[kolakoala]

Originally Posted by woodbush

It wasn't, it was travelling in a different direction.

It was to small to be detected, thousands of meteors hit our atmosphere every year and burn up. Very few land.

It's the ones that land that concern me.

[woodbush]

Originally Posted by KarlSomething

We were only aware of the several times larger 2012 DA14 since 2012. If that one was going to hit us, we wouldn't have been able to do anything about it.

We still need to ramp up our ability to find these things.

And do what?. I don't believe we have any weapons to destroy them.

[woodbush]

Originally Posted by kolakoala

It's the ones that land that concern me.

How do you propose we stop them.

[KarlSomething]

Originally Posted by woodbush

And do what?. I don't believe we have any weapons to destroy them.

If we can find them many years in advance, we can use small spacecraft to gravitationally interact with them, and alter their orbits enough to miss the Earth.

[GeoBa92]

Originally Posted by woodbush

And do what?. I don't believe we have any weapons to destroy them.

Have you even SEEN Armageddeon!?

[KarlSomething]

Originally Posted by potatolegs

I think an asteroid becomes a meteor when a bit breaks off which becomes a meteorite if it hits our atmosphere?
So, what's a comet?

Comets are icy bodies that can come from much further out in the Solar system, and I think at a significantly greater speed, so they're even more difficult to spot ahead of time.

[TheEricPollard]

I hope one lands next to me, they're worth a fortune.

[woodbush]

Originally Posted by KarlSomething

If we can find them many years in advance, we can use small spacecraft to gravitationally interact with them, and alter their orbits enough to miss the Earth.

Funny

[Fizzbin]

Originally Posted by potatolegs

I think an asteroid becomes a meteor when a bit breaks off which becomes a meteorite if it hits our atmosphere?
So, what's a comet?

Not quite.

An asteroid enters our atmosphere it becomes a meteor. If it strikes the ground the remnant is a meteorite.

A comet is like a enormous dirty snowball, the sun evaporates the ice a bit when it gets closer to the sun so it leaves a trail/tail.

Originally Posted by woodbush

And do what?. I don't believe we have any weapons to destroy them.

We have the weapons, but not the wherewithal to get them to the right place and at the right time. Especially now, as there are no more space shuttles in service.

We will just have to place Eric Pickles at the point of impact and hope it bounces off.



ps.As for no warning being given, didn't anyone hear the load booming voice just before shouting "Incoming!"

[potatolegs]

Originally Posted by Fizzbin

Not quite.

An asteroid enters our atmosphere it becomes a meteor. If it strikes the ground the remnant is a meteorite.

A comet is like a enormous dirty snowball, the sun evaporates the ice a bit when it gets closer to the sun so it leaves a trail/tail.


We have the weapons, but not the wherewithal to get them to the right place and at the right time. Especially now, as there are no more space shuttles in service.

We will just have to place Eric Pickles at the point of impact and hope it bounces off.



ps.As for no warning being given, didn't anyone hear the load booming voice just before shouting "Incoming!"

Thanks for the clarification Fizzbin.

[cmq2]

Originally Posted by kolakoala

It's the ones that land that concern me.

As the 1908 Tunguska event showed, airbursts can create a devastating shockwave comparable with a large nuclear bomb.

As the Horizon clip in my earlier post #17 illustrated, the estimate of its size (and hence the chance of advance detection) is reducing.

[Pretinama]

Odd how we haven't had loads of 'christians' and other religious types proclaiming that this must be god's anger towards Russia for the way they treat gay people. Very odd.

[platelet]

No warnings given to the general public doesn't equate to no warnings.

As every series of 24 has shown, the government always keeps these things from "us" as panic would be worse than the disaster itself

Originally Posted by Pretinama

Odd how we haven't had loads of 'christians' and other religious types proclaiming that this must be god's anger towards Russia for the way they treat gay people. Very odd.

If God is pissed about anything the rocks would be striking the Vatican not aimed at Russia. But hey everyone knows God throws lightening not stones, so there's nothing to worry about

[boksbox]

Originally Posted by kolakoala

It's the ones that land that concern me.

The widespread damage caused yesterday was due to the meteor exploding, with a similar energy release that a small nuclear bomb would release (minus radiation) the bit that hit the ground only caused a small hole in the ice on a lake.

[ThatGuy11200]

Originally Posted by woodbush

Funny

Yes, do the typical troll response of multiple smilies, when you haven't got a clue what you're on about.

It's actually a serious proposal that has been suggested for much larger rocks than the one that exploded over Russia. Given enough time before impact even a small change in its orbit can see it miss the Earth by 10s of thousands of kilometres or more.

[BeethovensPiano]

The world, government don't really take this threat seriously unfortunately. This is yet another VERY lucky escape. Sadly I think it will take a major disaster, with many fatalities for it to be taken seriously.

[blitzben85]

Originally Posted by ThatGuy11200

Yes, do the typical troll response of multiple smilies, when you haven't got a clue what you're on about.

It's actually a serious proposal that has been suggested for much larger rocks than the one that exploded over Russia. Given enough time before impact even a small change in its orbit can see it miss the Earth by 10s of thousands of kilometres or more.

I was just about to post a similar reply to the troll.

[jsmith99]

Originally Posted by ThatGuy11200

.............. Given enough time before impact even a small change in its orbit can see it miss the Earth by 10s of thousands of kilometres or more.

That may be true, but don't forget we're at the centre of a sphere with a radius of as many million miles as you care to name. In those terms, a meteor is a speck of dust approaching from an unknown direction.

How do you propose we detect them?

[cmq2]

Originally Posted by ThatGuy11200

It's actually a serious proposal that has been suggested for much larger rocks than the one that exploded over Russia. Given enough time before impact even a small change in its orbit can see it miss the Earth by 10s of thousands of kilometres or more.

Gravity deflection technologies are thought experiments and not something that could be implemented tomorrow.

Wikipedia runs a quick scaling estimate and says the space ship would orbit an asteroid for ten years! DA14 gave 12 months notice. And, how long does it take the rocket to reach the asteroid? The project requires colossal amounts of fuel to get to the asteroid, accelerate the rocket's large mass to say 10km/sec and then remain powered for the duration.

[Bungitin]

Wheres Kirk when you need him?

[KarlSomething]

Originally Posted by cmq2

Gravity deflection technologies are thought experiments and not something that could be implemented tomorrow.

Wikipedia runs a quick scaling estimate and says the space ship would orbit an asteroid for ten years! DA14 gave 12 months notice. And, how long does it take the rocket to reach the asteroid? The project requires colossal amounts of fuel to get to the asteroid, accelerate the rocket's large mass to say 10km/sec and then remain powered for the duration.

Right, we need to be able to find these objects much earlier. Or basically, we need to find and keep track of them all. It's possible for us to do that, but we need to spend more time and resources on it.

No, the avoidance schemes can't be implemented tomorrow, because no one's investing in it. Although if we could at least monitor all the objects, when we determined that one would be likely to hit us, that should be a pretty good motivator.

It's not as if we're spending enormous amounts on it at this point, compared to everything else nations involve themselves in, or how much is spent on pure entertainment.

[Fizzbin]

Originally Posted by Bungitin

Wheres Kirk when you need him?

He's not much help.

Last time an asteroid threatened a planet he was on he lost his memory & lived as part of the local tribe of 'red indians'.

[barneyboy]

There was a specialist on BBC news, he said the large ones could suprise us. We would find out in advance sometimes by years but it would take a decade to figure out how to and try to move it out the way.

(EDIT- IMO if they know years in advance the governments arent going to tell us until theyve come up with some sort of plan).

[ThatGuy11200]

Originally Posted by jsmith99

That may be true, but don't forget we're at the centre of a sphere with a radius of as many million miles as you care to name. In those terms, a meteor is a speck of dust approaching from an unknown direction.

How do you propose we detect them?

I'm not proposing anything. I was merely responding to a poster who evidently thought the gravity tractor idea wasn't a serious suggestion.

But you do have a point. How hard will it be to detect these objects when governments only provide enough funding to observe ~1% of the sky? Will the people who were injured by this incident spur on the politicians to increase the funding? I doubt it.

[KarlSomething]

Originally Posted by jsmith99

That may be true, but don't forget we're at the centre of a sphere with a radius of as many million miles as you care to name. In those terms, a meteor is a speck of dust approaching from an unknown direction.

How do you propose we detect them?

We can send crafts into orbits around the Sun, and be able to look at different regions from various angles.

http://b612foundation.org/sentinelmission/

Originally Posted by barneyboy

There was a specialist on BBC news, he said the large ones could suprise us. We would find out in advance sometimes by years but it would take a decade to figure out how to and try to move it out the way.

(EDIT- IMO if they know years in advance the governments arent going to tell us until theyve come up with some sort of plan).

The problem is that governments don't care enough about this to begin with. I think it's more likely that we'll see a false alarm in the press, leaked before there could be proper confirmation, than a real event being covered up.