Posted on 09/07/2014 5:37:19 AM PDT by John W
On Sunday afternoon at 2:15 pm Eastern time, to be exact a small asteroid will whiz by the Earth.
Don't worry: it'll miss us by about 25,000 miles. To be clear, there is zero chance it can hit us. This is certain.
But in the long-term, worrying a little about asteroids isn't an unreasonable idea. Now, the odds of a massively destructive asteroid impact at any given time are tiny but the potential costs would be enormous. Yet we still haven't invested in all the infrastructure needed to spot small asteroids with much warning (we spotted this one less than a week ago). And we've done nothing to develop the ability to divert a larger one if it threatened us.
We'll be totally fine on Sunday in fact, the asteroid will be small and far enough away that you won't be able to see it without a telescope. But it'd be great if we can use this sort of near-miss to rouse us from our species-wide slumber, and make asteroid detection more of a priority.
(Excerpt) Read more at vox.com ...
Luke 10:18 “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”
Bush’s fault.
So, what you’re saying is that, the planets in our solar system help protect the earth from huge asteroids and meteors. Sounds like a very intelligent way to design a universe. :)
Ya know? When I wuz 10 they told me "The Moon is there to protect the Earth from asteroids."
They didn't have an answer when I pointed out that, if anything, the Earth, being bigger, was there to protect the Moon from asteroids!
Teachers hated me...
And, like dying in a plane crash, you don't have to actually be on the asteroid to be killed!
I once asked one of my Felician nun teachers, "Can God make a rock so big that even he can't move it?"
Pretty sure I got detention for that one.
Yes, and responding in today’s insipid group think way, one would have to say ten times closer. Groan...
The asteroid will pass by a little more than 10% as close as the moon’s average orbital distance from the earth.
The Rock of Faith is that big.
It’s called “Free Will”.
And most assuredly these gravity wells always sling the incoming objects away from earth......not.
Someone wrote the other day that the Moon often acts as an effective “catcher’s mitt” against many objects menacing Earth. So much so that in future, efforts to deflect space objects should preferably direct them at the Moon, so that they will be gone for good, instead of putting them into an orbit that might be unstable enough for them to assail us again.
lol
Actually, we presently have, or could have in short order, the technology to divert asteroids and comets. It's really not that difficult. The key is to intercept the object far out, so only a little bit of divergence is needed to cause it to miss. The closer the intercept the more delta vee is needed.
The chance of being hit is proportional to the size of the object, with many more small than big ones out there.
http://www.risk-ed.org/pages/risk/asteroid_prob.htm
An asteroid about 1 to 2 km is size supposedly hit China in 1490, with around 10,000 deaths. Today, of course, the death toll would be much higher if it hit the same place, due to larger population. The chance of an asteroid of this size hitting somewhere on earth is about 1 in 1000 years. The chance of it hitting a heavily populated area is of course much lower.
However, this does NOT mean that it will be 1000 years, rather it means there is a 1 in 1000 chance it will hit this year. We're already 500 years out from the last one. That we know of.
The capability to detect and divert these objects would require a much more robust space presence, which arguably has manifold other benefits.
One of the liberal enviro memes if the Gaia hypothesis, that the Earth is itself a living organism that creates the conditions for life. And there is certainly something to the notion.
In the eyes of deep enviros, this makes Man, or at least American white straight Man, a disease that must be destroyed.
I've boggled a number of these types by suggesting that modern man is Gaia's way of building itself an asteroid defense system. Simply can't wrap their minds around the idea.
True of nearly any event.
Betcha $5 you’re wrong.
Oh I will!
>>The greatest existential threat to America is Barack Obama. He is destroying the country as we type this morning
And he’s doing it for that cursed black rock in Mecca. It’s the only consistent thing that he will support and defend. He is not a friend of Russia, China, or any other nation. He is not a friend of white people or black people. He is not a friend of the rich or the poor.
But, he is always the friend of Islam.
Given enough time yes. But even then it still isn’t a certainty.
And that means.....nothing.
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