Yikes
Bruce Willis would of long copped it by then, I doubt Paris Hilton would be up for the job of space mining.. get dirt in her space suit? "Like, ewwwwww!"
Researchers at MIT say they know what the near-Earth asteroid Apophis is made of, information that could be vital if we need to divert or pulverise the space-rock in 2036. By analysing its spectrum and comparing it with meteorites that have already landed on Earth, the team has "nailed" its composition, says Richard Binzel, …
It should be expressed as a probability instead of a ratio; 1 in 45000 suggests that there are 45000 possible outcomes, where there are in fact only two: Collision, or not collision.
Anyone for a probability of 2.222°e-5?
Chances are we'll all be GM vat-grown slaves by then anyway.
...what's the mass, what's the density, and how uniform is the density?
They're all rather important questions, if you need to give it a nudge and predict the consequences accurately.
(Why? Imagine, for the sake of argument, that it's almost hollow at one end, but almost completely solid at the other. Now guess what happens if you nudge the hollow end, what happens if you nudge the solid end, or what happens if you foolishly base the nudge force on the assumption that it's solid throughout . There isn't a good outcome whichever way you work it, unless you know accurate answers to those three questions.)
We are forearmed with splendid maxims from history:
- Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer
- Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake
Please post any others you have. We need them all for dealing with rogue "tourist" asteroids - let us share this wisdom with the Hive Mind.
You've all got it all wrong, Sillies!
This is all another Roswell. The truth is that Nasa needs some more work for its moon-landing studio and has developed (sic) this story to keep the cameras rolling for another generation. And Nasa's new rocket is all part of the same plot - they will launch Bruce Willis II into orbit, hide round the dark side of earth for a few weeks, and then feed the TV news every day until their triumphant return after having 'saved' the planet. They will even 'bring back' some sample rocks they found in Antarctica to prove the story to the sceptics.
The success of this venture will ensure Nasa all the funds they want ad infinitum. It is going to be gripping watching!
Given the average lifestyle of most techies, we'll be long dead by the time this thing comes close. I can't believe anyone here seriously has expectations of breaching their mid 40s?
So instead of nudging it away from Earth, why not wipe the smiles off the faces of all those smug health freak bastards that reckon cigarettes and booze will kill us, and actually make sure it scores a direct hit..
Not only that but all those bleeding yoofs will get some too - bonus!
"I know this is a fair chunk of rock, and it would whack this planet with a fair thump, but can someone please explain how something 270 Metres across takes out a country with a land area of over half a million square kilometres?"
Ever thrown a rock in to a sand pit?
No?
I guess it was just me then...
Well look at it this way, that big famous crater in arizona is said to have been made by a rock about 50 metres across. The crater it made is 1.2 kilometres wide and it spread its debris several hundred miles (mixing measures the good old fashioned NASA way) in every direction. The actual crater isn't the total sum of the devastation wrought by a meteor.
A 270M rock moving at something like 40 metres a second would make a crater about half the size of Paris, and would spread its debris across hundreds, possibly thousands of miles. More immediate would be the shockwave, earth tremors and heat-blast. Even spots hundreds of miles from the blast would be turned from nice arable land into a muck-encrusted, uninhabitable waste. That's how an area the size of France can be devastated.
Couldn't wait to read all those devastating France comments. Think about if the galactic rubbish hits France don't you think it might flush away at least some major part of your isles? Let alone if it does not hit France right in its middle but somewhat more in the north?
Anyway, it was my first thought as well.
EAfH, who is neither French nor British (not even Irish)