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13 April 2029: Asteroid to hit Earth?
- Thread starter gofreak
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Contrary to popular belief, Armageddon did not show the best way to take care of an asteroid. Fuck, that movie was like Die Hard, except that it was Bruce Willis vs. the giant rock careening towards Earth rather than a bunch of German terrorists.
Oh well, my birthday's on April 2nd, so at least I'll be partying for 11 days, then repenting on the last.
Oh well, my birthday's on April 2nd, so at least I'll be partying for 11 days, then repenting on the last.
The answer: Mass drivers. The probability of making and then successfully deploying such a thing is 0. But I like the idea of mass drivers better than nukes. Aren't some asteroids just loose clumps of rock? A nuke will only vaporize a small part of it, the shockwave probably won't do too much to deflect a huge mass of rocks hurtling at like 5 miles per second through space, no? Might just make it a bigger debris pile that's tougher to take out. In any case, I'll be almost 51 when it hits. That's a long life. I guess I don't need to worry about life insurance or a 401k then, huh? 
Or maybe I should just retire extra-early, at like 35. :lol PEACE.
Or maybe I should just retire extra-early, at like 35. :lol PEACE.MrPing1000
Member
from now on I'm going by percentages not odds
Phoenix
Member
Its not a biggie to be honest. It may hit us, it may not. At the moment there isn't anything we can do except try to find the target region and evacuate it. By 2029 its possible that we may be nearing the ability to do something about it. Nevertheless, this clearly shows one of the reasons why we need to continue to push space technologies despite a 'short term need'.
Justin Bailey
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That's exactly what the patroits want you to think.MIMIC said:
Mama Smurf
My penis is still intact.
I wonder what this thing will look like.
Well, it's not quite the same. First off, these things aren't on a highway moving at 100 km/h (~60 mph) trying to cross the country or something. A hundred thousand kilometers doesn't make much of a difference when you're travelling at 30km/s or more (quick calculation, it could do it in less than an hour).teiresias said:
Gravity also has to be factored in, as the thing wouldn't even be moving without it (nothing would). So it's not like this thing is heading on a straight line for us. The Earth could pull it in, other planets could push it away, etc. If you want to give yourself an idea of the gravitational power planets can have, look at Jupiter. It causes its moon Io to be torn from the inside out on a regular cycle through volcanic activity.
I think we should destroy it anyway. I mean, these thing pass in a circulary motion around the sun, right? So what if 1000 years from now the hippies have taken over and destroyed all our weapons and we're living like headnings then? :lol We wouldn't stand a chance. Destroy it when it from a safe distance from the earth, sending it into the sun or whereever.
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