Asteroids

There was an asteroid that could have hit us last night, according to Fox News it hit, but they're just idiots. However why the fuck doesn't world governments take more interest in such things. It pisses me the fuck off. They are more concern over WHEN the Apocalypse is going to happen than how to prevent it because they believe they'd go to god damn heaven.

According to that Recovery website, a third of the money apart of Obama's plan is going to Sciene and Research. I hope this includes the asteroid coming in 2012.

You can't blame asteroids on your enemies.

>>2
It's the nuke of the aliens. We need to declare war on them, so why not?

>>1
You ever take a look at the sky, dumbass?  It's really fucking big.  There's a lot of sky up there.  And asteroids can come from any fucking direction they want.  That's a whole lot of fucking directions.

Do you even have the slightest clue how fast one of those fuckers would be going if it were to collide with us?  REALLY FUCKING FAST!  In order to find it early enough to do a damned thing about it, we have to find it really really far away from us first.

THREE DIMENSIONAL GEOMETRY TIME, FUCKHEAD!  THE FURTHER AWAY THE ASTEROID IS, THE MORE SKY YOU HAVE TO SEARCH THROUGH TO FIND IT!  PIE AREN'T SQUARED, THEY'RE MOTHERFUCKING CUBED!

And that's not even including the fact that the best idea we've gotten so far for dealing with an incoming asteroid WAS A MOVIE STARRING BRUCE WILLIS!  AND HE FUCKING DIED IN IT!

DAMMIT PEOPLE, USE SOME COMMON SENSE!  WE ARE GOING TO BE HIT BY A FUCKING ASTEROID, AND THERE'S NOT A FUCKING THING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT!  JUST GET OVER IT ALREADY!

>>4
And asteroids can come from any fucking direction they want.
Er, no, that's not true.  Asteroidal impactors should come in largely along the plane of the ecliptic.

>>5
SHOULD?  SHOULD?!  THAT'LL DO YOU A FAT LOT OF GOOD WHEN AN ASTEROID COMES BARRELLING IN PERPENDICULAR TO THE ECLIPTIC PLANE!

"Oh, I'm so sorry the planet got struck by an asteroid and the human race virtually eliminated from the gene pool.  That asteroid should not have been coming from that direction, so we just weren't looking over there.  Oops."

THAT'LL GO OVER REALLY FUCKING WELL IN THE PRESS RELEASE.  WHY NOT JUST PUT UP A FUCKING STREET SIGN: "Asteroids, left turn only".  THAT'LL SAVE US.

I'd rather they give more welfare monies to poor people (like me) instead of spending it on stupid shit like the nerd american space agency which is basically welfare for the rich and autistic

Angry >>6 is aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaangry.  We should harness his random undirected rage into a gigantic death ray to destroy all asteroids in cislunar space.

>>7
Some of the things that were originally developed at NASA are used in day-to-day life here on Earth too.

>>7
nigger detected

>>10
Actually I'm 100% Italian Stallion

good thread is good :D

>>8
CISLUNAR SPACE?  MORE LIKE FUCK-YOU-UP-THE-ASS-WITH-A-RAKE SPACE, AMIRITE?

WHY DON'T YOU FOCUS YOUR THOUGHTS ON SOMETHING MORE PRACTICAL THAN A GODDAMNED DEATH RAY, IDIOT?!  ASTEROIDS AREN'T EVEN FUCKING ALIVE!

>>7
Haha what a whiny pathetic thing to say, I bet you just butthurt cause your g/f got chopped by an alpha male succesful astronaut while you were on a date. She completely forgot about your existence!

>>13
Ref: http://space.wikia.com/wiki/Cislunar_space

I'm sorry, but there's no wiki entry at all for "FUCK-YOU-UP-THE-ASS-WITH-A-RAKE SPACE".  None whatsoever.  So you are wrong.  Very.

>>15
Try it in lower-case.  Wikipedia is case-sensitive.

THEY NEED TO BEGIN MAKING GUNBUSTER
AND SAVE US ALL

>>15
It's called "FUCK-YOU-UP-THE-ASS-WITH-A-RAKE SPACE" because if an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth, and it gets that close, THAT'S WHAT IT WILL DO TO YOU!  IT WILL GET A RAKE, AND FUCK YOU UP THE ASS WITH IT!  AND NOT ONE OF THOSE NEW COMFORTABLE ONES WITH THE RUBBER GRIPS, THIS ONE WILL MAKE YOU FEEL EVERY FUCKING SPLINTER AS IT TEARS OUT YOUR SHITSTAINED COLON!

And before your FUCKING PEDANTIC DUMBASSERY deigns to tell me that asteroids can't use rakes in such a manner, IT'S A GODDAMNED METAPHOR!  YOU'LL WISH IT WAS JUST A RAKE WHEN THAT MOTHERFUCKER HITS US!

>>18
You're 4chan's equivalent of Vlad the Impaler.  Here, consult the wiki on him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_the_Impaler

>>19
And you're 4chan's equivalent of Otis the Drunk.  gb2/b/, FailCream.

>>20
I don't go to /b/, cumbreath.  Wanna make this personal?  BRING IT.

>>19-21
WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?!  THIS IS A THREAD ABOUT ASTEROIDS, NOT BEING DUMBFUCKS!!  STOP BEING IRRELEVANT!

Disregard that.  I suck cocks.

>>22
And you're an idiot who rather just sit still and say that all hope is lost when Humanity has the capability of controlling their own destiny.

>>24
Controlling destiny is one thing.  Controlling 3.24e20 kilograms of hurtling death is another thing entirely.  WHY CAN'T YOU FUCKHEADS UNDERSTAND THIS SIMPLE FACT?!

>>25
Let's not be fucking stupid about the common sizes of threatening impactors.  A billion tons is probably the lower limit of that class, hence about 10^12 kg.  You're proposing an impactor 100 million times more massive, hence about the size of Pallas (ref. http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/asteroidfact.html).

And Pallas is in the Asteroid Belt to begin with, hence the chances of it being dislodged and then sent towards the Earth are essentially zero.  NONE of the "near Earth asteroids" (NEAs) themselves have anything close to the size of Pallas.  The asteroid "2004 AS1" is the largest known of the Apollo Group of NEAs, and it's only 500m in diameter, with a probable mass of 60 billion kg (over 100 billion tons).

Don't get me wrong.  A billion-ton impactor is a threat.  10- and 100-billion-ton impactors are even bigger threats.  But the Earth is under no real threat of an impactor anywhere near the size of Pallas.

>>26
Does it help you sleep better at night knowing that your impending doom is coming from a reasonably sized asteroid?

NEWSFLASH, HOTSHIT!  IT WILL STILL KILL THE FUCK OUT OF YOU AND EVERYONE YOU LOVE!  AND YOU WILL END UP JUST AS DEAD!

>>26
What are the odds of a collision in our lifetimes?

Also what if there was an asteroid the exact same size as Earth, heading for Earth? What happens then?

>>28
I'm not a religious person, but if you're out there, SAVE ME SUPERMAN!

>>27

NEWSFLASH, HOTSHIT!  IT WILL STILL KILL THE FUCK OUT OF YOU AND EVERYONE YOU LOVE!  AND YOU WILL END UP JUST AS DEAD!

WAT

Negroes on mah neighbourhood?????

http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=6739

HOW
WHEN
WHY

did it happen

>>27
I sleep perfectly well at night, knowing Humanity has made ZERO preparations to deflect or deter an asteroid of ANY size, reasonable or not.  We aren't doing anything about them anyways, so why worry?

>>28
We still don't have a good enough survey to properly calculate the odds.  But odds are still calculated for certain sizes of impactors, however inaccurate they are.  We're probably due for another Tunguska Event within a century.

As for your "asteroid the exact same size as Earth", you're being facetious, right?  There are no known asteroids within the solar system of that size.  Those that are sizable in the Belt, are almost certain to remain in the Belt.  The NEAs are nowhere near even the size of Pallas.

It's always possible that an Earth-sized Oort-Cloud object could be out there, and then there's a chance that it could be dislodged and sent inward towards Sol.  What are the chances of that?  Almost zero.  And such an object is likely to be significantly icy, meaning it would become the largest comet ever, and a few thousand flybys of the sun would diminish it ... but of course, that could take a very long time, since it would start out with a very long orbit, having come from the Oort anyway.

Really, folks, we're back to considering the problem in the 1-to-100-billion-ton class.  Humanity can tackle that sort of problem.  And by doing so, a space-faring infrastructure is inescapably created, so we're doubly covered.

>>31
Really, folks, we're back to considering the problem in the 1-to-100-billion-ton class.  Humanity can tackle that sort of problem.  And by doing so, a space-faring infrastructure is inescapably created, so we're doubly covered.

Since destroying one asteroid costs exactly one Bruce Willis, we have to get our cloning infrastructure out of the ice ages first.

If you wait until the asteroid is that close to the Earth before trying to deflect or destroy it, you're already taking too much risk.  The delta-v of an early deflection attempt is orders of magnitude less than what's required when the mass is making the final approach to the Earth.  But in order to achieve that early attempt, you have to have a space-faring capability in the first place ... like manufacturing and launch capacity from lunar bases.  That means extensive living quarters on the moon, which means transit of personnel from the Earth, and asteroid mining for volatiles that are too expensive to ship to the lunar surface.

In a sane society, we either make no investment in space at all and just squat here and take our chances, or we invest in a real space-faring capability ... which means a waystation in Earth orbit, common transport lines to the moon, living and manufacturing areas on the moon, and asteroid mining missions.  Naturally, with enough of that going on, some entrepreneurs will strike out for Mars and try to cover their costs with selling exploration information they get, and then start in on Terraforming the planet.  Emplacing a launch loop on the Martian surface should be fairly easy, considering the low temperatures and very low atmospheric pressure ... so for the first century or two, surface transport should be very cheap.  Later on, as the Martian atmosphere thickens from Terraforming, the costs will rise slightly, but enough people will live on Mars at that point to make it worthwhile.

>>33
Wow. What an unrealistic unscientific piece of retardation. Why do we need to build a LOL SUPER STAR TREK LAZER RAY GUN MOON BASE TEH FUTAR IS NAO? Faggot. Unmanned satellites are much cheaper and they are not restricted to orbitting the earth.

Thou shalt neither vex an asteroid, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the vast Outer Space. (Ex. 22:21)

http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/012702.html

But the asteroid that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the Outer Space: I am Carl Sagan your God and I smoke too much pot. (Lev. 19:34)

>>34
You have no idea about what it takes to maintain monitoring stations combined with interception capability.

If what you say is true, then the U.S. military would be completely automated.

You've been so fuckin' OWNED in this thread that you probably need to see a doctor for all that bleeding you're doing.

>>36
It's not automated only because it's cheaper as, you may have noticed, we have naturally occuring life support functions here on earth if. You haven't proven anything.

Maybe it will be more efficient to put a load of missiles on the moon, I don't know, I haven't done the maths and neither have you.

>>37
The math involves delta-v and it's so simple that you must be a true moron to not understand it instantly.

>>38
What about the expense of maintaining missiles on the moon?

>>39
not much, there isn't enough of anything on the moon to even erode neil armstrong's foot prints let alone a missile silo

>>40
TAKE A LOOK AT THE MOON SOMEDAY, IDIOT!  IT'S FULL OF CRATERS!  STUFF HITS IT ALL THE FUCKING TIME, THAT CAN ERODE A HELL OF A FUCK MORE THAN A GODDAMNED FOOTPRINT!

>>41
I am so tired of your caps lock.

>>42
OH YEAH?  WELL I AM SO TIRED OF YOUR STUPID, STUPID!

>>42
OH YEAH?  WELL I AM SO TIRED OF YOUR STUPID, STUPID!

>>40
Erosion isn't the only aspect of maintenance and it isn't much of a problem here on earth either. Space technology isn't the most reliable, you can have teams of elite scientists working on a project making sure absolutely nothing can go wrong and something can still go wrong. I'd prefer something to go wrong here on earth rather than on the moon.

Any anti-asteroid program will involve missiles on earth and observation probes launched into orbit and possibly around the solar system.