Earth has been struck many times by meteorites in its long history, most recently at Tungsuka in 1908. The destructive power of that event is thought to have been between 10 and 40 megatons of TNT. Sooner or later, another wandering piece of rock will cross paths with Earth, and the potential exists for all human life to be snuffed out.
So it's reassuring to learn that somebody is making plans to deflect such objects if they are a potential threat. (Although it's a little disappointg to me that the Europeans are taking the lead in this.) The basic idea is to ram the wayward rock with a spacecraft, and so alter it's trajectory.
9 comments:
We do have to be a bit careful here with our explosions. Blowing it up can change 1 problem into a million problems. Deflecting it may just kick the can down the road a year--or may not work at all.x
I was watching the Science channel and there was an interesting story on this issue.
According to that show the Americans are also looking into this and they too are thinking of knocking the rock off course.
Apparently blowing it up could be more dangerous because the asteroid would shatter.
According to that program one is on the way.
Talking about disasters, has anyone got a good idea of how likely it is that the present bird flu that is getting so much press will be the strain that morphs into a pandemic?
Much more detail here.
The idea is for a simple collision, one billiard ball hitting another and changing its direction. Foom what I can tell the NEO is not expected to shatter, although this is very much a R&D mission. If a hypothetical astroid were to shatter into smaller fragments, that might be a good thing. Below a certain size the fragments would burn up in the atmosphere.
Nothing like contemplating the end of the world to put Cindy SHeehan in perspective!
flenser,
Nothing like contemplating the end of the world to put Cindy Sheehan in perspective!
It (the end of the world) would still be Bush's fault, so Mother Sheehan would not have to go out of business!
Jamie Irons
Knuck
The La Palma business is an urban legend. I'll try to track down the debunking of it. Yes, I know many "reputable" places have run with the story.
Knuck
Here you go.
Cheer up though. There are still plenty of other things to die from.
Knuck,
Don't you mean the Jellystone, er, Yellowstone super volcanoe? And what about the earthquake that raised the North West coastline several meters? Even as we post, measurements show that southern Victoria Island is slowly moving away from the continent.
It's all the best argument for space travel I can think of. And there is only a billion years or so before the sun begins to swell...
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