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Posted: 3/19/2002 7:53:16 PM EDT
[#1]
consider that the Earth is a sphere and that angles of attack become HUGE when viewed from a tiny telescope in space. I'm amazed that the ever see any thing coming at us at all, ever.
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Posted: 3/19/2002 10:53:58 PM EDT
[#2]
A miss is as good as a mile
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Posted: 3/19/2002 11:04:42 PM EDT
[#3]
Close only counts on horseshoes and handgrenades.
You can even throw in nukes since it don't really take a direct hit with them either. |
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Posted: 3/19/2002 11:18:48 PM EDT
[#4]
Either way......WHEW!
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Posted: 3/19/2002 11:58:40 PM EDT
[#5]
Something better happen soon.
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Posted: 3/20/2002 5:10:09 AM EDT
[#6]
Really, it's only a matter of time before we are hit by a large-ish asteroid. Last time was 1908 in Tunguska and we are overdue for another.
Hope no one mistakes it for a nuclear attack and retaliates in kind. |
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Posted: 3/20/2002 5:18:47 AM EDT
[#7]
Ok,
The Earth is huge. Relatively speaking, not many points on the globe are 'population centers.' However, let's just imagine for a second that the big rock did come out of nowhere and just happened to hit a US population center. Who would believe the gubmint when they said "Really, it was NOT a terrorist attack. It was just an asteroid." TheRedGoat |
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Posted: 3/20/2002 5:43:18 AM EDT
[#8]
Yea, it makes me want to read Lucifer's Hammer again. If you boys haven't read that book, you're missing out on a very good SHTF novel!
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Posted: 3/20/2002 6:21:06 AM EDT
[#9]
Another reason to prepare for SHTF.
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Posted: 3/20/2002 6:32:51 AM EDT
[#10]
Ok, so it hits our atmosphere and hits water which makes up most of the surface area of earth...are we talking a massive tidal wave like that dumb movie a couple years ago? How about an earth killer like armagedon?
Wouldn't it be nice if the meteor hit mecca? I think the morons in the muslim world would think it were us! |
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Posted: 3/20/2002 6:34:28 AM EDT
[#11]
I guess incoming fire has the right of way even in planetary physics..
Meplat- |
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Posted: 3/20/2002 6:38:02 AM EDT
[#12]
Quoted: Wouldn't it be nice if the meteor hit mecca? I think the morons in the muslim world would think it were us! i think theyve already had their turn. that stone in the big cube building in mecca, the "kaaba" or whatever, isnt that a metorite? |
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Posted: 3/20/2002 7:51:47 AM EDT
[#13]
Quoted: i think theyve already had their turn. that stone in the big cube building in mecca, the "kaaba" or whatever, isnt that a metorite? Yep. They call it the Black Stone. It sits at one of the corners. Not sure which one. The stone is now held together by a silver band, since over the years it has been worn hollow by the pilgrims to the site. Av. |
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Posted: 3/20/2002 7:53:55 AM EDT
[#14]
Quoted: Ok, so it hits our atmosphere and hits water which makes up most of the surface area of earth...are we talking a massive tidal wave like that dumb movie a couple years ago? How about an earth killer like armagedon? The Armageddon scenario is hilariously unlikely. There simply aren't any asteroids in the solar system "the size of Texas" and the likelihood of an asteroid of that size coming in from interstellar space and winding up on a collision course for Earth is just about nonexistent. Earth can survive any possible asteroid hit...it's just the things living on it that have the heard time. Much more likely is a rock a few hundred meters across hitting...which, while not a dinosaur-killer situation, could possibly kill hundreds of thousands of people. |
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Posted: 3/20/2002 8:11:24 AM EDT
[#15]
Well, it's gonna happen. That's for sure. When it's gonna happen...... depends on orbits and gravity.
The Armagedon movie was nice entertainment. But we don't have the technology to 'blow' one up. Most likely, all heck would break out if we had any advanced warning. |
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Posted: 3/20/2002 8:18:03 AM EDT
[#16]
There simply aren't any asteroids in the solar system "the size of Texas" and the likelihood of an asteroid of that size coming in from interstellar space and winding up on a collision course for Earth is just about nonexistent. While the likelihood of a "big one" hitting Earth is very remote, they are out there: [url]http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2001/phot-27-01.html[/url] From the link: "Their measurements indicate that this icy rock has a diameter of at least 1200 km and is therefore larger than any other known asteroid in the Solar System. The previous record-holder, the asteroid Ceres, was also the first object of its type to be discovered - by the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi on January 1, 1801. Its diameter is about 950 km, relegating it to second place after holding the asteroid size record for two hundred years." Texas, by comparison, is about 800km across. |
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Posted: 3/20/2002 8:26:09 AM EDT
[#17]
The trick would be getting hit by something big enough for a SHTF scenario, (Hey, I finally get to use all those guns!) and small enough that we're not all wiped out quickly. When we see one of those coming, I'll be interested. And probably long dead.
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Posted: 3/20/2002 8:30:31 AM EDT
[#18]
Quoted: From the link: "Their measurements indicate that this icy rock has a diameter of at least 1200 km and is therefore larger than any other known asteroid in the Solar System. The previous record-holder, the asteroid Ceres, was also the first object of its type to be discovered - by the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi on January 1, 1801. Its diameter is about 950 km, relegating it to second place after holding the asteroid size record for two hundred years." Texas, by comparison, is about 800km across. [url]http://www.texasalmanac.com/texasenviro_2000.shtml#physical[/url] "The longest straight-line distance in a general north-south direction is 801 miles from the northwest corner of the Panhandle to the extreme southern tip of Texas on the Rio Grande below Brownsville. The greatest east-west distance is 773 miles from the extreme eastward bend in the Sabine River in Newton County to the extreme western bulge of the Rio Grande just above El Paso. " Sounds like 1300+ km north-south and 1200+ km east-west. Maybe it was that metric conversion problem that NASA had with the Mars lander that confused them? |
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Posted: 3/20/2002 8:44:19 AM EDT
[#19]
Whoops... Shame on me for trying to guesstimate from a map. [spank]
Then again, it wouldn't take a rock nearly that big to make a mess of human civilization. The object whose impact caused the K/T event (the dinosaur killer) is estimated to have been less than 15km in diameter. [url]http://visearth.ucsd.edu/VisE_Int/platetectonics/K-TBoundary.html[/url] |
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Posted: 3/20/2002 8:51:28 AM EDT
[#20]
Aim Small Miss Small
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Posted: 3/20/2002 9:00:20 AM EDT
[#21]
I believe 4-6 miles in diameter is all a rock would have to be to cause something as big as what wiped out the dinosaurs. I saw a show on PBS that said they estimate there are about 2500 rocks this size orbiting the sun.
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Posted: 3/20/2002 9:07:03 AM EDT
[#22]
This may have some stretch to it. There was a movie a short while back called Joe Dirt. In the movie he happens upon what he believes is an asteroid. It turn out to be a composite of body waste that has been frozen from its fall from a large jet plane. He believes it to be a valuable asteroid with maybe mystical properties. I was just wondering, after reading the post about the sacred black stone found in Mecca, If there has ever been any physical examination of said stone. I know it may seem farfetched, and more than likely improbable, but could someone venture a comment on this?
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Posted: 3/20/2002 9:16:42 AM EDT
[#23]
Would have been a bad hair day
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Posted: 3/20/2002 9:17:20 AM EDT
[#24]
Strange topic,,,,,, OK, it's a great topic, but I'd have never guessed members on THIS board would nitpick over caliber while ignoring velocity.
From Renamed's link: "Additional research by other scientists suggests that if the extraterrestrial object was an asteroid, it most likely impacted the Earth at a velocity of 50 times the speed of sound and measured 15 km in diameter. Because asteroids of this size are very few in number in our solar system, the object could also have been a comet, most likely moving even faster, possibly 170 times the speed of sound but measuring only 10 km in diameter." |
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Posted: 3/20/2002 9:29:08 AM EDT
[#25]
Here's a pic of fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hitting Jupiter in 1994. Keep in mind that Jupiter is much, much larger than Earth:
[img]http://www.seds.org/ftp/astro/SL9/images/recent/ALL/UH_R1.gif[/img] |
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Posted: 3/20/2002 9:34:08 AM EDT
[#26]
bybon: ..a composite of body waste... Now THAT'S FUNNY! Adds a whole new meaning to "SHTF scenario". [:D] [:D] [:D] |
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Posted: 3/20/2002 9:36:57 AM EDT
[#27]
Quoted: This may have some stretch to it. There was a movie a short while back called Joe Dirt. In the movie he happens upon what he believes is an asteroid. It turn out to be a composite of body waste that has been frozen from its fall from a large jet plane. He believes it to be a valuable asteroid with maybe mystical properties. I was just wondering, after reading the post about the sacred black stone found in Mecca, If there has ever been any physical examination of said stone. I know it may seem farfetched, and more than likely improbable, but could someone venture a comment on this? Considering the stone has been there for quite some time, well over 100 years, might be more like 1500 or more, I doubt it's from a jet that flew overhead. I belive the rock was studied and it was determined to be a meteorite. Av. Edit: although it would be funny if they were kissing a block of E.T. waste. |
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Posted: 3/20/2002 10:28:47 AM EDT
[#28]
I've wondered about how a scenario like this would play out. If the object is spotted years from impact, yes a world-wide effort could be launched to divert it.
Problem is that it wouldn't leave us enough time to develop and test a solution AND make it out to the object in time to do a damn thing about it. You can't get politicians to took beyond the next election. Trying to get them to allocate resources for a problem that could happen after they are out office (or dead)...yeah.... right. [edited because I can't spell worth s$%^ sometimes [BD]] |
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Posted: 3/20/2002 11:18:19 AM EDT
[#29]
I'm glad someone mentioned comets (esp. the Shoemaker-Levy 9 strike). The time lapse photos of the hit on Jupiter were impressive. That thing would've gone through the Earth. As it was, even the scientists hadn't predicted how violent the impact would be.
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Posted: 3/20/2002 11:20:34 AM EDT
[#30]
That is what Jupiter is for.
It has sheilded the Earth from many impacts. The comets/asteroids are diverted away from us, or they smack into Jupiter. Otherwise we would look something like the moon. Av. |
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Posted: 3/20/2002 11:50:33 AM EDT
[#31]
Avalon01: That is what Jupiter is for. ... Otherwise we would look something like the moon. Which is also one of our finest cosmic filters.[:)] |
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Posted: 3/20/2002 1:13:31 PM EDT
[#32]
Quoted: Whoops... Shame on me for trying to guesstimate from a map. [spank] Then again, it wouldn't take a rock nearly that big to make a mess of human civilization. The object whose impact caused the K/T event (the dinosaur killer) is estimated to have been less than 15km in diameter. Well, if I remember correctly, the rule of thumb is that a meteorite leaves a crater about 10 times larger than itself...that gives some idea of the energy involved in a collision. |
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Posted: 3/20/2002 1:18:35 PM EDT
[#33]
Quoted: Another reason to prepare for SHTF. Yea, all we need is sombody to tell AR15.com members where in space to aim and we can blow it to bits with 223 rounds [;D] |
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Posted: 3/20/2002 2:18:14 PM EDT
[#34]
I'm glad I don't live in Atlanta.
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