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White House Adviser: US Must Prepare for Asteroid
AOL News ^ | Monday, October 25, 2010 | Lee Speigel

Posted on 10/26/2010 7:37:06 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

In separate 10-page letters to the House Committee on Science and Technology and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, or OSTP, outlines plans for "(A) protecting the United States from a near-Earth object that is expected to collide with Earth; and (B) implementing a deflection campaign, in consultation with international bodies, should one be necessary."

...

While Holdren indicates that no large asteroid or comet presents an immediate hazard to our planet, the fact that devastating impacts have occurred on Earth in the distant past is enough to warrant safety precautions for the future...

Asteroids are rocky bodies found within the inner solar system, originating in an area known as the asteroid belt, located between the planets Mars and Jupiter.

If a large asteroid were to strike Earth, it could cause a global climate change, which many scientists believe is what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs more than 60 million years ago -- not a good prospect for life on Earth in the present day if a similar event occurred.

NASA's Near Earth Object program, or NEO, looks for and monitors asteroids that are at least a kilometer in diameter... After 12 years of cosmic hunting, NASA search teams have determined that 149 NEOs larger than a kilometer in size are in orbits that might pose a problem for Earth, but none is considered an impact threat in the next 100 years...

(Excerpt) Read more at aolnews.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: asteroid; asteroids; catastrophism; johnholdren; unitednations
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To: puppypusher
"Depending on the size of the thing we won’t do much.Just another waste of money as can’t direct it somewhere else and we damn sure can’t destroy it."

Ah yes, the liberal mantra of "We're destroying the Earth with CO2, but we can't destroy a small rock with 1,000 nuclear missiles."

Sigh...

It's utterly untrue, but makes for a catchy mantra to mindlessly repeat.

41 posted on 10/26/2010 8:22:03 PM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Flag_This

“Asteroids have annihilated plenty of species on earth.”

And giving someone, maybe the UN, the power to land a 100M rock at 27,000 FPS is insane. We’ve got to grow up before we start messing with asteroid warfare.


42 posted on 10/26/2010 8:26:57 PM PDT by DBrow
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To: wendy1946
The most major threat to the human race other than I-slam is probably genetic entropy.

That process is inevitable, making it not a "threat" but a certain destiny.

Inbreeding increases the downward slope to "poodle-ization" of the population. That is, when one confines the genetic pool, one ends up with a worthless dog that is weak, sick and high maintenance at least when compared to a mutt (that with higher genetic diversity).

Curiously, those who like to tinker with human genetics with the aim of creating a master race for some reason like to breed out genetic information so we end up with "poodles". On the other hand, one could argue that the raping and pillaging (mostly the raping) of the population by invading foreign armies actually decreases the slope of genetic entropy making for hardier progeny. This could be one of those extremly rare good "unintended consequences" of UN Peace keeping missions into the third world.

43 posted on 10/26/2010 8:27:14 PM PDT by The Theophilus
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To: SunkenCiv
devastating impacts have occurred on Earth in the distant past

I don't know how they define the "distant past", but the Tunguska event in 1908 - only 102 years ago - had about 30 Megaton of energy. If it were to strike not in the middle of nowhere but, say, in Europe, it would be much harder to forget.

44 posted on 10/26/2010 8:29:27 PM PDT by Greysard
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To: DTogo

“If the asteroid is headed for Washington DC, leave it alone!”

Look up Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater. If that happened today, few on the East Coast would survive.


45 posted on 10/26/2010 8:31:06 PM PDT by DBrow
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To: SunkenCiv

Another one?!
Didn’t we just get hit by an’asteroid’ in 2008? That one has changed American civilization as we knew it.


46 posted on 10/26/2010 8:31:38 PM PDT by citizencon
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To: WoofDog123

“I would put China high on the list of countries”

Followed by Japan and India. Russia is stuck in LEO, moreso now with the Shuttle gone.


47 posted on 10/26/2010 8:34:12 PM PDT by DBrow
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To: DBrow
Look up Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater. If that happened today, few on the East Coast would survive.

So what is your point?

48 posted on 10/26/2010 8:35:56 PM PDT by The Theophilus
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To: DBrow

“If the asteroid is headed for Washington DC, leave it alone!”

Look up Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater. If that happened today, few on the East Coast would survive.

Depending on its size,Few on the Earth will survive.


49 posted on 10/26/2010 8:37:18 PM PDT by puppypusher (The World is going to the dogs.)
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To: Southack

There is no way we could get ONE nuke out to where it needs to be. The Shuttle only went 450 miles high, about the drive from NYC to DC. That would be seconds before impact, maybe less.

We need to get the nukes out by the orbit of Mars to be effective, and we simply can’t do that now. With a dozen years to plan, maybe.


50 posted on 10/26/2010 8:37:52 PM PDT by DBrow
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To: The Theophilus

“So what is your point? “

lol! The death toll would include more than John Kerry and Olympia Snowe, is the point! Lots more.


51 posted on 10/26/2010 8:39:42 PM PDT by DBrow
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To: puppypusher

“Depending on its size,Few on the Earth will survive.”

Chesapeake was not as large as Chixulub, or Manson, but yes, an asteroid strike on DC could kill a huge percentage of land-based life, not just people.

I don’t know of anyone building a space ark, yet...


52 posted on 10/26/2010 8:42:35 PM PDT by DBrow
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To: citizencon

Nah, that was a hemorrhoid in 2008!


53 posted on 10/26/2010 8:43:13 PM PDT by sleddogs
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To: SunkenCiv

We’ll worry about the asteroid after we excise the National Hemorrhoid, in 2012.


54 posted on 10/26/2010 8:43:29 PM PDT by Trod Upon (Obama: Making the Carter malaise look good. Misery Index in 3...2...1)
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To: SunkenCiv

Is this the October surprise? :)


55 posted on 10/26/2010 8:46:04 PM PDT by truthandlife ("Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God." (Ps 20:7))
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To: SunkenCiv

Maybe the US should deal with it’s giant HEMORRHOID first.


56 posted on 10/26/2010 8:46:11 PM PDT by mowowie
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To: SunkenCiv

“US Must Prepare for Asteroid”

I thought there was one already in the white house.


57 posted on 10/26/2010 8:54:41 PM PDT by taxesareforever (Release Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich and let him and his family get on with their lives.)
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To: Hardraade

Talk about damage control, eh?


58 posted on 10/26/2010 8:59:36 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: SunkenCiv

59 posted on 10/26/2010 9:16:52 PM PDT by BlueDragon (....other than that we aint nothin' just good 'ol boys...)
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To: The Comedian

Nuclear explosions leave readily measurable radioactive by-products. Unless the survivors had only pre-20th century technology, a nuclear explosion would be identified as such.


60 posted on 10/26/2010 9:26:12 PM PDT by I Shall Endure
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