It's called Apophis. It's 390m wide. And it could hit Earth in 31 years time [Asteroid]

The Guardian (UK) ^ | December 7, 2005 | by Alok Jha

[CindyDawg]

I'll be 86. I think I'll sit on the front stoop and watch it come in.

I'll be around 80 and from the way things are looking, still having to work. Take some pictures, ok?

[KC Burke]

pup

[birbear]

Nobody has a pool up and running yet on latitude and longitude?

I'll take: 48° 49' N 2° 29' E

[Dr. Luv]

Get out the tinfoil hats....

[Graymatter]

31 years, eh? According to my doctors I don't have 31 months. It figures I would miss the astronomical event of the century. Got to be a way around this...

[kcar]

So why rebuild New Orleans? Maybe Dr. Strangelove has a better idea.

[Mannaggia l'America]

I just happen to be reading....

[Petronski]

By then I'll be 69. Hmmm.


OTOH, my boys will be in their late 20s.





Yeah, I guess I'll panic if it hasn't been resolved or clarified by 2025.

[D.P.Roberts]

Let's see, it's roughly the size of the Superdome. Maybe we could fill it with New Orleans welfare junkies and they could wreck it in a weekend.

[gas0linealley]

Headlines...2036

"United Nations Security Council passes resolution number 1,970 condemning Pophis for impending genocide."

"Greenpeace goes into World Court seeking injunction against use of force against pristine asteroid."

"Robert Kennedy Jr. assails NASA for planning asteroid mission without having done an environmental impact study."

[beaver fever]

"I'll be 71. Like I'll give a flying fig leaf."

Go on a fitness program.

While the young guys are running around saying, "I don't want to die!!!!", you can say, "My last day and I get all the chicks!!!!"

Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!

[Brilliant]

In that case, don't worry too much about social security.

[cripplecreek]

[Dont_Tread_On_Me_888]

Get the 911 Commission on it. Gore-licker, Ben-Vensite and Co. They seem to have all the right answers. Yea man, do that.

[CindyDawg]

And Japanese cowboys land on the darn thing and steer it away.

[RayChuang88]

We have thirty-one years before impact. That's way more than enough time to drop a lander with an ion rocket on it, land it on the asteroid, and fire the ion rocket for about a month to "nudge" the asteroid into a safe orbit. Or if technology is advanced enough by then, use a powerful enough rocket to slow down the asteroid to park it in the L1 gravitational zone between the Earth and Moon and start mining it out afterwards.

[gathersnomoss]

I have to change my Depends. Thanks.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Who was it that sang an opposite song to EVE OF DESTRUCTION called Eve Of Correction?

[Revolting cat!]

Let's get serious, down on our knees and pray for women and minories who'll be hardest hit (it goes without saying.)

[CindyDawg]

Hmm. Yeah, that's a nice get away car but the basket ... is not going to hold a lot of loot. That hook on the back might hold the plasma screen though.