Why Asteroid Panic Is On the Rise

space.com ^ | 08 March 2012 | Natalie Wolchover

[pfflier]

I have asteroids...

Not one of your better efforts.

In that vein, it was a disaster

[Jack Hydrazine]

I thought it was 179 feet across. The estimates from the scientists about its destructive power runs around a 15 megaton explosion. If it lands in the Pacific who will notice?

[dragnet2]

There are better things to worry about even than the absolute worst-case scenario

True, but none of few of those would involve destroying the entire planet, and or turning it back to the stone age.

The earth has been hit by many cataclysmic impacts in the past, and it will happen again.

The big question is when.

[cicero2k]

That's nearer than the orbits of some geosynchronous satellites

Actually it has to be all one or the other.

In this case, the subject asteriod will pass inside the orbit of all geosynchronous satellites.

[Buckeye McFrog]

next thing they’ll be telling us there’s Frogger and Pac-Man panic too...

[MrB]

You can be “anxious” for a good thing as well.

[presidio9]

[thulldud]

Yeah, except the last one caused the dark ages.

Who needs an asteroid? We're on track to have another dark age without one.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Well it’s not hard to calculate the megaton equivalent knowing the mass and impact speed, which can vary a lot, but that’s probably about right. Space rocks carry a lot of energy. Still, 15 megatons is hardly earth-threatening. City threatening, certainly.

[PowderMonkey]

"If it lands in the Pacific who will notice?"

Ya' but what if it lands in the middle of Washington, D.C.? Like...that would be a bad thing. Right? Hey! Just thinking out. Just thinking.

[C210N]

Not dangerous at all unless it lands nearly on top of you...

It can be survivable... and it was in Sylacauga AL in 1954... from Wikapedia:

"The Sylacauga meteorite is the first documented extraterrestrial object to have injured a human being. The grapefruit-sized fragment crashed through the roof of a frame house in Oak Grove, Alabama, bounced off a large wooden console radio, and hit Hodges while she napped on a couch. The 31-year-old woman was badly bruised on one side of her body but able to walk."

[patton]

No kidding.

[patton]

Monastic records indicate that a Monk got zotted by one long ago, but I don’t have a citation.

[Telepathic Intruder]

bounced off a large wooden console radio

In the case of a meteor (not an asteroid), the impact is almost completely slowed by the atmosphere before it reaches the ground. Big ones aren't slowed down. If that meteor had been coming down at the minimim required 11 kilometers per second like the big ones, the house would be a crater.

[Straight Vermonter]

Meteor crater in Arizona was formed by an object that same size. It's impact force was equivalent to 10 megatons or >600 Hiroshima bombs. I'd say anything living in that area had a pretty bad day.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Yeah, maybe a little more than a mile would be a safer distance.

[Bruinator]

At 7-11 after school with a cherry coke slurpee, a bag of doritos-nacho cheese, Asteroids and a few dollars in quarters. I miss those days. Those are days my kids will never experience.

[dragnet2]

Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, blames the upsurge in asteroid panic on two main factors. "One problem is that the Internet is wide open to anyone to say anything,"

Anyone? Maybe like this guy?

2010 Jupiter impact event

The impact happened 3 June 2010, and was recorded and first reported by amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley from Australia, seen above. After he he got on the Internet to report what he'd seen, scientist world wide stood up and paid close attention, turning billion dollar instruments, towards the giant plant of Jupiter.

In the sciences in general, there are many professionals who hate to admit that amateurs can make valid contributions. And government bureaucrats just hate to admit they got it wrong.

[dragnet2]

ER... After he he got on the Internet to report what he'd seen, scientist world wide stood up and paid close attention, turning billion dollar instruments, towards the giant planet of Jupiter.

[backwoods-engineer]

That's nearer than the orbits of some geosynchronous satellites

LOL!

Is the author able to change the mass of the earth in order to change the orbital distance where geosynch occurs? All geosynchronous satellites MUST orbit in a narrow band around the equator, 22,236 mi above mean sea level.

I'm assuming they're not talking about eliptical geostationary, which can't be maintained very long.

I swear, why do we believe anything we read in the media?