asteroid 99942 apophis a name we be hearing more of...

[Mike70]

a US team just won the competition to design a spacecraft to send to this asteroid and tag it so its orbit can be ultra precisely calculated. why? this is the reason: In 2029, it will approach the Earth within a distance closer than a geostationary satellite - and near enough to be seen with the naked eye. If the orbiting behemoth passes through a "keyhole" in space measuring several hundred kilometres wide during this pass, it will strike Earth in 2036. Earth-based observations might not be sufficient to rule out an impact in 2036. the tagging by a spacecraft would but all doubts aside about whether or not it was going to strike and allow for plenty of time to come up with a way to deflect its orbit. the folks behind the winning design are hoping to launch by 2012. the full story:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7265608.stm

[bassman]

This isn't really a problem. All we need is Michael Bay, Bruce Willis, and Billy Bob Thornton. Then we're set. Seriously though....that's kind of creepy...

[MaximusIncredulous]

2036 huh? Gives me plenty of time to take up tsunami surfing in case of a water hit.

[Marie]

2036 huh? Gives me plenty of time to take up tsunami surfing in case of a water hit. Reminds one of the scene in "Lucifers Hammer" where the guy surfed the tsunami. He did fine until he hit the skyscraper. M_

[mista_mo]

isn't there something like 100,000 nuclear weapons in the world? i never understood why even just a few dozen couldn't destroy a large asteroid, and the remaining debry. or at least push it out of the way.

[Maitreya]

isn't there something like 100,000 nuclear weapons in the world? i never understood why even just a few dozen couldn't destroy a large asteroid, and the remaining debry. or at least push it out of the way. Because there's actually mandates in place against the use of nuclear weaponry in space. Of course, I'm sure that saving the planet would cause the Earth's leaders to examine all their options, including nuclear weaponry. Though, chances are if we blew it up a good portion of it would still hit us, although then with a significant dose of radiation (possibly compounding any that it may have already had, if any). Not to say that I have the solution, but I doubt nuclear weaponry would be the answer. Imagine if something went wrong with the launch and the missile exploded while exiting the atmosphere. Then not only would we have an impending asteroid strike, we'd also have a bunch of radiation in the atmosphere. It's a really ****ty situation, though this isn't the first time there have been scares about this, and they ended up being nothing; lets just hope that this is just like that one.

[Neil]

isn't there something like 100,000 nuclear weapons in the world? i never understood why even just a few dozen couldn't destroy a large asteroid, and the remaining debry. or at least push it out of the way. Because (a) they're not designed to go into space... (b) hitting something a long long long long long way away travelling very very very very very very fast isn't easy. (c) Even if you do, then it could result in the 'shot gun' effect. ie: Think of a shot gun hitting something rather than a single bullet. Ideally, say advocates of such a mission, Apophis' orbit would need to be changed before 2025 to be sure it misses the Earth.

[MinionZombie]

Damnit bassman, I was gonna make an Armageddon gag. ... I don't wanna close my eyes, I don't wanna fall asleep cos I miss you babe, and I don't wanna miss a thing... Or something like that. Well at least they're thinking forward and being prepared. Something many government can't be arsed with here on planet earth.

[MikePizzoff]

In 2029, it will approach the Earth within a distance closer than a geostationary satellite - and near enough to be seen with the naked eye. If a giant asteroid passes THAT close, it will knock the damn Earth off it's axis anyway.

[Mike70]

If a giant asteroid passes THAT close, it will knock the damn Earth off it's axis anyway. this thing is big (about 300m or so) but not big enough to effect the anything like the axis of the earth. neil is right - nuclear weapons would be a profoundly bad idea. better would be to attach a number of small engines to the asteroid to push it away. the change in velocity needed to ensure a miss is very, very small, something on the order of a few millimeters per second.

[capncnut]

this thing is big (about 300m or so) but not big enough to effect the anything like the axis of the earth. But big enough to cover Barbados completely if it landed on it.

[Skippy911sc]

There was a documentary about this and other world ending events and the theory they are working on is...they will build a large enough space craft that will fly close to this world killer and the gravitational pull from the space craft will change the direction of the asteroid. I think they said NASA has 12 people working on it...that is soooooo comforting.

[Mike70]

But big enough to cover Barbados completely if it landed on it. it is only 300 meters wide still big enough to cause damage on a scale unheard of in human history but barbados is 430 square kms. Nasa estimates that if Apophis were to hit Earth, it would explode with as much energy as 400 megatonnes of TNT.

[Neil]

If a giant asteroid passes THAT close, it will knock the damn Earth off it's axis anyway. Dude! Get a grip! A burger king double whopper would probably have as much effect on the earth as an asteroid of that size, that far away There was a documentary about this and other world ending events and the theory they are working on is...they will build a large enough space craft that will fly close to this world killer and the gravitational pull from the space craft will change the direction of the asteroid. I think they said NASA has 12 people working on it...that is soooooo comforting. Yes, but it would take tens of years to managed to move the object enough... ie: If you catch it long enough in advance it would be enough... Catch it when there's only 5-10yrs to go and you're stuffed (with that method)...

[Mike70]

Yes, but it would take tens of years to managed to move the object enough... ie: If you catch it long enough in advance it would be enough... Catch it when there's only 5-10yrs to go and you're stuffed (with that method)... this asteroid is 300meters in length. it isn't a world killer or even probably a climate changer just something that would be profoundly unpleasant to have drop on you with the force of something like 400 megatons. to be a truely deadly asteroid one that could threaten civilization or the permaently change the climate you need one the several orders of magnitude larger - on the scale of about 10km or so - which was the size of the asteroid that struck the yucatan 65 million years ago. personally, i think the money - however much it takes - to move this thing ought to be spent even if this thing isn't on an earth impact orbit. this would be the perfect way and time to learn which sorts of ideas work and which don't when it comes to deflecting one of these things.