Asteroid Poses Tiny Danger, but It May Be Lured Away

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/22/science/space/22aste.html ^ | November 22, 2005 | HENRY FOUNTAIN

[samtheman]

Want some candy, little asteroid?

[LIConFem]

"There's 5,499 chances out of 5,500 that it's going to miss us."

Wouldn't it have been simpler to say, "One chance in 5,500"?

[BenLurkin]

[BenLurkin]

Space Ping

[samtheman]

Interesting idea.

[sandbar]

>>>Wouldn't it have been simpler to say, "One chance in 5,500"?>>>

They just like saying large numbers. Makes them feel smart.

[Boundless]

>> "There's 5,499 chances out of 5,500 that it's going to miss us."

> Wouldn't it have been simpler to say, "One chance in 5,500"?

Rusty has apparently encountered government school graduates
who buy Lotto tickets and think 1:5500 is good odds. The way
he put it, only the totally innumerate victims of public
schools can conclude we're all going to die.

[LIConFem]

Yeah, they're a bunch of fart smellers, them scientists!

;o)

[KevinDavis]

[kingu]

Radioactive fragments? Oh, yeah, that dust would be OH so dangerous. Ghads. Why can't the NY Times at least import the only good thing about France - the lack of innane fear of nuclear energy.

[ASA Vet]

Install the rockets, control it's path, and use it as a hammer where needed.

[P.O.E.]

Who are we to interfere with the asteroid's free speech rights? If it cannot afford a lawyer, the courts should appoint one.

[lexington minuteman 1775]

So we just send Tommy Lee Jones, Bruce Willis and some others go out there and blast this thing to smithereens!
Or, we can dig up Slim Pickens and have him ride it back into earth?

[Strategerist]

I've never seen it mentioned in these articles but this asteroid HAD to have been named by fans of Stargate SG-1, correct? (Apophis once tried to destroy earth on the show by diverting an Asteroid towards it.)

[GSlob]

Gravitational pull of a small vehicle is minuscule, and to keep it suspended over the asteroid for a long time would waste all the fuel. [Besides, the jet exhaust will impact on the asteroid and will start pushing it in the opposite direction with much greater efficiency].

[LRS]

Perhaps nuclear propulsion? Man, what's wrong with you? What if something went wrong? You want to poison us all with an "unnatural" death before we all die the "natural" way by being smashed?

[contemplator]

Apophis? There's a Stargate SG-1 joke in here somewhere.

[A CA Guy]

With our luck, the Japanese will land on an asteroid and direct it to earth.

[TalonDJ]

From a human perspective, Earth-crossing asteroids can have good timing or bad timing. Good timing is when the asteroid and the Earth don't meet. Bad timing is when they do.

Someone got paid actual money to write this garbage?