Massive asteroid could hit Earth in 2182, warn scientists

dailymail.co.uk ^ | July 28, 2010 | Niall Firth

[Never on my watch]

I’m sure we’ll send up the battery-powered rockets to move it out of the way.

[Carling]

OTOH, if we continue to elect Barackamite Luddites, our grandchildren might be dancing around bonfires shaking bones at the gods to make the Sky Demon go away.

Thank you for the laugh on an otherwise depressing day!

[agere_contra]

how could it possibly cause mass extinction??

You're right. It won't.

Depending on where it hit, it might destroy an impressive % of human civilization though.

BUT almost every scenario where a rock manages to smash civilization also predicts San Francisco falling into the sea, so - you know - trade-offs.

[ThomasMore]

LOL

[adorno]

It the thing is only 1800 feet wide how could it possibly cause mass extinction??

Just image a bullet traveling at 600 mph. It has been know to kill any living entity that it strikes squarely.

Now, just imagine an 1800 feet wide bullet, but this time traveling at 17,000 or 25,000 mph. Then imagine that bullet striking our dear planet. The point of impact will create a huge crater and the material (ash, dirt, rocks/boulders, heat) from that crater will cover hundreds of miles from the impact point. So, yeah, whatever is within a few hundred miles of impact will either die immediately (around the impact point) or slightly later from the debris raining down in the farther reaches of the affected area. I don't think I'll be around to witness it, but I wouldn't want my descendants (or anybody else) to have to experience it either.

[ClearBlueSky]

Fascinating! Since they are trying now- more than 100 years PRE collision- to find a way to divert it that would make the failure to save the planet OBAMA’S FAULT!
Finally! Something will be Hussein’s fault!

[nmh]

Their always trying to scare you with something.

They have no credibility with me anymore.

[Berlin_Freeper]

[In Maryland]

Do you have any idea of the energy that would be generated by an object that size traveling at MACH-5 or so? If it hits anywhere on the American Continent, you might finally cash in on that Kansas beach-front property!

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Bush’s fault! BP’s fault!

[Lucky9teen]

Somehow, I don’t think anyone will be here to see it (if it happens, that is).

[Never on my watch]

That’s why the election of 2178 is going to be so pivotal.

[agere_contra]

The tidal wave from a Pacific ocean impact is usually the worst-case damage scenario (= most land area destroyed)

A land hit would also raise a dust cloud that would severely impact agriculture for some years - which would be bad.

But if it hit Mecca, it would be hysterically funny. Parse that, Ahmadinehad!

[Ditter]

I read the title as Massive Steroid To Hit Earth. It took me a minute to get my head on straight. LOL!

[E. Pluribus Unum]

We're all going to die!

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

It the thing is only 1800 feet wide how could it possibly cause mass extinction??

I don't think you appreciate the amount of kinetic energy that it possesses. An asteriod that size would impart somewhere from 20,000 -40,000 Megatons of energy. It would create a crater tens of miles across and spread debris for thousands of miles. The dust lofted into the atmosphere would darken the sun for months if not years.

Barringer Crater in Arizona (about a mile across) was believed to have been created by an object about ten feet across.

[Rockingham]

Can we aim it at Mecca?

[stuartcr]

I’m sure Hannity’s descendants will call it the most important election in our history...

[oldtimer]

The dims in Congress in 2174 will pass a law that it can’t happen!

[Minn]

It the thing is only 1800 feet wide how could it possibly cause mass extinction?

Don't watch much Discovery or History Channel, do you?