Reply With QuoteBasically we're just biding our time until one hits the bullseye.
Neil deGrasse Tyson: We Live in a Cosmic Shooting Gallery
Basically we're just biding our time until one hits the bullseye.
We're not going to be able to push any Mount Everest size rocks around for centuries even with a century or more of warning. Best we can do in the foreseeable future is to develop a warning system that shouts, "LOOK OUT!"
Yeah we could with a decade or two of concerted effort. Problem is we won't have a decade or two.Originally Posted by West Texican
Look at the moon and it tells you everything you need to know. The fact that it's static without an atmosphere, no life, no ocean, and in a vacuum that preserves the memories of all impacts allows you to see how much stuff impacts a major celestial object. Granted, it's an image of what's taken place for billions of years but it's a testament to the fact that eventually something huge and extinction-level-sized will hit this rock we call Earth one day. No doubt about it. Might not happen for a thousand, million, or 100 million years but it will happen.
There is an old Russian proverb, roughly: "A man won't cross himself until he hears a thunder". Well, Ural's meteor did thunder a bit, still no crossings
This reminds me of the nightmare I had last night. I dreamed the Earth was hit by a massive sunflare that stripped the atmosphere and cooked the entire planet in seconds. I was frightened.
If there is plenty of lead time, there are ways to nudge planet killers out of the road. Just watching Neil deGrasse Tyson talk, you can see the frustration on his face at the stupidity of humans. He is absolutely correct, the Russian meteor was a shot across the bow, and they are lucky it exploded in the upper atmosphere.
The point is, that the issue has been known since the early 80's. 30 years on, we are still blundering about like morons thinking it won't happen. Well, 30 years and decent funding could have delivered an excellent detection system and threat reduction capability, but look where we are. A system telling us to "LOOK OUT" is not going to preserve our species is it? Politicians are morons, they'll be the death of us all.
Yeah but you know what the politicians think? "Cool, we have another hundred years before we need to worry about the next one. Kick that can, I gotsta use that money for free phones."
We have already identified what is estimated to be somewhere around 90% of all near earth objects that are large enough to be planet killers from government projects that started in the mid 90's and continue today, with none likely to hit for centuries and are on pace to find most of the remaining ones in the next couple years. The ones that are needed to be identified next are the ones that could be city killers/regional disasters, where warning to either evacuate or take preparations like avoid standing near any windows could be enough, issues there are with more of them expected to exist and they are smaller so harder to find. Having something to do to stop any of them though is still at best theories, most of which we are ill prepared to implement soon after finding one.
Last edited by SnowmanCA; 03-16-2013 at 02:42 PM.
After 50 years of space flight it still takes thousands of people and hundreds of millions of dollars to send and support just a few people to the ISS. We can't deal with anything the atmosphere can't handle and that's not going to change for a long time even with big investments. The odds now days of a big hit for the inner planets are very low, not gone, just very, very low. It is not a high priority issue in reality, just in debate. Others who feel the threat is significant need to ask themselves this, calling people stupid who don't agree with you gets you what? How does that advance your view?
Neil looks high as a kite in that video.
I doubt, the people in power who have the capabilities to effect the changes needed are sensitive about being called stupid enough to withhold saving the planet from complete annihalation. They're just being cheap.
I think they are being prudent and practical, not cheap or stupid. How about we first learn how to get into space without needing thousands of people and spending billions of dollars to support a half dozen people for a few months before we start playing pinball with asteroids. Inferring we're all ignorant lemmings got Tyson nothing and I bet he wishes he never said those things. Nibiru Manhattan style doesn't sell any better than the original.
So best to go with the "fingers crossed" strategy?
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