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Action urged to deal with asteroid likely to hit Earth (Please read and respond to my comment)
Todayonline ^ | 12-08-05 | Guardian

Posted on 12/09/2005 9:07:47 AM PST by emiller

LONDON — Scientists are monitoring the progress of a 390m-wide asteroid discovered last year that is potentially on a collision course with the planet, and are imploring governments to decide on a strategy for dealing with it.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has estimated that an impact from Apophis, which has an outside chance of hitting the Earth in 2036, would release more than 100,000 times the energy released in the nuclear blast over Hiroshima.

Thousands of square kilometres would be directly affected by the blast but the whole of the Earth would see the effects of the dust released into the atmosphere. In Egyptian myth, Apophis was the ancient spirit of evil and destruction, a demon that was determined to plunge the world into eternal darkness.

The experts fear that there is very little time left to decide.

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


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: apophis; asteroid
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To: Phsstpok

I'm know we get hit by things. I also know its generally trivial. So far we've always survived.

To think that just now. when we start looking for big things, all of a sudden it turns out there's one coming...

Now that's nothing more than fodder for hysterical a-holes... whoever they might be.


101 posted on 12/09/2005 10:07:41 AM PST by Pessimist
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To: Lion Den Dan

Oh this is just great. You folks are very comforting. I feel like Superman's dad, talking to the high council...

Neither I, nor my wife will leave the planet earth...

(I didn't say anything about my cat)

I'm going to send my cat to the planet of the apes, and hopefully, there will be cats there-- and very few apes?


102 posted on 12/09/2005 10:09:00 AM PST by emiller
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To: applpie

True, but as I've mentioned on another board, John's description sounds more like nuclear war breaking out on the planet.


103 posted on 12/09/2005 10:09:22 AM PST by GAB-1955 (being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the Kingdom of Heaven....)
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To: emiller

I thought I heard on the Art Bell show that all life will end in 2012. lets fix that first, then worry about some big dumb fat ass-teroid.


104 posted on 12/09/2005 10:10:43 AM PST by isom35
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To: Soul_of_Chogokin

390 meters is not 3000 feet. It's more like 1300 feet (roughly a quarter of a mile).


105 posted on 12/09/2005 10:13:51 AM PST by Junior (From now on, I'll stick to science, and leave the hunting alien mutants to the experts!)
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To: RightWhale
Are the planets or other asteroids this particular one will pass by not known already? It seems if this asteroid can be identified 29 years out, so then can the celestial bodies it will come near. It's just mathematics and it seems as if someone has done their homework if the probability of a collision is at .018%

I don't know this for a fact but it is probable that ones chance of being struck by lightening is greater then that.
106 posted on 12/09/2005 10:17:32 AM PST by Eagles Talon IV
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To: jonno
How hard can that be? We've got more than 20 years to plan for Pete's sake.

No we don't. Other asteroids have been discovered, only when they had actually passed us. Like the near miss that occurred recently.

""Earth had a close call in 2002. In one of the nearest passes ever recorded, a rock the size of a football field that passed extraordinarily close to our planet on June 14 went undetected until June 17. The asteroid — speeding along at 6.2 miles per second — missed us by only 75,000 miles. That's only one-third the distance to the Moon.""

107 posted on 12/09/2005 10:18:46 AM PST by Jigsaw John
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To: Eighth Square

My husband said he thinks he has the early warning signs of bird flu... an uncontrollable urge to poo on car windshields.
: )


108 posted on 12/09/2005 10:21:14 AM PST by antceecee
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To: All
I always get a kick out of people laughing this off, thinking it's all nonsense. .... It will be interesting to see how so called "modern" man reacts prior to impact, and after.

They can't even predict the path of a hurricane 24 hours in advance.

As far as how people will react should it come to fruition...the good will help their fellow man to the best of their ability, the bad will take advantage of other's misfortune. Not too tough to figure out. Just look at Katrina for a microcosm of what will happen in any catastrophe.

Now I'm going to go worry about something really important...is my elderly neighbor's sidewalk shoveled yet.

109 posted on 12/09/2005 10:21:53 AM PST by BradMorris64
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To: Antonello
...if it goes through a 'keyhole' in space about 641m wide.

Won't they need the keymaster for the 'keyhole?

Sorry...wrong movie...never mind...

110 posted on 12/09/2005 10:23:06 AM PST by Night Hides Not (Closing in on 2500 posts, of which maybe 50 were worthwhile!)
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To: Eagles Talon IV

They can project the path 20 years out to be within a disc of a certain diameter with a sigma of some value. They may be 99% sure the asteroid will pass through a disc 48,000 miles diameter, but where within the disc they cannot know. The actual path will be determined by deflection by the gravity of the various planets in the meantime, and the amount of deflection will vary depending how near the asteroid passes in turn to each planet.
The uncertainty increases with each pass near a planet.


111 posted on 12/09/2005 10:23:24 AM PST by RightWhale (Not transferable -- Good only for this trip)
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To: fireforeffect
If they hadn't mentioned the name Apophis, I was going to go with the whole Larry Niven "Footfall" theme.     =;^)

Thermal Exposure: 6.77 x 108 Joules/m2

Ain't no SPF in the universe that'll stop that burn. Ouch.

112 posted on 12/09/2005 10:23:36 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (This is my tagline. There are many like it but this one is mine.)
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To: Pessimist
To think that just now. when we start looking for big things, all of a sudden it turns out there's one coming...

All of a sudden? It took us more than 30 years to find this one and it's not going to hit us (if it does) for about 30 more years. That doesn't make it foolish to look for them. Yep, that's the ticket. It didn't take a thousand years to find therefore it must be bunk.

Now that's nothing more than fodder for hysterical a-holes... whoever they might be.

I think the operative thinking here might be those that have their heads up their "a-holes..."

Ignorant personal attacks aside.

113 posted on 12/09/2005 10:23:51 AM PST by Phsstpok (There are lies, damned lies, statistics and presentation graphics, in descending order of truth)
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To: All

No problem. We have simple 70's technology to deal with this.

114 posted on 12/09/2005 10:24:58 AM PST by edpc
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To: emiller

I suggest we send Bruce Willis up there to take care of it.


115 posted on 12/09/2005 10:31:02 AM PST by Rocky (Air America: Robbing the poor to feed the Left)
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To: Soul_of_Chogokin

Get as much canned food, guns and ammo, windmills and traps that you can afford, and prey you survive the first year.


116 posted on 12/09/2005 10:32:13 AM PST by JeffersonRepublic.com (There is no truth in the news, and no news in the truth.)
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To: Soul_of_Chogokin

Get as much canned food, guns and ammo, windmills and traps that you can afford, and prey you survive the first year.


117 posted on 12/09/2005 10:32:18 AM PST by JeffersonRepublic.com (There is no truth in the news, and no news in the truth.)
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To: emiller

Let's see...I'll be 73 in 2006.

I'll take my chances.


118 posted on 12/09/2005 10:32:23 AM PST by rightinthemiddle (#1 Rule in Dealing with the Media, Democrats and Terrorists: Can't Please 'Em, so Don't Appease 'Em.)
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To: emiller

And I'll be 83.


119 posted on 12/09/2005 10:38:02 AM PST by higgmeister (In the shadow of the Big Chicken)
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To: higgmeister

I'll be with my Heavenly Father by then---I promise I'll talk to him about it.


120 posted on 12/09/2005 10:43:46 AM PST by RichRepublican (Some days you're the windshield--some days you're the bug.)
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