life is a immense ball of unstable gases burning at five and a half thousand degrees wonderfully positioned 93 million miles away.
Unless we colonize another planet to escape to, then there is virtually nothing we could do to prevent annihilation.

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

Why'd you have to go ruin it for the rest of us like a big meanie?

pirelli · 08-03-2010 03:43AM

ScumLord wrote: »

I thought the reason Mars was a barren wasteland was because it's molten core solidified which meant it had no magnetic field to protect itself from the suns radiation?

That might be a major factor also. Moons definetly play a role.

Sticky_Fingers · 08-03-2010 12:56PM

FYI here is a nice little online calculator that gives the effects of different Earth impactors. Enjoy destroying the world:

http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/

And for the nerds out there the academic paper that gives all the equations and gubbins associated with the calculator:

http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/CollinsEtAl2005.pdf

Wibbs · 08-03-2010 01:26PM

ScumLord wrote: »

I thought the reason Mars was a barren wasteland was because it's molten core solidified which meant it had no magnetic field to protect itself from the suns radiation?

That and its size. its too small to hang onto anything but a very thin atmosphere.

We do need to be thinking of this stuff though. as far as we know were the only inteligent life in the universe, so we need to protect that. If we dont colonise and soon enough thats it were boned in the very long term

Should the world invest in protection against asteroids?

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