33 replies to this topic

[Wolf O'Donnell]

I'm not sure whether any of you have seen it, seeing as the US Air Force conducted the experiment in December 08 but the article on the results was published in September 09, but we are apparently ill-prepared against incoming asteroids.

http://www.newscient...o-the-test.html

There is apparently no plan of what to do when an asteroid hits, plus our early-warning systems are inadequate. 72 hrs is not enough warning to prevent an impact. Furthermore, there is no way for NASA, emergency planners, the US military and other parts of government to co-ordinate.

If you go to the article above and click on the images, you'll be given a selection of three images. The last one shows us how much of the sky is being covered by telescopes. You'll notice that the orange bits, the bits which we currently have covered, are a minority of the black section of sky. Quite literally, we don't have enough eyes and anything coming at us from outside of the orange areas will come at us undetected.

So, yeah... we're doomed!

[Showsni]

Dang. I was kind of hoping that they were all prepred. Maybe we should stop examining nebulae light years away and searching for intelligent life out there, and focus more on our own solar system...

Agh, it's seriously scaring me now. I can't think about this kind of stuff for too long or I'll get all panicky.

[Oberon Storm]

What? You really thought a tag team of Robert Duvall and Bruce Willis would save the day?

[Sir Turtlelot]

We're all screwed!

What? You really thought a tag team of Robert Duvall and Bruce Willis would save the day?

...Maybe....


But in all seriousness, this is somewhat concerning.

[arunma]

Dang. I was kind of hoping that they were all prepred. Maybe we should stop examining nebulae light years away and searching for intelligent life out there, and focus more on our own solar system...

Agh, it's seriously scaring me now. I can't think about this kind of stuff for too long or I'll get all panicky.

Well, we should definitely stop searching for intelligent life out there. But if we stop examining nebulae light years away, I'll be out of a job...so I can't allow that.

[Masamune]

I have absolute confidence that mankind will destroy itself long before space gets a chance.

[Khallos]

I'm a bit dismayed that we haven't yet got anything longer than a week's warning...but then I'm clueless to the amount of debris flying around the solar system and beyond.


And I think that impact picture was used in a lecture today...

[Wolf O'Donnell]

Dang. I was kind of hoping that they were all prepred. Maybe we should stop examining nebulae light years away and searching for intelligent life out there, and focus more on our own solar system...

Agh, it's seriously scaring me now. I can't think about this kind of stuff for too long or I'll get all panicky.

Although, three days should be enough time for you to get the Hell out of there. The problem, of course, is if everyone acted like they did with Hurrican Katrina.

With a three-day warning, you can walk away and be safe. But it scares me, given how poorly we've handled things of this nature in the past. I'm picturing people panicking and driving the wrong way on the freeway, screaming 'Oh my god, it's going to kill us!'

[SL the Pyro]

First the war in Iraq, then the warnings of deadly solar flares in 2012, and now this. Really, is this the Rapture?

Edited by SL the Pyro, 06 October 2009 - 09:50 AM.

[CID Farwin]

Not yet

[SOAP]

First the war in Iraq, then the warnings of deadly solar flares in 2012, and now this. Really, is this the Rapture?

Yes. Except no one gets saved because deep down we're all too much of dicks to get into heaven.

[GuardianNinja]

Pull a jimmy neutron and use a gigantic magnet with reverse polarity to push the asteroid away... cough.

[arunma]

Anyway, back to the asteroid issue. Although we don't have telescopes pointing at all parts of the sky at all times, there are plenty of satellites that do all sky surveys every so often. I would assume that at least a few of these look in the ecliptic often enough to see incoming asteroids. Since the motion of asteroids can be predicted very well, we could have a warning period on the order of years before an asteroid hits us. Of course, we still have no idea what to do about it.

On the other hand, maybe earth has had an active Stargate program for the past fifteen years, and secret Air Force teams have been saving the planet every week (once a day after syndication) without our knowledge.

[DarkJuno]

Hey, you know what they say about plausible deniability - though the fact that SG-1 outright said that means it's obviously just a show. Sure,there is a door marked "SGC" at Cheyenne Mountain, to be fair.


It's just a broom closet though.


....or is it!?


Probably.


Or not!

[Sir Turtlelot]

[Showsni]

So painting a face on the asteroid didn't stop it crashing to Earth. Let's not trust our anti asteroid programme to the internet.

[Average Gamer]

"Hey guys, what's up? I heard something about planetary impacts and 72 hours."

Edited by Average Gamer, 08 October 2009 - 05:40 PM.

[Khallos]

"Hey guys, what's up? I heard something about planetary impacts and 72 hours."

This has just won the internet only to shatter the earth into tiny pieces.

[Hana-Nezumi]

People are surprised that we don't have a protection against that kind of thing? I had always assumed that if an asteroid did randomly crash into the Earth, we were pretty much screwed... Guess I was right.

[Ikiosho]

People are surprised that we don't have a protection against that kind of thing? I had always assumed that if it did randomly crash into us, we were pretty much screwed... Guess I was right.

O.O

Guess you were right.

Edited by Ikiosho, 08 October 2009 - 09:02 PM.

[spunky-monkey]

What's actually frightening is a mere 72hrs is actually 72hrs more than we can usually hope for from NASA's Near Earth Object Program. Just think back to March 23, 1989, when that 1989 FC asteroid came within 430,000 miles of Earth. 1989 FC carried the energy estimated to be more than 1000 one-megaton hydrogen bombs, which would give you one awful headache. Thing was, the asteroid was only discovered AFTER it had made its closest approach to Earth.

Also, it is estimated that there are perhaps 100,000 to 1,000,000 undiscovered asteroids on similar Earth crossing orbits; ignoring the Apollo and Aten asteroids for a moment I wouldn't put it past one of these near-Earth objects to be of considerable astronomical threat to our planet in the not too distant future.

So, yes in all probability, we are doomed, question is, when are we doomed? I can't even hope to begin to calculate because every time an asteroid comes near Earth's gravitational pull, the trajectory of its orbit is changed, a previously harmless fly-by of two celestial objects could spell certain collision hundreds of years later.

On the wishful thinking side, any small asteroid/planetoid could always become trapped and orbit Earth as a second moon instead. For a while people thought Ceres (dwarf planet) was orbiting Earth at one point.

Edited by spunky-monkey, 09 October 2009 - 05:18 AM.

[Average Gamer]

"So, it's been 72 hours."

[arunma]

"So, it's been 72 hours."

You know...the thing that surprises me is that this wasn't the first thing to come to my mind when I saw this thread.

[Poore]

I don't get why people are so concerned about this. "Oh no, an asteroid might kill us!" Yeah, but you could get hit by a car tomorrow and you'd still be just as dead. I understand there's the whole "humankind wiped out thing", but if I'm dead, that doesn't really matter to me anymore.

[wisp]

Also, it is estimated that there are perhaps 100,000 to 1,000,000 undiscovered asteroids on similar Earth crossing orbits; ignoring the Apollo and Aten asteroids for a moment I wouldn't put it past one of these near-Earth objects to be of considerable astronomical threat to our planet in the not too distant future.

If they're undiscovered, how do they know there are that many? I'm serious; does anyone know what sorts of information they're using to get this estimate?

[arunma]

Also, it is estimated that there are perhaps 100,000 to 1,000,000 undiscovered asteroids on similar Earth crossing orbits; ignoring the Apollo and Aten asteroids for a moment I wouldn't put it past one of these near-Earth objects to be of considerable astronomical threat to our planet in the not too distant future.

If they're undiscovered, how do they know there are that many? I'm serious; does anyone know what sorts of information they're using to get this estimate?

We can use simulations, statistical calculations, selective observations, and other astronomical techniques to estimate the number of other astroids out there that might cross earth's orbit. I've never heard Spunky's number before, but I have no reason to doubt it's right. We should, however, clarify this somewhat. For example, when they say that there are between 10^5-10^6 asteroids on similar Earth crossing orbits, are we talking about the number of these things that pass near earth in a year? A month? We should also define what we mean by coming "near" the earth.

[Ransom]

I don't get why people are so concerned about this. "Oh no, an asteroid might kill us!" Yeah, but you could get hit by a car tomorrow and you'd still be just as dead. I understand there's the whole "humankind wiped out thing", but if I'm dead, that doesn't really matter to me anymore.

This is logical.

However, emotionally, i have a deep concern for the human race as a whole.

Its like my team in the universe.

[Masamune]

Maybe if we tried reasoning with the asteroids, they wouldn't be so hellbent on destroying is. Why can't we just give peace a chance?

[Veteran]

I don't trust them. Them with their big giant heads. We need to cleanse the galaxy of their kind.

[Masamune]

If we start investing in anti-asteroid measures, then it's only going to to incite them into a preemptive attack.