[Jai]

Hi guys it's me again, haven't been here in a while but anyway I wanted to talk about something that I found out a waaay long time ago, and just now decided to to bring it to attention. Well it seem that Astronomers have found that an asteroid might collide with earth in about 2028, so far they say it's going to miss earth by 300,00 to 600,000 miles but theres still time for change and in fact if it did hit earth the impact would be equal to the force of about 2 million atomic bombs. So yea it pretty much sucks that I might not live past the age of 40 but then again I've never been the type of person to argue aginst destiny but still.. I rather it didn't hit but if it did..... oh well not much I can do about it. So what do you guys think?


Note: Can we please not turn this discussion into a "OmFG Eetz TeH Da EnD of ze" WoRlD type religion thing, lets not forget we still have kids who visit this forum and the last thing we need is to tramatize them 22 years before it even happens. :P

[Sea of Time]

How can you say in one sentence that it's going to miss by 600,000 miles, and then in the next sentence say that the world is going to end!?!

I don't think the world is going to end, because it's more than likely that this asteroid will miss Earth entirely.

[I'm Always BROKE]

Im not scared. These things happen all the time, and none ever hit Earth. And even if... We've got another 22 years to live right?

[TheEnglishman]

Looks like we've only got 22 years to panic. Oh no!
Still if you believe every single threat of death to earth then we'll have all died at least 4 times by then.

[Aquamarine]

I don't believe anything is gong to happen. I keep hearing about these cataclysms that'll happen in a few days/months/years and none of them happen.

EDIT: Wow, I used the word "happen" 3 times! Good for me!

[TheEnglishman]

But you never know, one day they might be right.
Still I doubt anything would destroy the planet in our lifetime. Take that people of the future!

[Toasty]

Scientists have been testing "2million dollar bullets" and have fired one at an asteroid. I watched it on the discovery channel, but changed the channel at a commercial, and missed the rest of it. But they did show the impact, and it left a pretty big crater. I don't know if it diverted it's course or not, but that was their objective. And they didn't use a nuke on it, so it probably is possible for a large, modern nuke to blow one to smitherines. I'm not to worried about it, because I have other theories of the apocalypse, and even if this became a real threat, I'm confident it wold work out much better than on those movies, like deep impact (Elija Wood [Frodo] played in it, he was the main character).

[Split Infinity]

Nuclear missiles = bad.

Nuclear missiles = big explosion.

Nuclear missiles = millions of radioactive meteorites on a collision course with Earth.

[FlamingDuck]

Millions of radioactive meteorites on a collision course with Earth = Not a big astroid on collision course with Earth.

Anyway, I don't think this will happen. Like whats-his-face said, if we believed every apocalypse that was warned about, we'd be dead like 20 times. That sentance made little to no grammatical sense.

But anyway, according to the all powerful Mayans, we'll be dead in 2012, so it won't matter.

[Caael]

Yes, the Mayans have been right about everything.

By then, wont we have the tech to like shoot it down?

[Toasty]

We pretty much already do. It just needs to be refined.

And Split, the Nuclear blast would blow the asteroid into such small peices, that it would hardly damage us at all, or incinerate completely, though the first is more likely. It's basically "kill thousnads of people, or the entire planet's population." Which would be better?

[Split Infinity]

I'm not saying it's any worse, I just meant that there could surely be a better option.

[Toasty]

Well unkess you can make a reasonably sized pack of C4 that gives the same kiliton yeild, there really isn't. At least one that I can see imediately.

[Split Infinity]

Or maybe they could build a giant railgun and blow up the fragments, like in Ace Combat 4?

[Toasty]

Rail guns are way to far off in technology to make. At least, as far as I know. It's not like the government tells us what they're working on. They waited a decade after the Night Hawk's first flight to tell us they'd perfected stealth tech. But they could nuke it, then send modified cruise missles to take out the fragments, but they'd have to take them out pretty quickly if they nuked it close to earth. If they did do that, it'd have to be done before the asteroid got past the midpoint between earth and the moon IMO.

[FlamingDuck]

What would be really awesome is if we couls blow it into small enough pieces to kepp in orbit. Then Earth would have rings! But its more than likely we won't be affected by this at all...Although, in Tales of Phantasia, something like this happened and wiped out most of civilization. If it's in a video game, it must be true!

[Somia]

Eh?

I've seen ALOT of these thing on older newpapers, one of them even said the world is going to end in 2008. I'm not saying this is impossible but still, we can avoid it. We're intelligent enough to do somethign about it.

[Split Infinity]

Mr.T, on Sep 30 2006, 10:51 AM, said:

Rail guns are way to far off in technology to make. At least, as far as I know.

As far as I know, you're wrong. Small-sized railguns have been developed and they are very effective, but not exactly efficient. As for giant railguns, the only downfall is that they sustain massive rail damage after each shot, and have to be repaired before they can be used again.

[Golden Legacy]

First off, the chances of the asteroid actually hitting Earth are slim. Remember that these are just estimations; there are thousands of asteroids out there, but the only reason that this has piqued the interest of astronomers is that it will have a higher chance of hitting than usual (and by high, I mean something like 1/50,000 that it actually hits Earth).

By then, as Somia said, we're bound to have the technology to do something about it. I'm sure that the world could deal with such a threat with the current technology, let alone the technology after 22 years.

[Jai]

:P Umm from what I know we don't have the technology to completly destroy it and if i'm right we never will. Wepons that strong could pose as a instant "dooms day device" threath whether it was used for good or not. If technology favored more deffensive than offensive then I wouldn't have a doubt in my mind that the asteroid wouldn't hit us but since we still go by the moral "the best defence is a perfect offence" it leaves possibilitys. ;)

[Toasty]

Dude, we already have a dooms day device, it's called the nuke. We could launch just a fraction of our nukes, and devastate many countries throughout the world. And not only us, but a few other countries as well. If we could launch a few nukes at an asteroid heading toward us, it'd be obliterated. We might even be able to force it in the opposite direction with high powered rockets, though I don't think we're advanced enough in that department to do it succesfully.

[Golden Legacy]

Actually, I doubt nuclear weaponry would be effective. The risk of it exploding before it ever leaves the atmosphere (the Columbus? the Challenger?) is too high.

I've actually heard a theory proposed that if the asteroid is composed of metal (i.e. iron, nickel), then it would be possible to draw the asteroid of course with a space ship containing a large magnet.

[Toasty]

Yes, in theory, I guess a noedymnium (sp?) magnet (the most powerful magnet in the world) could do that, but the ships controls would need extensive sheilding to prevent interfearence. I'm pretty sure a nuke could be lanched into space if it's been modified to withstand the preassure difference, and is powered with liquid rocket engines.

[Jai]

^_^ Nukes in space will eat our ozone alive, by now you people should know that using nukes comes at a powerful price, and a giant magnet won't be able to stop a 10 mile asteroid, you seem to be forgetting that if there isn't a stronger mass behind the magnetic feild to pull that asteroid then it won't buge an inch and the magnet could end up attaching it self and the space ship with the asteroid.

[Toasty]

Then we put the magnet on the moon. ^_^

[Jai]

Hmm I guess the moon could take 1 for the earth but we won't need a magnet for that the moons gravitational pull should be enough for that.

[I'm Always BROKE]

Nukes wouldn't help at all. A nuke is barely enough to destroy a small country as... Well lets say the Netherlands. XD

A meteor strong enough to destroy our whole planet would need something stronger. But... If they COULD destroy a meteor like that, it would shatter and still destroy many areas of our Earth.

But I dont believe anything of this ****. ^_^ And if we would die... So let it be. 22 years IS pretty long, and it's not quaranteed we will even live that long. You could always get killed by a car accident, drugs, voilence or whatever.

[Neon]

lol, if a huge asteroid hit the moon the debris (can't think of a better word lol) would still kill us xP.

also, a nuke in space would do nothing to the atmosphere. Somehow I doubt the radiation from a heap of nukes would come close to the radiation fired at us continually from the sun, or at least from the flares we get every few years.

[Toasty]

Well the radiation from the nukes would be different from the suns. Something like nuetron radiation vs. intense solar radiation or something.