Asteroid near-miss, June 14

Space Daily ^ | June 20, 2002

[LibWhacker]

They have, of course, failed to spot most of the asteroids that have whizzed by close until 3 days after the event.

And you've gotta wonder, if they didn't spot so many of them coming, how many did really they spot going? I'd be willing to bet they completely missed many, either coming or going.

If today's mapping programs have any great value, imo, it'll be to spark interest in programs that someday can actually do something to prevent collisions.

[Kakaze]

Sad. just plain sad.

[RightWhale]

The SAC ICBM radar spots everything bigger than a grain of sand between here and the moon. Not that SAC can do anything yet about incoming ICBMs either.

[LibWhacker]

I agree. It's very sad that we have so many gutless whiners who are unwilling to take an effective stand against terror.

[Drammach]

I have seen several comments concerning assumption of enemy activity in the event of an XT object collision.

I think the majority assume it will happen in the U.S..
But what if it happens in Russia? China? India or Pakistan?
I can pretty much assure everyone here, the Indians and Pakistanis will not take the time to determine whether the event was a nuke or an asteroid/meteor, etc.
They will assume "nuke", and reply accordingly, with their target being their closest enemy.

The destruction of a major metropolitan area anywhere on the planet will be a serious matter, not just physically, in loss of life, but politically, as it could very well initiate full scale nuclear retaliation.

[Utopia]

I still waiting for my flying car. I was promised a flying car by 2001. What about that great Lunar Vacation we were supposed to have by now?

The year 2800 can come by sooner than you think. True, there should be enough scientific advances by then - if the government doesn't interfere and legislate technology out of existence

[Kakaze]

" I agree. It's very sad that we have so many gutless whiners who are unwilling to take an effective stand against terror. "

I'll take a stand and fight dfor this country again as I have before volunteering is not something I'm not used too!

Making assinide remarks about indescriminately obliterating peoplei wont sign on too.

If your idea of winning is stooping to the same level as our opponet....then you've lost.

[Utopia]

They will assume "nuke", and reply accordingly, with their target being their closest enemy.

This kind of asteroid, you can kiss the planet goodbye. But there will be enough people watching it before it impacts to know it was an asteroid. Example: the if Schumacher/Levy comets that impacted on Jupiter as few years back actually impacted on the Earth, you and I and all life on this planet would not be around discussing this.

[VRWC_minion]

What did Bush know and when did he know it ?

[#3Fan]

Why do we always get this type of thing sensationalized? Why would a piece of rock "explode" as opposed to simply burning furiously until impact, at which point it would be much smaller? Just wondering.

Because asteroids like this are traveling at around 40,000 miles an hour. They are so large that when they strike the atmosphere, the pressure wave and the change in temperature going through the asteroid is so intense the the rock vaporizes at once, creating an explosion.

[LibWhacker]

. . . assinide . . .

Oh brother, I was willing to write off the first misspelling as a typo. But now you've revealed it to be a matter of education. Listen to me, my poorly educated pal, you can say YOUR father (or grandfather)-- who may have bombed German or Japanese cities in WWII -- is no better than Hitler if you want to. Just don't say that about MY father. It was right then and it's right now.

[Mike-o-Matic]

I certainly do agree about the flying cars... How many times have we been promised that personal, economical flying vehicles are coming along "real soon now"... I just don't see it happening any time soon.

So maybe we won't have the tech to stop asteroids by then. Damn. Oh well, maybe the space aliens will take pity on us and deflect the biggest rocks headed our way, eh?

[Utopia]

Oh well, maybe the space aliens will take pity on us and deflect the biggest rocks headed our way, eh?

Na. I think the space aliens will look at us and say: "These people don't even have any flying cars .. they're friggin' useless. They're not worth saving." And that will be it.

[Centurion2000]

LOL .....
A+Bert: it's the jew's fault

(/sarcasm)

[Joe Hadenuf]

guys, don't discount this too quickly. this could have been a very devastating event, and one that is sure to happen someday. i have thought for a long time that a "natural" event such as this is bound to happen just when we least expect it. the scary part is that a good defense is not available. just hope you are not close when a rock this size hits the earth...

Oh, it's going to happen. Scary indeed. And the truly scary part is that in astronomical terms, an object 75,000 miles from Earth is literally grazing us. I for one, do not find an object hitting Earth with the energy of 1,000 nuclear bombs going off at once, real humorous.

Many asteroids the size of aircraft carriers, or larger, could be hidden by the glare of the sun and could strike with little or no warning. I wont loose any sleep over it, but it sure the hell could happen.

[txhurl]

We got real lucky here. There are some seriously full britches at JPL, trust me.

[Bobby777]

Does the proposed Department of Homeland Security have an Office of Asteroids?

Tom Ridge has proposed a bill which will create a committee which will create funding for research for an appropriate new color to add to the threat level ... should this color appear on the secret decoder mood ring to be distributed to every American, an "asteroid alert" of unspecific origin will be issued and all Americans will be asked to run in crazy circles until such mood ring color changes color. This has been a public service announcement from the Department of Home Security and Pretending the Enemy Isn't Obvious. We return you now to your regularly scheduled Celine Dion Song du Jour.

[Mike-o-Matic]

   the space aliens will look at us and say: "These people don't even have any flying cars .. they're friggin' useless."

ROFLMAO :-)

[Charge Carrier]

"I sometimes wonder if the apocalyptic predictions (what was it again, December 12 2012 or something) were based on ancient astronomical observations of returning comets."

I subscribe to that idea.