Just a question: If aerospace scientists discover a great asteroid with 10 miles diameter in the 6,000,000,000 miles distance is coming to the solar system and they calculate accurately that it certainly will collide with the earth in one of its orbit points in the future, what your reaction and precaution will be? What will you do in this period of the time, before it reaches the earth? Don't forget a asteroid with 10 miles diameter is a potential and destroyer danger for our planet.
I think I would join the march. The funeral march. Or pray for all these hollywood movies to be right. There's a short story of Stephen Baxter that I like very much called "The Big Rip" (or something like that) The Last Contact (That's the name is free here http://zestfullyblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/last-contact-by-stephen-baxter-part-1.html?m=1) The world is coming to an end (no spoilers here about why), two characters only: an astrophycisist woman and her mom. They're just waiting the thing to happen in a couple of months story-time. They just carry on with their, relatively, normal lives; easy and calm as the people goes crazy lotting food, quiting jobs, and so. Very good story, indeed.
I think I'd like to be part of the think tank that was actively looking for ways to divert it. I'd like to think that mankind as a whole might throw out their preconceived notions about what intellect is and isn't and work together for a solution, as improbable as that might be. I couldn't just 'accept' this was going to happen. I'd want to be actively working toward that solution right up until the day it happened. On a more personal note, a friend of mine named M. was told that she had less than a year to live due to inoperable pancreatic cancer. She took up golf, had an affair with a married man, partied like she was 20 again, and in my mind just did as she wanted without worrying about the ramifications. She died at home, five years later, surrounded by her family. Some of us experience a personal meteor, and we see what we are made of, and what we would do. Myself, I experienced something similar last year. It turned out to not be fatal, but it made me analyze my priorities. I quit the job I hated, we jumped at the opportunity to move somewhere beautiful and warm. In spite of some of the remaining fatigue, I've taken up hiking, lost 30lbs and I find myself all the more appreciative of being granted just a few more spins around the sun. Incidentally, I'm also a woman of faith. I found during this time I turned more inward, not necessarily seeking my own company, but I didn't want to share all these things with people from my congregation. It was a personal trial, and I relied on what I believe to be a very powerful tool. Prayer, and meditation on comforting passages found within the bible. Many scoff at religion and view God as some secret Santa in the sky, which is their prerogative. Yet, I view prayer as a vehicle in which to have a personal conversation with the one personage in the universe who controls it all. One, whom I could petition to change the outcome. In the scenario you've posted above, I know I'd be actively working to prevent the outcome if at all possible. However, I'd also rely heavily on the power I perceive in prayer.
Party like a maggot on an open wound. I imagine humanity would be extinct before it hit. Somebody* out there somewhere would decide that the only way to save humanity/their race/their religion/their side of the stuffing/no-stuffing debate would be to invade those bastards over there, and someone else would realize that, with a Dinosaur Killer™ asteroid growing larger every day in the northern sky, the sensible thing to do would be to release nukes at a fourth party, and then everything goes the way it did in War Games and the only thing the asteroid ends up doing is making the radioactive rubble bounce. *I'm not pointing fingers, all humans are equally worthless and irrational in large, frightened groups.
not to mention that some penis would decide to fire nukes at the asteroid... so when it arrived it would then be radioactive and huge - or if they did succeed in blowing it up we'd get a shower of radioactive boulders instead
This is the most plausible and realistic solution out there. I don't think 10 miles is a complete global killer, but it might wipe out half of the population.
It is just a far probability. It is told the nearest star to the solar system is in 4000 years of speed of light distance! Imagine the space between the star and the solar system how much great is! Also in the far distance every great mass such as an asteroid is trapped in the gravity of stars, black holes or great planets. If we even imagine a star is exploded (surely it will not be the nearest star) and some of its parts are spread out in the space in order that one of the parts reaches the solar system will take long millions years! No. I believe such the occurrence will never happen and the earth will be ruined otherwise. Maybe the destroyer of the earth and other planets would be the sun itself. It is not clear when the sun will be exploded but surely it will not be in the near future.
Seems that theres a lot of asteroids that wander our solar system but they don't "live" in it. The True Menace doesn't need to come from other stars because this asteriods pay us a visit periodically, like the comets. There's astrophysicists from all over the world sorting out this asteriods by order of danger right now. I don't remember the name of the program but hasn't been cancelled like the SETI program. They fear that there would be asteroids with so long orbits that haven't been discovered yet. The topic of the thread is a very real possibility indeed.
I'm sure it will never happens, even in the thousand years later. Those asteroids have been trapped in a severe force and also have a circular motion in a fixed orbit, just like other planets. Of course the only danger is that some of them collide to each other because of orbit change or difference of speed (such the occurrence is not foreseeable). Thus they will be smashed into pieces. Probably the meteors that impact the earth atmosphere are those pieces. Great masses in the belt are not able to escape from their orbit easily and without a great sudden force from outside. Another theory is that these pieces come from the outside space and maybe some of them accident with the stones in the belt and drive them to every direction. Such the impacts can create a lot of pieces. However, the small stones in the belt can go out from their orbits easily but great masses are not included this rule due to their higher gravity and their resistance against any outside weaker gravity. I ensure you an asteroid with even 0.5 mile diameter will never attempt to leave its orbit and come toward the earth in the near future. This may happen in the next millions years but I don't think at the time the earth exist!
The KT asteroid was probably about 6 miles (10km) across, and it's the reason we're not still overrun with dinosaurs.
Maybe you are right and I trully hope so, but some people think there's an edge for other possibilities (they're counting 156 PHA by April 2018) and is surveying the sky as I post this. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potentially_hazardous_object
It is just an scientific estimate but there is not enough information, reliable calculations and convincing evidences for such the probable event. As I told, such the asteroids don't leave their orbit easily, suddenly and in a short time. Of course meteors have existed always and they all bombard the earth and other planets in the solar system on and off. God has created a reliable and steady shield around the earth that disperses and destroys those meteors, if not, the view of the earth was similar to the moon, full of great and small holes. The wandered stones that have crashed on the moon or other planets, and have had some large or small effects on their surface, if collided the earth nothing would happen, because they were burned and changed into ash completely before can reach the earth. Praise for God for this perfect designation! Scientists and people believe this is an ancient place that an asteroid crashed on, but I have another idea! It is a landslip and this is a place that many years ago sank in the ground! Now we can see another sample of such the occurrence in Australia beach: Landslip on Australian Beach Opens up 300-Meter-Wide Hole https://interestingengineering.com/landslip-on-australian-beach-opens-up-300-meter-wide-hole Also, if it was the place of collision there should be a ridge around the hole because of an immediate melting and expansion, just like what we see around the moon holes: However, in my opinion, it would be an exceptional thing that if a great space mass can influence in the atmosphere intact, reach the earth and be cause of a regional damage.
Up to now, it is just a theory that dinosaurs were perished due to an asteroid collision. probably there is another reason, for example when the lifetime of a species reaches its end naturally. I think, now whales are in the same condition!
@Mans, I get your point. Here's a story. There's a man, hands clenched around a tiny branch. The branch in on the side of a clift. The man looks down, 3000 meters fall. The man looks up, 10 meters to the top. The man shouts: "Help, is anyone there?" Silence. The man shouts again: "Is anyone there?" A voice in his ears: "Yes, it's me, God. Uncletch your hands. Let yourself fall. Before your body touches the ground I'll send a retinue of angels that would fly to catch you and carry you up to the top." The man shouts: "Cool, but is there anyone else?" It's not a bad idea to have a B Plan. That's why are people surveying the skies.
My bucket list is quite short. I'd likely just buy a quality QP or HP and invite friends to an "enhanced" barbecue.
A friend of mine founded a religion based on this. The holy text is along the lines of: The asteroid is coming. We don’t know when. We just know that it is. It has happened before, many times. It will happen again, many times. On one of those times, we will be there when it hits. We will not be there after. This is the only certain thing. You may believe in the asteroid, if you wish. The asteroid does not care. When it hits, you will die. You may worship the asteroid. The asteroid does not care. When it hits, you will die. You may try to please the asteroid. The asteroid does not care. When it hits, you will die. In the meantime, try not to be a dick. (Though if you are, the asteroid still won’t care.)
If the meteor is coming, I will have sex one last time by myself. That way if by some chance I survive, it won't be awkward afterwards.
I ensure you an asteroid is not jobless to leave its comfortable orbit and come to the earth to kill itself! If even we suppose such the asteroid changes its direction to the earth, it will encounter with a severe shield that will smash and burn it. Bigger masses will receive a harder respond from our dear atmosphere! This gift will never allow a giant stone to hurt our planet. The resistant atmosphere will blowup the asteroid like a firecracker! If it hit over the oceans, probably the majority of its pieces will crash into water and the only effect which can be dangerous for man is the heat and storm that will happen in the atmosphere and it is transferred to the earth after the minutes! It is not clear how much the heat (in the 1000 kilometer distance) will be transferred to the lands but I think it is hazardous! Another effect of the accident is a sudden shrinkage and expansion of the atmosphere. There is a probability that a part of atmosphere is derived to the space and also a destroyer and unprecedented storm happens across the world. Another consequence is the sound wave of hitting, in addition to a very intense light. I believe this great sound wave can be deadly for human and animals. Another danger is the rain of stones and also a so great mass of dust and smoke. Those lands that are under the place of hitting are exposed to a hard rain of stone. In addition to these, a series of continuous and hard thunderbolts will happen in the atmosphere (across the world) because of the powerful electric field that is created by the collision. The sudden shrinkage and expansion of atmosphere creates a powerful storm wave that is ten times more powerful than the every natural hurricane, and the storm makes all the oceans and seas wavy and the high waves attack to the lands like the great tsunamis. Of course there is a probability that a big part of the asteroid is added to these dangers. So the danger of collision of an asteroid to the earth atmosphere are these: Light, heat, sound wave, storm, rain of stones, dust, smoke, thunderbolts, big parts. The amount of damage dependent on the angle of collision. There is a probability that the greatest piece hit the earth. The best condition is that, the asteroid touch the atmosphere at zero angle, digresses, and goes away.
