Posted on 04/04/2002 10:30:58 AM PST by areafiftyone
Edited on 09/03/2002 4:50:14 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
WASHINGTON -- A new look at an asteroid orbiting the sun shows it could possibly smash into the Earth with the explosive force of millions of tons of TNT. But experts say the potential impact is still 878 years away, time enough for the speeding space rock to alter its course.
Named 1950 DA, the asteroid -- six-tenths of a mile wide -- is the most threatening to the Earth of all of the known large asteroids, but the odds are only about one in 300 that it would impact the planet, researchers said Thursday in the journal Science.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Best to assume we will. The alternative becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Sounds like a NY Times headline:
"World To End Tommorow"
"Poor Will Suffer Most"
Same as paving concrete.
879 years, but the last ones expired in the year 1355.
Time enough for 8.78 days? Months? Years? Suicide bombers?
Sounds like what happend to my character the other night on Everquest.
Therefore(!), I hereby suggest we name it the Carville Disruption Asteroid due to that "spin rate."
Not really. The biggest blast on earth was at most 60 megatons, and it was an air-deliverable device in Siberia [took up the whole airplane, full load]. That was huge, so impressive that the Russians never tried another. American thermonukes were tested in the Pacific Ocean. 20 megatons is about the practical limit and that is still so large it raises questions of military ethics.
However, because of the long-time span involved (878 years -- 35 generations!), there is plenty of time to improve our knowledge. If it is eventually decided 1950 DA needs to be diverted, the hundreds of years of warning could allow a method as simple as dusting the surface of the asteroid with chalk or charcoal, or sending a solar sail spacecraft that ends by collapsing its reflective sail around the asteroid. These things would change the asteroids reflectivity and allow sunlight to do the work of pushing the asteroid out of the way.Now the question has to be asked: Is there enough solar wind and time available to sprinkle Hillary with chalk and divert her trajectory from 1600 Penn?There is no reason for concern over 1950 DA. The most likely result will be that St. Patrick's Day parades in 2880 will be a little more festive than usual as 1950 DA recedes into the distance, having passed Earth by.
She survived a collision with a Starr. We're talking about one huge asteroid, here.
And a foundation set up by Algore will still be counting ballots trying to find a way he would have won, though still unsuccessful after 13,000 tries.
And its those damn envirowackos who are the problem. We need MORE SUVS and to burn MORE fossil fuel to really get global warming in full gear. That way the asteroid will just burn up in the atmosphere. Anyone who recycles and drives an electric car is the enemy and not concerned about the world they are leaving to the future generations.
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