Well, at least we wont be worrying.

[zim]

...but thats just because we'd be caught with our pants down.

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/020620121339.dc05vk7l.html

[gone away]

*feels several parts of body*

still intact :D

yey

[Billyman]

Shit like that doesn't bother me. After all, if we know ahead of time, all we have to do is call Bruce Willis and he'll handle it.

[Koliedrus]

Recall:

On March 8, the asteroid (2002 EM7 (http://www.thehypertribe.net/forum/showthread.php?threadid=5270&highlight=2002+EM7)) passed within 298,400 miles (480,200 kilometers) of our planet, or about 1.2 times as far away as the Moon -- considered a relatively close shave by cosmic yardsticks. It was not discovered until March 12, however. After the rock was detected, scientists calculated its orbit and determined the path it had taken.

75,000 miles this time. Thats not a lot, boys and girls.



Originally posted by Mute
My teacher told us about this, that's some crazy shite I say!

Anyways, he explained to us the chances of an asteroid hitting us by demonstration. Our class is a small theatre/auditorium, the teacher drew a volleyball sized Earth(a bit smaller) on the chalk board. He'd get one of us to come in every 5 years, blind fold them at the back of the classroom and get them to throw a rock at the chalkboard. Where it hit would represent the asteroids path. Wait another 5 years, and do it again. I'd say the distance from chalkboard to student is around 20 - 25 feet, on a slight slant.

Sound somewhat true Kol?

Originally posted by Kol
Sounds like your teacher is trying to ease your mind. Something most people don't realize is that these things aren't falling on the Earth. They're falling on/toward the Sun. Earth sometimes gets in their way. This barely missed us on its outward journey. We now know that its path crosses Earth's orbit and it will most likely do so again. When and if depend on its orbital parameters as well as the course-change it received from the Earth's gravity.

Throwing a rock at a chalkboard is a one time thing. The real rocks don't stop once you throw them at the Sun. They come back for more.

Consider this: let's use a real volleyball. Instead of rocks, we use a shotgun from 50 yards. The pellets represent fragments of a larger object that's been broken up by a collision. The shotgun is because of the high velocities that these things have.

Aim the shotgun at a fixed target and have the ball swing back and forth in front of it. Pull the trigger at regular intervals.

One pellet almost punctures the ball? Could more be far behind? Could be.

I'm not trying to scare you, just trying to offset the rocks-at-the-chalkboard-blindfolded-every-five-years example. Statistically, we're overdue for an impact from something as small as the one that just missed us; small but powerful.

Boo! ;)



Just call me Nostradumbass ;)

I made a slanted, half-assed joke that if this asteroid had impacted and caused a Tunguska-like event, the mind of the world would be turned away from the Middle East.

I corrected myself quickly.

An unforseen blast that levels 800 square miles of land?

Someone would end up trying to blame someone else. Or it would be taken as an act of God's judgement. (Correction: Both)

Yup, that is one mess we don't need right now.

[zim]

The earth gets hit all the time by little rocks, which INDIVIDUALLY have the same liklihood of hitting us as the bigger ones.

There are just more of them than the bigger ones. --here's the thing, this new one... we didnt even KNOW it existed until 3 days after it passed us. --how many more of em are out there...


oh well, we've got other things that we can actually change to worry about.

[Billyman]

Though I joke about things such as this issue of being hit by "the big rock". Still it iterests me.

DT, you brought up being hit with small ones and the possibility of being hit by bigger ones.

But we already have been.

I remember watching something on the Discovery Channel some odd years ago about this very thing.

Although it was speculation and there was no actual proof as to what caused them, the show was showing craters. Big fucking craters. I don't recall where they were (I do know it was in the US) but they where showing and talking about craters from a few meters across to (I do remember this part) 20 miles across. They actually showed this crater that was 20 miles across. It wasn't formed by a river and corrosion, it wasn't long and jagged. It was round, really round and there where no cliffs. It was like taking a soup bowl and pushing it into the beach sand then taking it back up to see the impression. 20 miles across! Now something big as fuck had to have smashed into the ground to create that. Thing was, what was it? and where is it now?

It is alarming that with all our technology, the astroid wasn't seen until after the fact. Look's like someone may have been asleep at the wheel.

[zim]

Originally posted by Billyman
20 miles across! Now something big as fuck had to have smashed into the ground to create that. Thing was, what was it? and where is it now?

Not necessarily true. The velocity of the object is more important than size. E=(m/2)v^2

double the velocity, quadruple the energy.
double the mass, double the energy.

Take an object just big enough to make it through the atmosphere without completely burning up, and make it damn fast and we'll have just as much of a problem... so the smaller ones are problems of note too.

It is alarming that with all our technology, the astroid wasn't seen until after the fact. Look's like someone may have been asleep at the wheel.

Disagreed. --look up, how big's the sky. Pretty damn big. --each telescope can only focus on one direction at a time. Radar type devices have the same limitation.