Asteroid has a date with Earth, but not quite yet

The Sunday Times (U.K.) ^ | 03/31/2002 | Jonathan Leake

[browardchad]

"Well, what is our government DOING about this?" -- Bill O'Reilly.

[Mr. K]

wow- interesting. How thick is the earths crust?

[Dog Gone]

Lucifer's Hammer is real, eh?

[Dog Gone]

I just told my wife the news, and she asked me if she needed to pack anything.

[Frohickey]

WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!!! Some of us sooner than others, but all of us, definitely before this asteroid gets here.

[RightWhale]

another 878 years.

At the rate the govenment works, every one of those 878 years will be needed just to write the EIS - the Environmental Impact Study. Uh-oh, EIS has the I-word in it. Bad juju, Bwana.

[toddst]

"Well, what is our government DOING about this?" -- Bill O'Reilly.

What the heck, we'll probably wait a couple-hundred years before worrying about it much. At least wait that long before spending any money!!

[AngrySpud]

878 years from now the asteroid won't exist ... we'll have mined it.

[rightofrush]

Think of the peel of an apple - The Earth's crust is proportionately thinner.

[rightofrush]

Think of the skin on an apple - The Earth's crust is proportionately thinner.

[Pokey78]

New York Times headline:

March 31, 2880:

Asteroid To Impact Earth Tomorrow
Women and Minorities Hurt Most

[blam]

"878 years from now the asteroid won't exist ... we'll have mined it."

Yup, now you're talking.

[My Favorite Headache]

Have a look at the year 2012 and talk to me about the asteroid that is due to come near us then.

[ancient_geezer]

The asteroid, more than half a mile in diameter, is similar in size to the one thought to have plunged into the sea off Mexico 65m years ago, depriving the earth of light and wiping out the dinosaurs.

Thank heaven there are no more dinosaurs to wipe out, I was really getting worried there for a moment:O(

[Zorobabel]

I read somewhere that the ancient Mayan calander ends in 2012 which supposed to be the end of the world, or cycle or something.

[LibWhacker]

Of varying thickness. In some places, often where there is a lot of volcanic activity, it's relatively thin. In other places, thicker. IIRC, the average is something like 50 miles.

In one astronomy course I took, they said almost none of the craters on the moon are associated with lava flows; i.e., the impacts did not punch right through the moon's crust and release a huge flood of lava. I don't even think the Chicxulub (CHEEK-shoe-lube) impact that wiped out the dinosaurs is associated with any release of lava. And that asteroid was about six miles across.

So realistically, it would take an enormously huge impact on earth to do that, even if it happened to hit on the boundary of a continental plate. And if the impact were THAT huge, we'd have a lot more to worry about than just lava. IMHO, it's kind of strange that they would even mentioned the possiblity of a half-mile asteroid puncturing through the earth's crust.

[browardchad]

It's the end of the world as we know it,
And I feel fine...

[Mr. K]

and the rest is liquid underneath? (I should know this stuff...)

[Mike Darancette]

The asteroid, more than half a mile in diameter, is similar in size to the one thought to have plunged into the sea off Mexico 65m years ago, depriving the earth of light and wiping out the dinosaurs.

The rock that got the Dinosaurs was about 10km (6 miles) in diameter. Half a mile won't get the job done.