I recently read an article in the paper saying that Meteorite Aphosis may strike the earth in 2029, ending it. If it doesn't the next possible time is in 2036 with a higher chance of the strike taking place.

Good news....

The UN will organize a plan of action
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6370817.stm

Bad News....

Bruce Willis and his offshore rig team won't be in it!!! (Sorry Die hard fans!_

Scientists are monitoring the progress of a 390-metre wide asteroid discovered last year that is potentially on a collision course with the planet, and are imploring governments to decide on a strategy for dealing with it.

Nasa has estimated that an impact from Apophis, which has an outside chance of hitting the Earth in 2036, would release more than 100,000 times the energy released in the nuclear blast over Hiroshima. Thousands of square kilometres would be directly affected by the blast but the whole of the Earth would see the effects of the dust released into the atmosphere.
And, scientists insist, there is actually very little time left to decide.

Man we are so dead!!!

And, scientists insist, there is actually very little time left to decide.

Decide what?

just nuke it,

peace.

Some shit, you can't mess with.

That's not really big enough to take us out completely. It might just make for a good house cleaning though.

I can't wait.

If it struck the earth, there would be massive nuclear blast much much higher than Hiroshisma. There could be dark skies for years and crops would be destroyed.

Good news though: Scientist says that if aphosis did hit, then many parts of middle east would be buried under the sea.

Can you show me a link that goes into detail about this Aphosis meteorite? I looked at the BBC link you posted and that was just a general NEO strategy outline. Google asks, "did you mean aphasia?" All this doomsday speculation wears like an old rope.

Edit:

I found these sources of possibly related material:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/13may_2004mn4.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis

Thank you Minitrue... er, Wikipedia.

Can you show me a link that goes into detail about this Aphosis meteorite? I looked at the BBC link you posted and that was just a general NEO strategy outline. Google asks, "did you mean aphasia?" All this doomsday speculation wears like an old rope.

Edit:

I found these sources of possibly related material:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/13may_2004mn4.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis

Thank you Minitrue... er, Wikipedia.

Behold Apophis!!!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianweekly/story/0,,1667002,00.html
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/research/story/0,,1660738,00.html

If it struck the earth, there would be massive nuclear blast much much higher than Hiroshisma. There could be dark skies for years and crops would be destroyed.

Good news though: Scientist says that if aphosis did hit, then many parts of middle east would be buried under the sea.

It might be the only possible solution to the Israel Palestine crisis.

Would it cause a tsunami or any other far reaching effects?

Wonder if India will seek help?

NASA is trying to keep this threat as low key as possible in order to avoid any mass panic!

NASA sets schedule for handling asteroid threat...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9871982/

NASA sets schedule for handling asteroid threat...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9871982/

That article is dated Oct 31, 2005. Old news.

Newer news:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12859900
Updated: 6:28 p.m. CT May 18, 2006
After a fresh round of radar observations, astronomers said Thursday that the chances of a catastrophic asteroid impact in the year 2036 are lower than previously thought — and they're hoping the threat will be completely ruled out once more readings are made.

Newest news: JPL reduced the risk to 1/45,000 after further observations of Apophis (October 19, 2006).

With this reduced risk, there is little justification in terms of a cost-benefit analysis for doing something more than just taking more measurements.

Would it cause a tsunami or any other far reaching effects?

im sure if it smacked the ocean, our maps would change. :p

im sure if it smacked the ocean, our maps would change

If it smacked in the ocean... not a change unless it's larger then half a km

just nuke it,

peace.

Any explosive, conventional or otherwise will require atmospheric pressure around such a target as a 'Meteor'. Without atmospheric pressure any explosion will be less than effective. This means that for any attempt at taking a meteor out would require first a kind of 'Atmospheric painting' whereby a smaller rocket would be sent just to create a gas cloud around the target point, with a follow-up rocket closely behind it with the payload.

There are a few other theoretical ways to deal with asteroids two, for instance the use of Radiological antenna arrays to create an alternate resonance of the meteor even to cause it to vibrate to pieces or just alter it's course by a couple of degrees. The problem however is the distance at which the antenna array would be effective considering the inverse square law.

where there is a nuke there is a way, wouldn't a nuke make one hell of a blast if it first impacted and get a bid buried? Especialy when a second nuke is hours behind waiting to aim itself on the underlying materials
then the gas for the second nuke can be the vaporised loose dust from the first blast.

does it have a CD player on like this above my head in my dream? Im running out of time to play All Of My Love
http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/6788/thecreatorxw1.gif (http://imageshack.us)

Any explosive, conventional or otherwise will require atmospheric pressure around such a target as a 'Meteor'. Without atmospheric pressure any explosion will be less than effective.

You don't need to actually "blow up" the object, just slightly change its course. A nuclear explosion near the surface of the asteroid would vaporize some of the asteroid's outer surface, which would change its trajectory.

Not a big deal about meteor coz we still have 20 years and Americans as always will save our asses by creating nice evening meteor shower.It shouldnt be hard to send few nuclear misiles to divide it to smaller peaces.
Imagine we would have asteroid belt around the earth :D nice.

Sight eventually some entrepreneur proberly's going to use a solar sail to get it in earths orbit thearby making a second moon and selling it's surface area.

Aftherall lot's of economical valuable minerals and space without a owner that are passing by can be a good thing.

Nasa has estimated that an impact from Apophis...would release more than 100,000 times the energy released in the nuclear blast over Hiroshima.

Hiroshima was a tactical nuke. Call it 50ktons for practical purposes.

50ktons is 50,000 tons.

100,000 * 50,000 = 1*10^5 * 5*10^4 = 5*10^9 or 50 megatons.

That's equivalent to a typical cold war strategic nuke aimed at Moscow, or New York perhaps.

Now nuclear winter extrapolations accounted for months of exchange, virtual physical annihilation of the respective targets, perhaps 2 or 3 gigatons is a fair estimate on the low end?

...ask a nuclear physicist...

Anyway, the risk of an impact winter from this event are nill. Weather would be affected for, oh, let's say 6 months to a year. Maybe some bad crop seasons for 2 or 3 years. Long term effects perhaps a decade.

Not a good scenario, but hardly doomsday.

The best bet would be to detonate one of our meganukes in the vicinity of this object, breaking it into smaller pieces that would burn up in the atmosphere. We can pinpoint the Kremlin or get a satellite to orbit Europa, why not precisely time a 50 megaton detonation 100 earth radii from the planet?

That's not too tall an order, I'd say. Might improve US relations with the world a bit, too.

:D

Hiroshima was a tactical nuke. Call it 50ktons for practical purposes.

50ktons is 50,000 tons.

100,000 * 50,000 = 1*10^5 * 5*10^4 = 5*10^9 or 50 megatons.

That's equivalent to a typical cold war strategic nuke aimed at Moscow, or New York perhaps.

Now nuclear winter extrapolations accounted for months of exchange, virtual physical annihilation of the respective targets, perhaps 2 or 3 gigatons is a fair estimate on the low end?



Um, you dropped a couple of zeros there in the last step.
50 megatons is 50,000,000 tons or 5*10^7 tons.
5*10^9 tons would be 5,000,000,000 tons or 5 gigatons.

The big, huge meteor headed toward Earth. Could nothing stop it? Maybe Bob could. He was suddenly on top of the meteor--through some kind of a space warp or something. "Go, Bob, go " yelled one of the generals. "Give me that" said the big-guy general as he took the microphone away. "Listen, Bob," he said. "you've got to steer that meteor away from Earth." "Yes, but how?" thought Bob. Then he got an idea. Right next to him there was a steering wheel sticking out of the the meteor.- Jack Handey

50 megatons is a very big nuke. The W87, used on the MX, has a yield of 300 kilotons. (http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Weapons/W87.html)

Of course, each missile had ten of those warheads. The Soviets favored large warheads, possible to compensate for less accurate delivery systems. The Tsar bomb is the largest fusion bomb ever detonated, estimated at 50 megatons. See it here, http://www.metacafe.com/watch/313874/50_megaton_a_bomb/

99942 apophis (http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/a99942.html)
calculated ad 19 october 2006

between 4.01E-02 and 4.02E-02 MegaTon

Well if your at ground Zero, you wont notice it hitting pretty much. It's going so fast it will penetrate the atmosphere and destroy whatever its hitting in about 3 seconds. Now, it would be not near as much fun to be anywhere else.

As for destroying it, if we are going to do anything, we need to do it now. It must be destroyed a safe distance from earth and judging by it's speed, that could be very hard to do. If you just blast it in the face with a couple nukes, you better damn well make sure nothing gets through the atmosphere, as the rocks would be radioatively contaminated.

okay the next possible impact is at 13/04/2036 So that's within a simplified even 29 years.
Let's say it would hit the earths straight in the middle so you'l have to move the asteroids more then 6,378.137 km for it to miss the earth. So you'le max have to change it's speed with no more then 0.025 km/h for it to miss earth

Or maybe it will hit moon :rolleyes: and we will have something like in Time machine movie :)

Or maybe it will hit moon :rolleyes: and we will have something like in Time machine movie :)

It's way short of what would be needed to shatter the Moon. It wouldn't even change the Moon's orbit that much. At the most, it would change the Moon's orbital distance by 2 meters.

yes, lets fire the moon at it! I actually haerd about this meteor a long time ago. BUt it wasnt supposed to hit earth, it was supposed to miss, but come close enough to pass underneath our satellites orbits.

Wonder if we could park this thing in an orbit around earth? Our next series of space stations could be asteroid stations then, using the ore and such from this rock to build shit in space.

Well an asteroid of this size I would wager to havea good amount of ore of various types, and it may even be a more reliable place to get Scandium! Oh that would be nice, it would.

Best bet is a more powerful Ionic propulsion system to gently nudge it <- that way (where <- is away from earth's path)

as Orcot said, we need to change its speed by .025 km/h to make it miss earth. I wonder if these scintists have taken Jupiter into account. It's hard to simulate gravitational feilds, so maybe, even if its moved off by a few degrees by Jupiter, it will miss. Or is it going to fast for Jupiter to have a big enough impact on it's speed and direction?

hehe ya just get some marketing genius to calculate a "profit" from mining that thing and the human race will have it mined out of the sky in minutes.

hehe ya just get some marketing genius to calculate a "profit" from mining that thing and the human race will have it mined out of the sky in minutes.

0.250 km mass 2.1e+10 kg object let's say (gues) 59% silicates 35% iron/nicle 5%ice 1%other (uranium gold coper etc).
Okay 21000000000 kg that's 21000000 ton
12390000 tons silicates/oxygen
7350000 tons iron/nicle a largefleet carrier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_carrier) weights 45 000 tons
1050000 tons ice the saturen 5 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_V) weighted 3038,5 ton most of it fuel
210000 tons others their worth a whole lot.

Now you can make a whole deal of goedies out of that, In a minutes you say?

the current cost to launch a kg in space is 2970$/kg with a MLV-SDV-2: 2 RSRB (http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/magnum.htm) the cheapest I could find at the moment so your 2.1E10kg rock is worth 6.2E13$ yust in launch costs E12 being a trilion it's actualy a lot more if you take the value of some of the minerals in acount.

just nuke it,

peace.This isn't a movie, it's real-life. ;) Did you consider that if we nuke it all that might happen is debris from it would fall all over the Earth, possible killing MORE people? Or that the radiation from a nuke might also badly affect us?

As for my opinion, idk.. as terrible as it sounds, it's asteroid impacts that have helped us in the past, it might lead to something great in the eons to come.

Scientists are monitoring the progress of a 390-metre wide asteroid discovered last year

Hold on, the thing is only 390m wide yet the distance from us is at least:

minimum speed of asteroid: 15000 m/s
time to reach earth: 725328000 s

distance: 15000 x 725328000 = 10879920000 km

which is about 72 times the distance of the sun.

The arcangle subtended by the asteroid would be: 3.6 e-11 rad

or 7.4 e-6 arcseconds.

This is 13514 times smaller than the disc of Pluto which wasn't seen by human eyes until 1930!
As far as I know, the highest resolutions we are currently able to employ are in the scale of milliarcseconds. So this asteroid would be 7000 times smaller than our current resolution limit.

distance: 15000 x 725328000 = 10879920000 km

That's a logic error (this is still abouth 99942 apophis righ)

the object that got it's name from STARGATE!!:eek: passes the earths orbit twice each year so it get's realativly closeby every now and then

What do u mean logic error? D=SxT is perfectly logical

yes it's logical but it's still a error
this is a representation of it's orbit (http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=99942;orb=1)

So it's clearly easy to see that at max the asteroid will never be further then 2.5AU from earth and not 72 AU. (Note that even pluto is only 39.5 AU from the Sun).
In fact if you look add the current date 15 may 2007 you'l see that it's only 1.114 AU away and down in april it was less then 1 AU

I see what u mean. Thanks. At that distance, they should definitely be able to track it. Very interesting work isn't it?

Behold Apophis!!!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianweekly/story/0,,1667002,00.html

Let's not forget: this article states that the chances of Aphosis hitting the Earth in 2036 are 1 in 5,500. Don't start any apocalyptic cults over it.

What's funny about that link you posted, Orcot, is that the animation shows the asteroid hitting us at April 9th, 2029, but missing us on two relatively close passes in 2036.

I assume the math has changed a bit on that since it was made? Because man...that looks f'd up.

NASA is trying to keep this threat as low key as possible in order to avoid any mass panic!

This has been established, but —
(99942) Apophis (previously known by its provisional designation 2004 MN4) is a near-Earth asteroid that caused a brief period of concern in December 2004 because initial observations indicated a relatively large probability that it would strike the Earth in 2029. Additional observations provided improved predictions that eliminated the possibility of an impact on Earth or the Moon in 2029. However there remained a possibility that during the 2029 close encounter with Earth, Apophis would pass through a "gravitational keyhole", a precise region in space no more than about 400 meters across, that would set up a future impact on 13 April 2036. This possibility kept the asteroid at Level 1 on the Torino impact hazard scale until August 2006.

Additional observations of the trajectory of Apophis revealed the "keyhole" would likely be missed and on 5 August 2006, Apophis was lowered to a Level 0 on the Torino Scale. As of 19 October 2006 the impact probability for 13 April 2036 is estimated at 1 in 45,000. An additional impact date in 2037 has been identified, however the impact probability for that encounter is 1 in 12.3 million.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis

— Apophis is not a threat.

just nuke it,

peace.

I saw this on the science channel. They've already thought of that. the particular asteroid is of a compound that can't be nuked to safety.

Or was that the few other dozen asteroids heading for us? *Shrug*

the particular asteroid is of a compound that can't be nuked to safety.

Did they say why? Is it made of something too fragile perhaps (such that a nuclear explosion would shatter the asteroid instead of deflecting it, turning 1 dangerous Earthbound object into several?)

I can't think of any likely composition which would be simply too dense for a nuke to affect it.

What's funny about that link you posted, Orcot, is that the animation shows the asteroid hitting us at April 9th, 2029, but missing us on two relatively close passes in 2036.

I assume the math has changed a bit on that since it was made? Because man...that looks f'd up.

at april 9th 2029 the asteroid would aproach us between 0.0401AU and 0.038 to make it's closest flyby (then on april 15th of 0.0328 AU or 12-13 times the earth moon distance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon) )
... 0.0328 AU is only relativly close the earth would only be visable like a dot from that distance

Did they say why? Is it made of something too fragile perhaps (such that a nuclear explosion would shatter the asteroid instead of deflecting it, turning 1 dangerous Earthbound object into several?)Reflectance spectroscopy shows a peak at 0.7 microns, a trough at 1.0 micron, then a slow climb to a plateau from around 1.6 microns. The overall trend is diagnostic of olivine; variations within it suggest pyroxene.
The best match of the Apophis reflectance data with meteorite reflectance is for a specimen of LL6 chondrite* from Cherokee Springs. A composition of approximately 55% olivine and 45% pyroxene, with perhaps a very small metal content (iron, nickel) is most likely. This is a typical stony asteroid. (This rock type is similar to the ultrabasic terrestrial rock, peridotite.) Bodies of such composition are generally thought to be composed of rubble, rather than a cohesive single block. As such a nuclear explosion would indeed be likely to disrupt the asteroid into fragments, many of which would strike the Earth with devastating force.
The estimated diameter (Delbo et al, 2007 Icarus) of 270m, together with the bulk density of 3.2 gm/cc, coupled with the anticipated impact velocity, would generate somewhere around 500 (but up to 700) megatons of energy. This is over 6,000 times the energy of the Hiroshima bomb, and at least ten times the energy of the 1908 Tunguska event.

*LL6 indicates that this is a meteorite with low [less than 3%] iron-nickel, and greatly altered so that the chondrules (small spheres of remelted material) are less visible.

awwww, no precious metals mining anymore...just some common rocks.

Reflectance spectroscopy shows a peak at 0.7 microns, a trough at 1.0 micron, then a slow climb to a plateau from around 1.6 microns. The overall trend is diagnostic of olivine; variations within it suggest pyroxene...

Impressive. Where did you get this data - is there a free online scientific journal?

Thanks ophiolite. I couldn't remember why it was non-nukable, only that it was. =/ I'd have had to scour the internet for the data.

I pulled the material together from several sources (plus my background is geology, and I have a passing knowledge of and interest in meteorites, asteroids, etc).

The specific information on the reflectance spectroscopy was from a useful powerpoint presentation on Apophis. [http://www.aero.org/conferences/planetarydefense/2007papers/S1-8--Binzel-Brief.pdf]
There is a good summary on specific meteorite (and therefore asteroid) types at this site: http://www.astrodigital.org/astronomy/metcat.html

You can calculate the magnitude of the impact using the equation:
E=1/2.m.v^2
Where E=energy in joules, m=mass in kg, v = velocity in m/sec

Unfortunately, I couldn't remember the conversion from joules to megatons offhand so I used the values from the first link for impact magnitude.
There is a great site where you can enter particulars of the impact and get data of the effect on the Earth at different distances from the impact site:
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/

55% olivine and 45% pyroxene, with perhaps a very small metal content. Chouldn't there also be some amount of hydrogen or ice?

at april 9th 2029 the asteroid would aproach us between 0.0401AU and 0.038 to make it's closest flyby (then on april 15th of 0.0328 AU or 12-13 times the earth moon distance )
... 0.0328 AU is only relativly close the earth would only be visable like a dot from that distance

So, we are already sure that this thing missed the "keyhole" that would have caused it to impact in 2029? Sorry to beat a dead horse on this one, but I just haven't done my research, and wonder why everyone is so sure that it won't hit us in that year.

And what kind of event are we talking about here? From everything I've read, I'm not seeing End of the World talk, but it's sounding serious. 10 times that of Tunguska sounds like an extinction-level event, doesn't it? Or am I wrong?

Chouldn't there also be some amount of hydrogen or ice?Not in any sort of quantity. I won't say there might not be a handful of hydrogen atoms adhering to mineral surfaces, but nothing measurable, and certainly not enough for practical use.
The issue is that as a Near Earth Asteroid Apophis is in a fairly warm part of the solar system, so that volatiles would be lost over time. Carbonaceous chondrites, which formed closer to Jupiter than to Mars, can have a water content approaching 10%. Apophis, as noted, is an LL6 chondrite, and these have less than 0.1% water content.
Moreover, if there were water present at least some of the olivine would be hydrated. I would anticipate that this would significantly alter the reflectance data in a detectable way.

still it must be quit pretty... crystelised olivine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Peridot2.jpg)

And what kind of event are we talking about here? From everything I've read, I'm not seeing End of the World talk, but it's sounding serious. 10 times that of Tunguska sounds like an extinction-level event, doesn't it? Or am I wrong?
a 250 meter 3gram/cm³ traveeling at 30km/s (http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/investigations/es2506/es2506page08.cfm)will have a impact 2630megaton creating a 9km crater (such a object strikes obouth every 6250 years)
Altough apophis travel at 30km/s it's most likly that it won't impact at this speed because it's going to catch in the earth so if you half that speed (I still believe it will be less in real life) then your stuck with a 657megaton with a les 7 km wide crater (if it hit the pole) 2.5 km crater if it hit's the equator

PS the most powerful nuke the tsar bomb had 50MTon

And what kind of event are we talking about here? From everything I've read, I'm not seeing End of the World talk, but it's sounding serious. 10 times that of Tunguska sounds like an extinction-level event, doesn't it? Or am I wrong?

That would be entirely dependent on where the impact occurred. You're right, 500-700 megatons isn't enough to trigger global climatic change such as the dreaded "cosmic winter."

If it hit the ocean, which is about a 71% chance, it would cause a tsunami comparable to the infamous Asian one, 2004. Plus the explosion would vapourise a generous volume of water:
700 megatons = 7E+14 kilocalories, which could vapourize 700 trillion litres of water - or 0.7 cubic kilometers, assuming that all the energy was absorbed by the ocean. Given that seawater is far from pure, and that a lot of energy would go into mechanical displacement (the tsunami) or be released into the air as a thermal pulse, the volume would probably be more like 0.5 cubic kilometers.
That makes a lot of new clouds and some awful rainstorms - but not a global cover. It might lower the average temperature by a degree or two for a few weeks - like the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991.

If it hit land, it would certainly loft enough dust and ash to create some spectacular sunsets around the World. Locally, the heat and blast could wipe out a major city or two and destroy millions of human lives... or simply sterilize a 50-mile radius of desert/tundra/taiga, with minimal human casualties.

S'cuze me Orcot! I was distracted whilst working on my post... that's why you got there first, with the exact same quote as me!
:o

Asteroid on its way!
A boy, pure of heart, will save us:
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/SSPOD/superstock_1574r-01840_b~Boy-Trying-To-Catch-a-Ball-with-a-Baseball-Glove-Posters.jpg

I can't see that picture of yours, Przyk. Do you have a link?

Will this be humanity's defining moment ? where we united as one instead of squabbling over resources.

I can't see that picture of yours, Przyk. Do you have a link?
Eh? It's a mindless attempt at humour, but OK: http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/SSPOD/superstock_1574r-01840_b~Boy-Trying-To-Catch-a-Ball-with-a-Baseball-Glove-Posters.jpg

So, aside from a city or two getting destroyed, or maybe a tsunami wiping out some places...this isn't going to be the Earth Killer. Got ya.

Oh, and I wanted to ask something else...is there any chance that this impact is intercepted by the moon? Have they calculated that one yet? Is it even possible? And if it were to happen that way, what effect would that have on us?

So, basically, if it hits, it's going to kill most of us.

Not at all. Read Starthane Xyzth's reply again.

So, aside from a city or two getting destroyed, or maybe a tsunami wiping out some places...this isn't going to be the Earth Killer. Got ya

If it has to hit some country, best if be China. Too many of people there I think, and even over here.
Hope Im not upsetting anyone.

Przyk's little boy reminds me of a godson I had. Bet half the kids in America want to save the world !

If it has to hit some country, best if be China. Too many of people there I think, and even over here.
Hope Im not upsetting anyone.



you'd have to try pretty hard to be more offensive than some of the existing members.

Right - I forget your all youngsters and a lot of you from Europe!

What?!!!!??

Thanks for all the info, guys. That's why I love this forum so much; even if the question is posed by an obvious troll (which I hope I'm not, even though I ask question, but hardly ever have the answer for another), you guys respond promptly and politely. It's just a great place.

And there are just so many intelligent folks here! I love it! I hope you guys don't get upset if I ask a bunch of questions.

And there are just so many intelligent folks here! I love it! I hope you guys don't get upset if I ask a bunch of questions.I wish more people asked questions like you, then I could engage in reading up on some real science rather than being offensive to trolls, or berating self righteous idiots.

Right - I forget your all youngsters and a lot of you from Europe!

yeah but many of the Europeans are sometimes funny, their not all nasty.

yeah but many of the Europeans are sometimes funny, their not all nasty.

Like me, of course. :cool:

Like me, of course. :cool:

Right/

Wonder if that satellite india launched fell down and hit anyone yet.

It would have burned up on re-entry. Or disintegrated, anyway.

The astoriod doesn't even have to hit earth you know. If it pulls the moon closer or farther away from earth we're done for.
closer = huge tsunami's of km high
farther = earth would be out of balance and shake like hell.

not so beautifull future ahead of us.

Blowing the astoroid can be worse, i think moving it out course would be the only option.

The astoriod doesn't even have to hit earth you know. If it pulls the moon closer or farther away from earth we're done for..

Dont worry man, that can't happen. Moon's much bigger than any asteroid, it would pull the asteroid off its path not other way round. youd need a whole other PLANET passing closeby to change the moon's orbit, and that cannot have happend in billions of years.

He's right, you know. Billions of years of direct collisions with asteroids haven't forced the Moon into an Earth-grazing path, nor have they knocked it out of orbit altogether. (Space 1999 was a ludicrous premise...)