Earth almost distroyed last monday (??!?!?)

[mooeypoo]

Hi guys

 

I recently heard about a celestial object (I THINK it was an asteroid, but I am not sure) passing by -- and missing -- the moon.

 

I tried to get information about this, if it is really true, but I can't find any concrete info.. I've seen it at the news at 3 in the morning, and as you can guess, the broadcast wasn't too informative, and I was quite tired at the time, so only bits stuck to my memory.

 

However, I failed to find anything online.. or anything concrete.

 

So my question is: Did we really have some object missing us at last monday?? and second; and perhaps it is only me, but it seemed that the information was quieted and not really released fully to the public (explaining this at the 3am news, but not at the rest of the day seems a bit odd) -- was that to prevent panic? WAS there anything to worry about?

 

Thanks for any info, it's really interresting

 

~moo

[nanogrinder]

http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=187827770&p=y878z8476

[mooeypoo]

Yikes.

 

Well, appearantly I wasn't dreaming, even though it was 3 in the morning.

 

How is it that we didn't hear about this further?? This is quite important, I'd say.

 

Other than that, quite a stupid question, but still: Are we supposed to be expecting a real-life armaggedon-movie adventure next time this happens? What are the odds of something of this sort actually HITTING the earth or the moon, and can we - effectively and non-hollyoodily - protect ourselves against something like this?

 

And, what alarmed me the most:

“It would probably be big enough to wipe out a small country,” said Dr David Asher, from the Armagh Observatory in the North.

 

He added: “At least we knew about this asteroid. We should be more worried about the unknown ones. There are quite a lot of them flying around out there that are still to be discovered.”

 

Uhh.. YIKES?? "Unknown Ones"?? How can there be unknown ones? Something that goes very fast towards the earth and we won't be able to detect it? Will we even HAVE anything to do if we do detect it? Will this end the age of man on earth like one presumably end the age of the dinosaurs? ((I sound like an episode of "soap", but.. so many questions!))

 

Sorry for the multiple question style, I'm just a bit confused by this. Specifically I'm worried about this not being further mentioned in the news.. does this mean no one deals with those things, or only that people try to prevent panic?

 

~moo

[insane_alien]

mooey, have you looked up recently? space is damn big and whole planets appear as nothing more than a tiny spot. imagine a rock a billionth the size of a planet, not visible to the naked eye but still big enough to wipe out all life on earth and then some. telescopes can only search a tiny tiny fraction at a time as well.

[swansont]

A number of cars didn't hit me this morning, even though they were close to me. Stop the presses!

 

It missed us. The people tracking it knew it was going to miss us. So, no big deal. Nothing happened. Hooray for Newtonian physics.

 

The reason there are unkown ones is that you find them by seeing things moving in the sky, but an object heading straight toward us doesn't move relative to the background stars (only parallax will show anything). If it's small, it won't reflect much light and would be hard to see util it's fairly close. And, as i_a said, space is big. (As Douglas Adams put it, "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.")

[wh666-666]

Exactly insane alien. Its been predicted that we are supposed to have an object penentrate the atmosphere by 2052. Space isnt a peaceful place but a hostile world and its extremely common having near (astronomically near) misses but i wouldnt worry, objects hitting earth should be the least of your survival concern (especially living somewhere like USA, think about the caldeara at yellowstone, that would worry me if i were you!).

 

It is certain that within the next few thousand years the earth will be un-inhabital (due to the sun) but many scientists predict that within the next hundred years there are going to be several disasters to wipe us out completely. Foreign objects striking earth is just one but there are so many others before fossil fuels or supposed "global warming" that enviromentalist idiots rave about is even an issue. Point is dont be afraid about the human race being wiped out, it isnt that great anyway.

[frostbite]

phew! Thank goodness it missed!

[CPL.Luke]

why would the sun make the earth uninhabitable in a few thousand years? maybe in a few billion when it turns into a red giant, but I'm not going to worry about whats going to happen in a few billion years

 

 

also keep in mind that it is very difficult to wipe a species off the planet, let alone humanity. In the worst case scenario we would be reduced to a few million lonely soles who would then go on to repopulate the earth.

[Janus]

Yikes.

 

Well' date=' appearantly I wasn't dreaming, even though it was 3 in the morning.

 

How is it that we didn't hear about this further?? This is quite important, I'd say.

 

 

 

~moo[/quote']

 

I know the article called it a near miss, But I guess that depends on what you consider as a "near miss". Consider that the asteroid missed by 268,000 miles, and compare this to the diameter of the Earth, 7973 miles. This is like missing a dart board by over 60 ft.

[walrusman]

It is certain that within the next few thousand years the earth will be un-inhabital (due to the sun) but many scientists predict that within the next hundred years there are going to be several disasters to wipe us out completely. Foreign objects striking earth is just one but there are so many others before fossil fuels or supposed "global warming" that enviromentalist idiots rave about is even an issue. Point is dont be afraid about the human race being wiped out, it isnt that great anyway.

 

This is ridiculous. The earth and space is just as volatile now as it was before we got here. When we didn't know a comet from a microwave things were just fine. As soon as mankind sniffs around and learns a little about the world around him, everybody wants to cry the sky is falling. Yes yellowstone could blow - or not for another 100,000 years. Yes a comet could hit us...or not for another 100 million years.

 

They aren't predictions...they're dramatic overtures by bored scientists...

 

And the human race is great. In fact, mankind is freaking awesome. Don't fall for that anti-human self loathing crap...

[insane_alien]

just cause we didn't know about the threat does not mean that it did not exist.

[Dr. Dalek]

It is certain that within the next few thousand years the earth will be un-inhabital (due to the sun)

I havn't heard of anything like that. Are you sure you don't mean billion years?

[mooeypoo]

Okay, good point insane_alien, but then.. can anyone tell me (or.. stipulate) what the odds are of the Earth/Moon being hit by anything substancial enough to cause grave damage?

[Klaynos]

Since we've been watching, the most dangerouse threat has been:

 

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

 

It's probably worth your time to read

 

http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/back2.html

[J.C.MacSwell]

Okay, good point insane_alien, but then.. can anyone tell me (or.. stipulate) what the odds are of the Earth/Moon being hit by anything substancial enough to cause grave damage[/b']?

 

Would a one in 65 millionth of a chance per year be a bad guess?

[[Tycho?]]

Exactly insane alien. Its been predicted that we are supposed to have an object penentrate the atmosphere by 2052. Space isnt a peaceful place but a hostile world and its extremely common having near (astronomically near) misses but i wouldnt worry' date=' objects hitting earth should be the least of your survival concern (especially living somewhere like USA, think about the caldeara at yellowstone, that would worry me if i were you!).

 

It is certain that within the next few thousand years the earth will be un-inhabital (due to the sun) but many scientists predict that within the next hundred years there are going to be several disasters to wipe us out completely. Foreign objects striking earth is just one but there are so many others before fossil fuels or supposed "global warming" that enviromentalist idiots rave about is even an issue. Point is dont be afraid about the human race being wiped out, it isnt that great anyway.[/quote']

 

 

Objects "penetrate the atmosphere" all the time. A fairly large one hit in Norway just a few weeks ago.

[mooeypoo]

"]A fairly large one hit in Norway just a few weeks ago.

 

Can you add Sources? What did it do to the invironment?

[mooeypoo]

Would a one in 65 millionth of a chance per year be a bad guess?

 

Nothing would be "bad", it just.. is, I guess... I would love to get better founded statistics thought

 

Plus, by the way I see people reacting here, it seems the odds are much higher.. or am I wrong?

 

Thanks

 

~moo

[insane_alien]

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1346411.ece

 

google.

 

the chances of a hit are more than 1:65 million a year. theres been several major hits in the past 5 million years.

[darkangel199]

the sun gets 10% hotter every one billion years. yes, in a billion years the earth will probably be too hot for us humans or whatever replaces us, but we might not even make it that long, the yellowstone super volcanoe is set to blow any moment according to the USGS, as is Mount ST Helens and they also expect Krakatoa to go again as well. Not to mention the warming oceans will unfreeze all the trapped methane in the ocean anyway, burning us alive.

 

some links on the Methane hydrate"

 

http://www.hydrogen.co.uk/h2_now/journal/articles/3_Methane.htm

http://www.economist.com/research/backgrounders/displaystory.cfm?story_id=3375415

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3775181.stm

[bascule]

It is certain that within the next few thousand years the earth will be un-inhabital (due to the sun)

 

What the hell are you talking about?

[GrandMasterK]

God: "We had a really good run, couple hundred million years. I can't believe it didnt occur to me that so many dinosaurs would be wiped out by a meteor impact. 1st mars got to cold and now this (little do people know mars was my first choice, looked just like earth back in the day). Ok ok ok ok, this time, I shall evolve an animal capable of protecting itself against anything. However I am not beyond my own rules, all things must be in a balance. So on the downside they are going to be massively self destructive, but the good to bad ratio will be like 70/30, and I'm not argueing with those numbers. Ok, couple million years and they should start getting up and running. I gotta get back to the universe. If I don't hurry up they are gonna figure out I got tired 14 billion light years out and stopped making stuff. Ontop of that, with the way these people like to boink, they'll fill half the universe up with humans before the sun has a chance to turn red. Suppose somewhere between the years 2050-2100 they'll spot that earth like planet I made in the Luyten 789-6 system, 11 light years away. I'm always looking out for my little buddies, anyone who can write orchestra music that good has earned a couple millions years in my book. This time, I won't allow a giant meteor to come their way until they are ready to deal with it. After that, just to not look suspicious, I'm sending a bunch. If I can go off topic for a minute, I'm really glad they put the nuke idea away and dawned on the whole "fly something big into it" idea, thems my little champions."

[Dr. Dalek]

What the hell are you talking about?

Furthermore, what the hell is this guy talking about?

God: "We had a really good run, couple hundred million years. I can't believe it didnt occur to me that so many dinosaurs would be wiped out by a meteor impact. 1st mars got to cold and now this (little do people know mars was my first choice, looked just like earth back in the day). Ok ok ok ok, this time, I shall evolve an animal capable of protecting itself against anything. However I am not beyond my own rules, all things must be in a balance. So on the downside they are going to be massively self destructive, but the good to bad ratio will be like 70/30, and I'm not argueing with those numbers. Ok, couple million years and they should start getting up and running. I gotta get back to the universe. If I don't hurry up they are gonna figure out I got tired 14 billion light years out and stopped making stuff. Ontop of that, with the way these people like to boink, they'll fill half the universe up with humans before the sun has a chance to turn red. Suppose somewhere between the years 2050-2100 they'll spot that earth like planet I made in the Luyten 789-6 system, 11 light years away. I'm always looking out for my little buddies, anyone who can write orchestra music that good has earned a couple millions years in my book. This time, I won't allow a giant meteor to come their way until they are ready to deal with it. After that, just to not look suspicious, I'm sending a bunch. If I can go off topic for a minute, I'm really glad they put the nuke idea away and dawned on the whole "fly something big into it" idea, thems my little champions."

[GrandMasterK]

I'm starting to ask that same bizarre question about myself, must of been sleep deprivation.

[mooeypoo]

Well, it's not the worst part yet - at work, I have a fundamentalist christian (I have to say he's beating many I've spoken to in my lifetime, and I've spoken to a FEW of these) - I told him, out of pure interrest, about this "meteor missing us" and such, and got a response that insulted the tenets of my being, something about prophecy of daniel being true and preventing the meteor from hitting us until the earth is ready for the resurrection..

 

I just stared at him for a few moments, trying to understand if I heard correctly.

 

Since I was - at that moment - doing something highly mindless at work, we continued on to talking general stuff in "science" (its in brackets since what HE was saying was far from anything resembling that word), and finally, when he tried to "prove to me" that god diverted this meteor by claiming (and I quote): "What holds the earth in space??" /me, in slight shock:"Uh.... nothing.... it's.. uhh... space... uhh... the sun's gravity "holds" it... uhhh..." / him: "The earth is a ball right?? well, have you ever seen a ball just floats in mid-air?? have you?? NO! Something needs to hold it! ha!"

 

At that moment, after trying to figure out if the guy was speaking, perhaps, kantonese, a fact that would explain me understanding his words wrong, I just quite speaking, and chose to do my mindless boring work without concidering his.. weird.. uhmn.. claims.

 

So after hearing those things about our meteor, I am not at all surprised somone mentioned god in this thread.

 

Appearantly, he's not alone.

 

I'm still quite shocked.

 

~moo