Bloody Hell!!!!!

kinetic · Jun 20, 2002, 03:16 PM

Last week an asteroid the size of a football pitch passed within 75000 miles of the earth,well within the orbit of the moon. This is only the sixth known asteroid ever to do so and, if it had hit ,the devastation would have been similar to a H-bomb blast. The asteroid was detected by the Lincoln observatory in the U.S. three days before it passed the earth. Thanks for the warning guys! It makes you wonder if an asteroid was on a collision course with the earth if we would actually be told.

Greebo_x · Jun 20, 2002, 03:33 PM

If they told us there wouldn't be a damned thing we could do about it, E. Teller's fantasies about "peaceful" uses for H-bombs notwithstanding...

digitalwanderer · Jun 20, 2002, 03:39 PM

I'm floored, I just don't have words.

***Zardon*** · Jun 20, 2002, 03:46 PM

yes thats an incredible story... my jaw just hit the computer table there.

~~David~~ · Jun 20, 2002, 03:51 PM

EKKKKKK........... yes great warning lol what happened to all those people watching

Greebo_x · Jun 20, 2002, 04:31 PM

I used to work at a NASA center and did work with the Space Sciences directorate, and one of the things I learned was that asteroids are notoriously difficult to see. Many of them don't reflect that much light and, even up close, they are very small compared to the ambient background. Something like a global radar warning system would be a step in the right direction; even then you have the problem of filtering out all of the junk that we have lofted around our OWN planet, which is non-trivial if you are looking for something that is relatively close.

BTW- I was involved in overseeing the first demo of the SETI systems now used by the SETI Institute (after the U.S. Congress told NASA to get out of the SETI business), which was done using the telescope at Arecibo in PR. The very first things learned by the SETI program were a) a LOT of earth-based radar reflects off the moon, and b) the nuclear reactors on Soviet spy satellites which officially "don't exist" are noisy as hell in the radio bands... As a result, the next phase of the program shifted to a protocol where any "positive" sighting would be matched by a second telescope in a different hemisphere; that way you eliminate most 'local' signal sources. One of the earliest "candles" used to calibrate the SETI systems was that they detected Pioneer 10, which left the solar system years ago...

kinetic · Jun 20, 2002, 04:47 PM

I understand the difficulties but surely if they can spot Pioneer 10 (about the size of a bus,right?) leaving the Solar System then surely they should be able to track something the size of a football pitch in our own backyard.

digitalwanderer · Jun 20, 2002, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kinetic
I understand the difficulties but surely if they can spot Pioneer 10 (about the size of a bus,right?) leaving the Solar System then surely they should be able to track something the size of a football pitch in our own backyard.

It's knowing where to look for them that's the tricky bit. In the case of the Pioneer 10 they know where it's at & which way it's going and at what speed. An unknown asteroid we don't have the slightest idea where to start looking for it at.

GREAT post kinetic, I didn't know you were actually a part of geek history! One question, what real good would a world wide radar system do? Wouldn't it be way too late to do anything about it by the time radar saw it?

Doomtrooper · Jun 20, 2002, 06:37 PM

Not sure if any other space geeks were watching, but when Shoemaker and Levy comet hit Jupiter they hit with enough force of 200,000 megatons of TNT..or would have split earth wide open like cracking a egg.
[IMG]ftp://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/pub/astro/SL9/images/recent/ALL/CAO_A.gif[/IMG]

desmo · Jun 20, 2002, 09:23 PM

They could put 3 radar units in geosynchronous orbit way out past the moon. That should help with spurious earth signals.

kinetic · Jun 21, 2002, 12:33 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by digitalwanderer
It's knowing where to look for them that's the tricky bit. In the case of the Pioneer 10 they know where it's at & which way it's going and at what speed. An unknown asteroid we don't have the slightest idea where to start looking for it at.

GREAT post kinetic, I didn't know you were actually a part of geek history! One question, what real good would a world wide radar system do? Wouldn't it be way too late to do anything about it by the time radar saw it?

There is a foolproof early-warning system and that is to look out for an enormous dust cloud. That'll be the V.I.P's running to the mountains!

Mr V · Jun 21, 2002, 04:21 AM

Quote:

"It's time to kick A$$ and chew bubble gum....and I'm all out of gum."

Great film BTW!

UberLord · Jun 21, 2002, 04:27 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mr V
Great film BTW!

Erm - its from Duke Nukem. The game - not a film been made yet :/

Shake it Baby!

kinetic · Jun 21, 2002, 01:23 PM

[quote]Originally posted by Doomtrooper
[b]Not sure if any other space geeks were watching, but when Shoemaker and Levy comet hit Jupiter they hit with enough force of 200,000 megatons of TNT..or would have split earth wide open like cracking a egg.

Certainly living up to your name there!

digitalwanderer · Jun 21, 2002, 02:15 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by UberLord
Erm - its from Duke Nukem. The game - not a film been made yet :/

Nope, it's from the John Carpenter film "They Live" and it's 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper who delivers the line. (If he had a different voice he'd make a pretty good Duke Nukem. Hell, even with the voice a little different he'd still be good. )

I think the movie was before the game, but I could be wrong. (I remember seeing the movie back in high school I think, and I graduated in '84....)