[dead]

"Let's say it hit anywhere in Europe, the whole of Europe would be well, in deep trouble.”

As if that would be news.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

I think this is a great idea. It would be the ultimate skeet shoot. I love it.

[cardinal4]

As if that would be news.

LOL!!! I love FR!

[Cyber Liberty]

"As if that would be news."

As if that would be a bad thing....

[TomServo]

"If this thing hit the Pacific Ocean anywhere, the whole of the Pacific rim would go, tidal waves, whatever.

This must be the guy they mentioned in 'Armageddon' who got a 'C' in astrophysics.

[DETAILER]

Let's put the Hubble between it and the sun and use the Hubble as a magnifying glass - heat the thing up till it melts, disintegrates, or pops like a rock in a campfire.

HA ha.....

[stainlessbanner]

You drop a chunk of iron travelling at 50km per second onto anything, you've got troubles.

Big Trouble from Outer Space!

[KellyAdmirer]

"If this thing hit the Pacific Ocean anywhere, the whole of the Pacific rim would go, tidal waves, whatever.

Tidal waves???????? Ummm, don't think so, Doc. The article says he is an astronomer (hey, I have a telescope too), but what is he a doctor of, podiatry?

By the way, just what we need, not one big asteroid coming our way, but millions of bits of busted-up, radioactive meteor surrounded by a cloud of radioactivity, headed straight for our vicinity.

Back to the drawing board, "Dr." Ford.

[KarlInOhio]

Forget the nukes. I have a lower cost way to plant explosives on it.

1. Israeli government declares the asteroid to be part of Israel and puts "settlements" on it. These settlements would look like Hollywood front-only buildings.
2. Arafat declares that the asteroid is part of the Palestinian homeland under Zionist occupation.
3. Suicide bomber line up to take care of asteroid problem (and suicide bomber problem, too).

[wcbtinman]

If the govt is involved, they'll probably nudge it into the moon.

[Charles Martel]

What, we don't have one of these...

asteroid deflector thingies, that automatically zap encroaching space rocks...

Like that? Well, I *am* depressed. ;-)

[Salgak]

Mind you, the 2019 date is when its' orbit intersects Earth's orbit and we're close at that time. It may or may not hit, but was discovered only a week or three ago. Further observation will tell, in a matter of months, if it's likely to hit, or, more likely, may pass within a few million miles or so. . .

If we find it's likely to hit, THEN we need to send up a mission of some sort ASAP: the earlier we start diverting it, the easier the job will be. You do NOT want to blow it up without changing the orbit: that just changes it from getting hit by a cannonball to getting hit by a shotgun blast, so to speak. Think about the NYC scenes from "Armageddon", on a worldwide basis. . .

[Grig]

How big of an asteroid would it take to knock the moon into a decaying orbit?

[boris]

See Barney Oliver's 1970s report, "Project Icarus".

[Paradox]

Lets send up all the envirowhacko luddites to the asteroid. Tell them to use "natural" methods, like, they can get together and PUSH REAL HARD.

[archy]

"You've got 17 years to think of how to do it but basically what you do is rendezvous with it, blow something alongside it, kick it off onto a different track," he said.

Couldn't they hit it with Rosie O'Donnell, travelling at 50 kilometers per second? It'd go flying like an 8-ball hite with a cueball.

[ravingnutter]

Hate to bring this up...but we may have more immediate concerns. See the website Planet X Facts. Scroll down to the research links. Some predict it will hit the earth in 2003...be sure to put on your tinfoil before you go there....

[My Favorite Headache]

I keep saying this...and will repeat it here. Why do you think the space station has been getting all of the work it has been? Half of France's GDP was spent on space! This is a no brainer here. We are teaming up with every nation that can and will afford here to knock this thing out of orbit. But I like how they say it will just miss us.

Have you read the numbers on just how close it will come? Even if it does miss...it won't be by much! That will cause so much chaos and disruption on Earth...it will make an Al Qaeda attack look like child's play.

[Willie Green]

"Let's say it hit anywhere in Europe, the whole of Europe would be well, in deep trouble.”

Seems fitting.
It'll give the Euroweenie Green Party something valid to whine about for a change.
Let them figure out their own solution.
It oughta keep 'em preoccupied and outa our business.

[Magnum44]

Somebody on this thread, Please educate me. I work in space but asteroids encounters aren't my area of expertise.

A quick search for '2002 NT7' brings up the long term asteroid encounter site which does list a 2019 encounter by '2002 NT7' but at .17 AU's distance, hardly a threat. See web page:

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/CloseAppLong.html

Another look at the 'Potentially hazardous asteroids' site at:

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/PHACloseApp.html

doesn't even list NT7, though there are obviously hundreds of others with more imminent encounter dates that we never hear about. No indication of the size (mass) of the listed objects is given, though it may be there and I can't read the product correctly.

So where is all the hubbub about NT7 coming from?

[Momaw Nadon]

As a conservative, I generally oppose spending on government programs.

But in this case, I believe these close calls with asteroids warrant the U.S. government to find out where these asteroids are and research how to deflect them.

A few million dollars spent on asteroid detection and defense will pale in comparison to the trillions of dollars in damage that would result from the impact of an asteroid of this magnitude.

Or better yet, maybe Steven Speilberg can spend the money he made from Deep Impact to fund such programs.

Opinions?