Posted on 02/17/2007 11:41:10 AM PST by blam
Asteroid threat demands response, experts warn
16:26 17 February 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Ivan Semeniuk, San Francisco
If the asteroid Apophis hits Earth in 2036, it could slam into the Pacific Ocean, generating a tsunami that could devastate the west coast of North America (Illustration: Don Davis/NASA)
Kamchatkans and Venezuelans beware. A 20-million-tonne asteroid could be heading your way. Californians have even more reason to worry - the asteroid is more likely to hit the Pacific Ocean, triggering a tsunami that could devastate the west coast of North America.
These are among the scenarios projected for asteroid Apophis, which researchers now say has a 1 in 45,000 chance of hitting Earth on 13 April 2036. Calculations show it would strike somewhere along a narrow track that stretches eastward from Siberia to the west coast of Africa.
Compared to earlier estimates, the new figure represents a further reduction in the threat posed by Apophis (see Risk of asteroid smashing into Earth reduced). But the threat is real enough, experts argue, to merit a United Nations protocol for dealing with the problem.
"Someone will have to make a decision," says Russell Schweickart, a former Apollo astronaut and founder of the Association of Space Explorers. Because any plan for deflecting the asteroid away from Earth will need to be implemented well before an impact site is precisely known, he says, "this is inherently going to be an international decision".
Sky surveys
Beginning in the next few months, Schweickart's group will host a series of meetings to provide the UN with a 'decision process' for assessing and acting on the hazard posed by Apophis and other near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). A draft document ready for consideration by the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space is expected by
(Excerpt) Read more at space.newscientist.com ...
Catastrophism Ping.
Will Social Security still be around then? Hmmmmm ......
The only TRUE save the planet issue.
Is that a Friday in 2036?
Plot...for another Friday the thirteenth movie!
Apophis. Somebody's been watching too much Stargate.
Appears it's significantly more of a danger than man-made global warming.
I'll be 99 in 2036. You youngsters deal with it.
I'll bet that would cause a global climate change.
Not to worry. With the dhimmicrats lead by peelousy, and grungy, it will just be hundreds of thousnds of dead islamofascists and illegals that will have taken over by then, dying in a tsunami. Nothing to see, move along...
We're all gonna Die!!!! (eventually)
Bush will be 89 then...if anything bad happens, it will be blamed on him.
No doubt about it, this is damned 'seris'!
There is a considerably greater chance than 1:45,000 that we can figure out a better way to spend the money required to deflect this asteroid.
I wish these "experts" would care enough about it to pay for the response themselves, instead of asking others to carry the load.
A good excuse to implement a UN World Tax huh?
Everybody get your home owners insurance up to date.
Does not cover flooding caused by hurricane or asteroid. (You're not in good hands)
It would be entertaining to see the clowns at the UN if there were a real observable threat. For the record, they would be complaining the the United States isn't doing enough to counter the threat.
Under the radar, discerning UN clowns would be phoning NASA and the Joint Chiefs asking nicely what could be done.
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