surprise asteroid nearly grazes earth's atmosphere

[cityboi]

an astroid 200 feet wide barely missed the earth. If the astroid had hit the earth it would have been like an atom bomb exploding. Id like to know how this was a surprise if NASA is suppose to be tracking the skies for stuff like that. It kinda makes you wonder what other astroids out there that could be on a collision course with earth and NASA isnt saying anything.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,503164,00.html

[Neo]

Sooner or later we'll be hit again. It isn't a question of if, it is a question of when. I'm not sure there is much we could do now other than attempt whatever evacuation we deemed appropriate though.

[sean]

^time is relative... human time, geologic time, planetary time; its a matter of scale. my understanding is that asteroid tracking isn't as exact as intuition would lead you to believe. my interest/knowledge base in astronomy is strictly amateur; but as i understand it, variations in the sun output creates variations in the asteroid trajectory. the rub is we might not have significant advanced warning of a future collision... again time is relative.

[Gard]

I've seen discussions in the past as was to do if an asteroid was approaching Earth. Right now, the popular solutions being looked at are stationing booster like devices in space that would drill into the asteroid to attach themselves, then fire off to change the asteroid's path and push it out of our vicinity, possibly towards the moon or Mars. The other solution, which IMO is far too dangerous and could create just as much of a problem, is firing off Nukes at the asteroid and blow it up into much smaller pieces. The problems with that are obvious, so I won't go into that. Maybe we will be lucky long enough to develop laser-like weapons that could break it up.

[suburban george3]

While NASA does track 'known' near-earth objects and objects which intersect our orbit, there may literally be thousands of objects still unknown to us. What's scarier? More people work the day shift at your local McDonald's than are looking for these potential planet/civilization killers. Funding is still scarce for this endeavour and I would say that it's even a lower priority now with the economic meltdown...

The dinosaurs didn't have a clue and neither will we...

[cityboi]

well think ancient Mayans think December 22, 2012 is D day. They had advavnced knowledge of the stars and comets. Did they know something we dont?

the scariest thing is one day we could be going about our daily lives and the next day almost all of us are dead.

[The Voice of Reason]

an astroid 200 feet wide barely missed the earth. If the astroid had hit the earth it would have been like an atom bomb exploding. Id like to know how this was a surprise if NASA is suppose to be tracking the skies for stuff like that. It kinda makes you wonder what other astroids out there that could be on a collision course with earth and NASA isnt saying anything.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,503164,00.html

[cityboi]

I think part of the so called "star wars program" Ronald Reagan was putting in place may have also been designed to shoot and knock astroids of their course or break them apart. but when you break them apart that means a bunch of chunks of the astroid hitting the earth. In the end their may not be anything we can do about it. For those who believe in biblical prophecy, the book of Revelation describes these kind of events happening in the end of times.

[Neo]

FWIW, the asteroid that buzzed by Earth was approximately the size of the one that exploded (seems to be the consensus on that event) over Tunguska. Imagine what something like that would do if it hit or exploded near a populated area (not to mention a densely populated location like Tokyo or New York).

[The Voice of Reason]

I think part of the so called "star wars program" Ronald Reagan was putting in place may have also been designed to shoot and knock astroids of their course or break them apart. but when you break them apart that means a bunch of chunks of the astroid hitting the earth. In the end their may not be anything we can do about it. For those who believe in biblical prophecy, the book of Revelation describes these kind of events happening in the end of times.

[cityboi]

pure conjecture.

starwars was a laser program.

lasers would do nothing to the momentum of the matter. if somehow there was a breakup of the matter the net mass and velocity would be the same and the dfamage would be the same or [possibly more if spread over a larger area.

I am not willing to accept that starwars was ever intended for any defensive use.