Alien52 Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 You can get cream for asteroids which makes them shrink and go away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted January 12, 2013 Author Share Posted January 12, 2013 Wise words from someone who should know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annoni_mouse Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 Whenever there's an anouncement of an asteroid or meteor near-miss, I always wonder if the powers that be would actually tell us peasants of an impending collision. Surely you would want to keep the population in blissful ignorance. This particular space rock only has to have the lightest kiss on a similar object and it may well be on a collision coarse with our little planet with no possibility if missing us. On skygazing, or whatever it was called, they asked some NASA chick what could be done if an impact was forecast. She gave some credible sounding scenarios where the asteroid could be pushed it pulled off its trajectory, but I reckon whilst these theories would work, in practice I doubt we have the technology to implement them. So we'd most likely be boned! Posted from Sheffieldforum.co.uk App for Android Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lotusflower Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 Apophis is an asteroid. It passed Earth at the weekend and it turned out to be bigger than previously thought. It's about half a mile across. When it returns in 2029 it will be much closer, an estimated 18,000 miles away. That's less than the circumference of the Earth, but there is a 2.7% chance that it will collide with Earth. If it collides, the human race may be wiped out. Makes you think, doesn't it? Not unless you have too much time on your hands. http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/apophis/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldo Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 To put this into perspective, the asteroid that is suspected of causing the Cretaceous extinction event 65million years ago and created the Chicxulub crater on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico was around 10k in diameter when it hit the ground - maybe larger. If in the very unlikely event that 99942 Apophis does impact Earth, it would certainly cause considerable damage to the environment. If the rock that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs was only 6 miles in diameter; you'd think a puny 0.25 mile diameter rock (only 1/14000th the volume of the 6 mile diameter rock) wouldn't do much damage... Would it make a difference if it hit the earth head-on, or if it was just just a glancing blow? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted January 12, 2013 Author Share Posted January 12, 2013 "not much damage" is relative. Apohisis weighs 27 million tonnes and it's travelling at 30 km / second. I'd be tempted to duck if it gets too close. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anarchon Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 If the rock that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs was only 6 miles in diameter; you'd think a puny 0.25 mile diameter rock (only 1/14000th the volume of the 6 mile diameter rock) wouldn't do much damage... Would it make a difference if it hit the earth head-on, or if it was just just a glancing blow? It would do plenty of damage if it struck. Ever heard of the Tunguska explosion in Siberia in 1908? An asteroid or comet fragment estimated to have been a mere 100m in diameter caused an air burst explosion with the energy of around 30 megatons of TNT (1,000 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb). It completely levelled 830 square miles of forest. And this thing didn't even reach the ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Shaw Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 You can get cream for asteroids which makes them shrink and go away. No, wasn't Asteroid a Gaul? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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