Big asteroid has close encounter with Earth

[gagaga]

installed a couples of Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster on that asteroid, then ignite them all, asteroid will off course straight, problem solved.

 

[Chogy]

It's an interesting problem, in a grim and dark way. If the asteroid is small enough, and I'd say anything under 300 meters in diameter would be, a chemical rocket like a shuttle SRB should be able to adjust its orbit so as to avoid earth. The earlier it's done, the easier the job. Just nudge the orbital velocity in the correct direction, and a hit becomes a miss. But the closer to earth the action is taken, the more energy is needed.

Getting a SRB into orbit is not trivial. Those things weigh a lot and it'd be like lofting a large portion of the ISS. It'd take a massive booster to get it to the asteroid. And you'd need a manned craft, as the astronauts would have to attach it to the asteroid.

I think blowing it up would work if the asteroid is not too big. If this 300 meter rock could be turned into rubble, each little rubble piece might be small enough to perhaps not survive re-entry, or if it did, it'd do less damage. You're exposing more surface area to the heat of re-entry.

Larger asteroids present huge problems that we might not be able to overcome. Even large nukes aren't going to shatter a big one. They might possibly adjust the orbit, but they won't break it up.

The good news is that space agencies track these things, and we should have at least some warning. Maybe just enough for people to take some shelter.

 

[ApparentRaceTraitor]

If this thing had hit, it would have made the Tsar Bomba look like a firecraker. A four mile wide crater that would be 1,700 feet deep. If it had hit in the ocean, Tsunamis would wipe out coastal cities.

It's not a matter of IF, but WHEN something like this smacks the earth. At the beginning of the solar system, these things were pounding the Earth at a rate of probably several per day.

 

[StandForInsaf]

mass Extinction do occur on earth , and some day it will happen we might be sleeping in our delusions , or may just fighting and killing each other ignorantly . Extinction event - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Mosamania]

So a giant asteroid zoomed passed earth yesterday and nobody even bothered to warn us that it was close and it barely missed?? Now that's comforting isn't it?

 

[Tshering22]

installed a couples of Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster on that asteroid, then ignite them all, asteroid will off course straight, problem solved.

If only that was possible. Armageddon was a movie, buddy. A lot of fancy things happen on a movie. What makes you think a couple of solid rocket boosters would do the job on an asteroid that is coming at at least thousand times more speed than what the booster can offer enough as a deviation?

The best option would be to blast it to smithereens; pieces small enough the size of a man so that they can easily burn up. For that, we will need to look into the deadliest arsenal of weapons you, we, French, Russians and Americans have. No other go.

While you are sweating on it, the world elites will try to find a place to hind and survive it. You know what I am saying? good luck, man.

If you live on earth there is NO place to hide. Where are the elites going to "hide" when the entire planet is in danger? .

 

[Xracer]

installed a couples of Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster on that asteroid, then ignite them all, asteroid will off course straight, problem solved.

hmmmm Nice thinking Bro

 

[ApparentRaceTraitor]

Orbital boosters would be ineffective in my opinion for the 'civilization killer' asteroids. Consider this, the asteroid is being pulled in hard by the earth's gravitational force, coupled with the fact that the asteroid of that size is probably too large to be influenced with the forces orbital boosters can generate. The best result we could achieve with that is either switching the original area of impact a thousand miles or so to the left or right. In this case the only workable scenario would be to locate an object of this size years ahead, and periodically undertake missions to detonate a whole shitload of mega ton nukes as close to the surface of the asteroid as possible to generate a constant deflection of the asteroid from it's original trajectory. Then again, the logistics of something like this would give Solomon herpes.

 

[Chogy]

I think it'd work. This asteroid is 300 meters, the size of an aircraft carrier. Yes it weighs a LOT, but all you'd need to do is apply the thrust perpendicular to the current trajectory and give it enough of a nudge so that it's miss earth. A small change in angular velocity would be adequate, if done far enough away from the Earth.

It would probably NOT work on a 10 kilometer asteroid.

The Chicxulub asteroid that smoked the dinosaurs was calculated to be roughly 10 km in diameter and it hit with 100 million megatons of force. That'd be ONE HUNDRED MILLION big hydrogen bombs... an insane amount of force.

 

[Quasar]

 

[Quasar]

Gravity tractor!
laser beam!
nuke!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid-impact_avoidance

 

[Chogy]

A T-rex in an F-14... Calvin & Hobbes was the best comic strip ever written, IMO.

I read a great SF book series once... the premise was, "no dinosuar killing asteroid", and the eventual evolution of a reptilian sentient creature that came to dominate the earth with brainpower and technology. The interesting part was that mammals also continued to evolve, and these reptilian overlords came into conflict with primitive men. The men could survive in cold environments, and owned the mountains and high latitudes, but their own technology was suppressed by the reptiles.

West of Eden by Harry Harrison

It's very much a

 

[Doctor09]

thanks God this time again we remain safe