Newly-discovered asteroid just days away from Earth

Nuclear weapons just aren’t that great in space, and frankly aren’t that great at breaking up huge masses of hard material. At best we could split such annasteroid, though I doubt it. In that event we just have a whole bunch of asteroids to deal with instead of just one. The same amount of energy impacts earth regardless.

 

Not quite right. It also depends on how the asteroid is build. If it is a solid metal asteroid like vesta and Pallas, you would need an enormous amount of energy to defelect it.

The big unknown are so called rubble piles. Many asteroids with low density appear to not be a solid body but more like flying rubble holding together by its own gravitation. A rocket would most likely simply flush into it like into Sand.

 

Depends, they create enormous amounts of energy and many asteroids are covered by ice. This would evaporate and could push the asteroid aside.

 

No. Just Russia has decided to invest in weapons to disturb the hemorrhoids of the United States.

 

Yes, all true. In the case of the rubble piles, I think it's likely that we would attempt to use gravity rather than an active thrust, having a massive enough craft or series of craft fly parallel to the mass and try to perturb its course that way. I'm sure the eggheads who work in these fields could devise something of the sort. Elon's new rocket could probably put enough mass up there to do the job.

 

Of all the things I could choose to worry about asteroids are at the bottom of my list. Sometimes you just have to accept your fate.

 

Did you follow when our ESA landed on that Comet? It almost failed.

1. Because the comet had a form nobody expected



2. Because its structure was totally different from what we believed. The spacecraft had little harpoons on its landing legs, once near to the ground it would fire its harpoons to sink in and pull the craft on the surface. Scientists for decades said comets have a soft, crunchy surface. Well we learned the hard way. There were pretty long faces in the control center in Munich when the harpoons fired and broke apart. The Comets surface turned out to be soldi and rock hard like basalt. The craft bounced off and only luck prevented a mission failure. It got stuck in a cliff and did not drift away. That way it could do its job.

That comet has the size i guess it would be a global killer



When you think about it, we dont even understand how that thing formed. Propably two collided at low speed?

But how do you deflect that? If you bomb it, the weak point is the connection between the two main parts. So if that breaks you achieve nothing, both parts would move on. If you blast one part, still one would move further and hit.

 

Hell yes, the earth will be cataclysmically destroyed. I prefer later rather than sooner, but death is perfectly acceptable and unavoidable.

 

If you go the gravity route, mass is much more important than composition, except that you don't want your gravity craft pulling the thing apart either. I think "blasting" any comet or asteroid is really out of the question; it's about altering the thing's course, not breaking it up.

 

Ahhhh....the government IS the billionaires...

 

What's so deadly about the asteroid belt. This isn't SW. lol

 

Are you implying that half of all stupid people are Jewish?

 

Supposed to pass about 39,000 miles from earth. Maybe it will hit the moon and knock it out of orbit, causing it to be in our path on the other side of the sun opposite where we are now? We will all be dead in six months. muuuuahahahaha

 

And ironically, modern Western civilization is what provides your ungrateful ass with the freedom, wealth, and leisure time to do it.

 

i don't give a ****

 

I mean all people.

 

Question is how stable that bridge part is, that holds both pieces together. I guess its stable enough to not break because of gravitational pull.

 

Did you see the video from the several cameras on the car? Holy crap, that was unexpected and exceedingly cool to see. I had to play some Heavy Metal (soundtrack) while watching.

 

It's probably gravity alone if there was no heating and fusing that took place. Otherwise, maybe there is some icy fusing that took place, as opposed to molten rock. But I'd be more concerned about other rubble pile asteroids or comets, ones that may have many smaller pieces not just a couple of larger ones like that comet. Those could end up like Shoemaker-Levy 9.

 

Actually, a bunch of smaller asteroids is FAR more preferable. It may technically be the same kinetic energy, but dispersing that energy will be far less destructive. For one thing, the increased surface area means much more of it, perhaps even all, will burn up in the atmosphere. Also, consider a huge asteroid landing in the Pacific; it would likely create a devastating tsunami. But a scatter shot of smaller asteroids will create multiple interference waves which will, to some degree, cancel each other out, instead of one huge coherent wave. Blowing an asteroid up could easily be the difference between "shitty natural disaster" and "world breaking extinction event"

 

Disgusting.

 

Indeed. I have issues with aspects of Western Civilization as well but I don't ****ing write the whole thing off.

 

The problem is how it breaks up. Did you see the asteroid Rosetta visited? In worst case it would break simply in two big chunks. Such an operation would need many years preparations.

 

Yes i guess so. MAybe both impacted and got stuck mechanical. The debris then rained back down and formed the neck area

 

"Mr. President, we must not allow a mineshaft gap!"

Seriously, dude?