Large asteroid nearly hit us this week
07-28-2019, 05:52 AM
#1
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Large asteroid nearly hit us this week
Only 75 km miss..... that is a bit too close for comfort. And they didn't see it coming either: 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...?noredirect=on
https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...?noredirect=on
07-28-2019, 06:22 AM
#2
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Originally Posted by SonicFlyer
Only 75 km miss..... that is a bit too close for comfort. And they didn't see it coming either:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...?noredirect=on
https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...?noredirect=on
Close by astronomical standards, but quite different from 75.
07-28-2019, 02:39 PM
#5
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Originally Posted by SonicFlyer
Only 75 km miss..... that is a bit too close for comfort. And they didn't see it coming either:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...?noredirect=on
https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...?noredirect=on
I think you were only off by a factor of 1000
07-29-2019, 06:39 AM
#6
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This kind of thing happens all the time, we just didn't use to know about it.
Two impacts with significant surface affects in the last 100 years or so.
We don't have any systems to react to something that pops up last minute, but we could cobble together a response with many months or a few years notice. That's why it's important to catalog and track all of the really big ones, so we have time to do something about it.
Would also be nice if one or more governments put a response system on the shelf just in case one surprises us... it's not hard, it is rocket science but well within the current state of the art. Just have to spend a little money.
Two impacts with significant surface affects in the last 100 years or so.
We don't have any systems to react to something that pops up last minute, but we could cobble together a response with many months or a few years notice. That's why it's important to catalog and track all of the really big ones, so we have time to do something about it.
Would also be nice if one or more governments put a response system on the shelf just in case one surprises us... it's not hard, it is rocket science but well within the current state of the art. Just have to spend a little money.
07-29-2019, 11:41 AM
#7
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Originally Posted by MaxQ
75,000 kilometers.
Close by astronomical standards, but quite different from 75.
Close by astronomical standards, but quite different from 75.
Originally Posted by dera
75km, really dude? 75km is inside our atmosphere.
I think you were only off by a factor of 1000
I think you were only off by a factor of 1000
Sorry, I meant to write 75k km but wsan't paying attention to the extra "k"
For some reason the forum system won't let me edit it.
07-29-2019, 12:01 PM
#8
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I watched a documentary on stuff like this a while back. They said we'd likely have very little notice if we were going to get hit by an asteroid. I'd rather just live blissfully ignorant...no use it worrying about stuff you can't changed. If you've believe the book A Short History of Nearly Everything, we're long overdue for a cataclysmic impact.
07-29-2019, 12:23 PM
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Originally Posted by crewdawg
I watched a documentary on stuff like this a while back. They said we'd likely have very little notice if we were going to get hit by an asteroid. I'd rather just live blissfully ignorant...no use it worrying about stuff you can't changed.
Originally Posted by crewdawg
If you've believe the book A Short History of Nearly Everything, we're long overdue for a cataclysmic impact.
One big exception is earthquakes... plate tectonics apply increasing pressure over time to fault lines so the longer you go without an earthquake on a given fault, the more likely it becomes (and the bigger the energy release). But that's not statistics, that's geology.
07-29-2019, 01:03 PM
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Originally Posted by rickair7777
We can change asteroid trajectories... the more advance notice you have, the easier it is to do. We could even change the trajectory of a really big asteroid at the last minute if we prepared in advance to do that. No need to follow in the footsteps of the dinosaurs.
Originally Posted by rickair7777
That's not how statistics work. Even if you are overdue statistically, that in no way affects the odds of random events in the future.
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