Extinction Level Events?

[Guest KillRide]

Been reading a lot on ELE (Extinction Level Events) and such, and I came across

 

http://www.armageddononline.org

 

and

 

http://www.xs4all.nl/~mke/

 

Some of the scenarios seem plausbile, a lot's based on science... Do some of those theories hold water? (not the nostradamus stuff...) The Nuclear weapons and Asteroid articles are somewhat scary...

 

Thoughts?

 

Anyone got any more info / places to go things to do?

[TimeTraveler]

Some of the scenarios seem plausbile, a lot's based on science... Do some of those theories hold water? (not the nostradamus stuff...) The Nuclear weapons and Asteroid articles are somewhat scary...

 

I just read this article (

http://www.armageddononline.org/asteroid.php

)from your link to armageddon.com and it seems to be accurate in terms of displaying facts known about impacts. (There is alot missing but it is a decent outline).

 

Although I would add more to thier suggested measures of preparaton:

 

Up until 50 years ago, we would have been totally defenseless against one. With the advent of nuclear weapons, we might have the possiblity of lauching ICBM nuclear tipped rockets at it, in an attempt to destroy it. However, doing such could result in creating a worse situation for ourselves. If we broke it into peices, the damage from multiple impacts could be just as bad as one big one.

 

The other option is to do the best we can to prepare for such an impact. Those in the direct path of the impact would stand little chance of survival. however, if shelters areound the world were created to prepare for such an onslaught, with stockpiled food, water and resources - they may be able to hold out until the dust settled.

 

The world they would be coming back out to would be far different than the one they left. With nearly every species and 75-90% of plant life possibly wiped out, humans would literally have to start all over.

 

You can find a good article on what is being done here:

 

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/aussie_asteroid_020201-1.html

 

A couple key things from the article:

 

The fear: a cosmic sucker punch from southern skies that could destroy civilization.

 

The remedy: a new multi-million dollar telescope in Australia.....

 

"A major global Spaceguard effort could provide decades of warning prior to an impact," the letter states. "This would be sufficient time to refine the space technology needed to nudge a threatening asteroid into a harmless orbit, or to evacuate the predicted impact area. Without Spaceguard there would be too little warning to prevent a disaster."

 

The odds of an asteroid larger than 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) hitting Earth sometime in the next century are typically put at 1-in-5,000. Such an impact could destroy a country, would likely cause some species to go extinct, and might blot out the Sun long enough to ruin farming and send humans into a Dark Ages existence

 

Only about half of these large NEOs have been found, according to the most widely accepted estimates. Some 500 or so are thought to await detection.

 

Meanwhile, about 30 percent of the sky has never been surveyed.

 

Spaceguard is a good program but it needs more funding. With many countries extra funding tied up in efforts in Iraq, it is hard to say if they will get it. So if any of you rich billionaires have a couple million pocket change lying around I am sure they will except private donations as well.

[Guest KillRide]

It mentions Tunguska from 1908 or whenever.... if that had happened over New York at the time it would've been leveled.

 

Do you know how often an impact / event like that happens?

[TimeTraveler]

It mentions Tunguska from 1908 or whenever.... if that had happened over New York at the time it would've been leveled.

 

Do you know how often an impact / event like that happens?

 

What happened there, in Siberia, was the asteroid blew up before it hit land, which is thought to be common with smaller objects, only this one was rather large.

 

As for how often, I don't know how you could measure that, its hard to say with the little information known.

[Tetrahedrite]

Speaking of asteroids, there was a meteorite shower visible in Australia last night from the tail of a comet that orbits the sun every 1.4 years. Did anyone see it?