by toddy 17 Replies latest jw friends
My question is,are we taking this threat seriously,is enough money being put into discovering and tracking these meteors?
And what about this then?
http://europe.cnn.com/2001/TECH/science/08/29/tidal.wave/index.html
Were they right after all? Is it around the corner? Is 'real soon now' really real soon now? Did we leave the bus one stop too early?
Well Cynicus,
If you really want a bad hair day, it is no safer on the West coast because there is a good chance of a giant tsunami being generated by a landslide on the big island in Hawaii, which would in all probability destroy most West coast cities. Add on top of this the ever present danger of giant earthquakes on the West coast in both California and in the Pacific Northwest, along with a potential super volcano erupting in Northern California which would devestate a great deal of the USA, and let us not forget the chance of freak supernova explosions from other stars that would likely wipe out all life on the side of the Earth facing it when it hit from hard gamma rays or even a massive super solar flare that tears off a good part of our atmosphere into space.
Just goes to show you that the Earth is by far not a safe place to be in the long term scheme of things.
Beam me up Scotty...
Skipper
The thick layer of pollution might burn most of it up and it will hit the local pub and burn that up
Which pub?
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be....
A pretty good book (fiction) about this is Lucifer's Hammer by Niven and Pournelle. Most of the story takes place after the event, which is the more interesting part.
I took a class on meteor/asteroid collisions and extraterrestial material impacting earth and planetary bodies, so yeah, we are screwed. A study of the earth's surface reveals that we have been BOMBAREDED for millions of years, and only a few of the impact craters remains, mostly in arid, dry areas where natural erosion forces fail to destroy it.
You should read up on 'Nemesis' or 'Death Star' theory on masse xtinction. The earth sees a mass extinction approximaltey every 26 million years, the most devastating of which killed 90% of all life on earth at the time. The theory states that there is a hidden large object whos orbit attracts comets towards earth every 26 million years. It's unproven and controversial, but it is highly odd that we see these mass extinctions like clockwork.
Each time, life has survived and then thrived, but who knows if earth will ever be hit by something so big that all life is comnpletley wiped out. Oh well, i am off to eat a bic mac..see ya!
-Dan
Meteor shower strikes New York. Priests of all major religions announce:
"God is angry with you. You have not done his will. You have neglected his holy temple, and now his wrath has arisen against you."
"Oh, save us! What must we do?" cry the people.
"Bring your silver and your gold to the altar," say the priests. "The holy temple suffers from neglect. Bring the finest of your livestock; strong, healthy yearling calves. Bring your stocks and bonds, and your retirement savings. Oh yes, and your virgin daughters.
"Oh, what the heck, bring the used ones, too. And get a move on."
COMF
Great book.
Rex
I think the definative book on the subject is 'Lucifer's Hammer' I think it's by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournell.
It's a full-blown hard-science (i.e. it makes sense) account of a big-one hitting Earth.
Now, statistics are a dangerous thing. About half the people in the USA are under average intelligence. Get it?
Also, aeroplanes crash on a more regular basis than asteroids, but asteroids have a higher body count. Thus, statistically, you're more likely to die from an asteroid falling on your head than in a plane.
However, it is quite unlikely we'll have even a close encounter with anything in any of our lifetimes, or our children's, or theirs.
Or it could happen tomorrow.
Given the liklihood I will not be patenting the Asteroid-Proof Umbrella just yet.
But it has happened before; they reckon the crater of one is, basically speaking the Gult of Mexico. Likewise Hudson Bay. Those are BIG ones. Little ones, like Meteor Crater, well, if you're near by bad luck, but it ain't the e'ot-waw-ki (a Hawaiian word meaning 'end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it').
Depending on the size of the asteroid, it could be back-to-the-stone age, or back to Christian Fundamentalism, er, I mean monocellular life.
The plot of 'Lucifer's Hammer' is cute, as it's enough destruction to have something to start again, but not too much, religious crazies eating people, but the good guys winning through in this rather appealing frontier atmos.
As for prevention, well, given time you could land on a potential Earth-hitter and plant nukes. Or try to mount thrusters on it to give enough delta-vee to miss the Earth. It would be one way to get rid of ICBM's; anything with escape velocity that goes 'bang' would be called into play if all else fails. But at about seven tonnes a cubed meter, a really big one would really take some dissuading if it was on an impact course.
But, if we had enough warning, the most practical thing to do is stockpile food and head for high-ground, and hope as the telemetry gets clearer you haven't chosen high-ground in the wrong hemisphere!
Keep on rocking in the free world...
