| Submit your comments on this article |
| Science & Technology |
| Mission IMPOSSIBLE: NASA warns even a nuclear bomb wouldn't stop a giant asteroid heading for Earth after massive six month simulation exercise ends in devastating impact |
| 2021-05-04 |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #21 A big pile of gravel and boulders will mostly burn up in the atmosphere, It depends on the meaning of 'big'. The asteroids are basically chunks of broken up planet and come in all sizes. Really big chunks, like the one that waxed the dinosaurs or formed Barringer Crater in Arizona make it all the way to the ground and convert their insane kinetic energy into an Earth-shattering KABOOM. Smaller bits burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere, like our annual meteor showers. But you don't need to hit the ground to do damage. The Tunguska event appears to have been an air burst, wide devastation but no sign of a crater. Chelyabinsk, guestimated at 20 meters, exploded in the air and did a respectable amout of damage. Ryugu, target of a recent space mission, is about a kilometer in diameter. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2021-05-04 23:33 |
| #20 big piles of gravel and boulders A big pile of gravel and boulders will mostly burn up in the atmosphere, unlike a big-ass dinosaur-killer rock. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2021-05-04 22:38 |
| #19 Scientists determined that six months is not enough time to prepare a spacecraft to smash into the asteroid and that a nuclear bomb... would not take the monster space rock down. A some thoughts... ..Once Elon Musk gets done commercializing space, launching a rocket isn't going to be a big deal. .. A nuclear explosion in a vacuum has no blast effect like it would in the atmosphere .. We think of an asteroid as a big-ass rock, but recent missions suggest they are more likely to be big piles of gravel and boulders. Deflecting a rubble pile might be problematic. .. If we ever get around to mining the asteroid belt, exactly the same technology would be useful for dealing with rogue asteroids. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2021-05-04 20:52 |
| #18 ^ ...through market manipulation, tying, trash-talking rivals ("Fear Uncertainty & Doubt" aka FUD) and selling shoddy buggy software at inflated prices |
| Posted by: Unutch Bluetooth7902 2021-05-04 20:51 |
| #17 And Bill Gates is worried about blocking the sun. He made his billions how? |
| Posted by: Clem 2021-05-04 20:46 |
| #16 Wymyns and Chilluns hardest hit! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2021-05-04 20:30 |
| #15 nothing a few billion dollars tax raise won't |
| Posted by: Retard Strength 2021-05-04 20:20 |
| #14 So, four days before impact, they know where it's gonna hit. I don't think so... Out of control 21-TON Chinese rocket is falling to Earth and nobody knows where it could land: Fears it could shower debris over New York, Madrid and Beijing |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2021-05-04 18:09 |
| #13 Keep in mind you're not trying to blow up the meteor, you want to just smack it a few times so it goes somewhere else. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2021-05-04 17:54 |
| #12 The movie Meteor was in 1979. Earth suffered severe damage but not destruction in 1998 in the movie Armageddon. Earth suffered even more damage later in 1998 in the movie Deep Impact, Morgan Freemen is the first black President whose mistakes are catastrophic. |
| Posted by: Lord Garth 2021-05-04 16:00 |
| #11 ^ That's what's lovely about the universe, Bobby. It don't care. The right velocity behind a 50 km wide rock would put every one of our irreconcilable differences on political theory to rest |
| Posted by: Dron66046 2021-05-04 15:58 |
| #10 So, four days before impact, they know where it's gonna hit. Now what? Tell everybody and see them all crushed in the stampede? Evacuate all the 'right people' and let the proles die in their sleep? How does one get on the list of 'right people'? Asking for a friend. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2021-05-04 15:45 |
| #9 It's the difference between being hit with a shotgun slug versus buckshot; at the receiving, not much practical point. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2021-05-04 15:26 |
| #8 Dr Fauci said it would take a double nuclear hit to stop it |
| Posted by: Airandee 2021-05-04 14:46 |
| #7 It all depends on how far away you detect it and how quickly you act. Nothing works late but almost anything works early. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2021-05-04 14:32 |
| #6 I'm sure a lockdown and masks will be adequate... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2021-05-04 14:19 |
| #5 "You forgot to drill into it first, geniuses!" |
| Posted by: Dron66046 2021-05-04 13:36 |
| #4 Let me guess, they planned to hit it with one, way late. Soon as detected, you plan on sending a stream of nukes, to start tapping the thing on a new course. You don't sit there and wait til it's too late to do anything. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2021-05-04 13:33 |
| #3 Did they try blowing it up after Call to Prayer? |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2021-05-04 12:21 |
| #2 This means we could not blow it up, as a nuke may not put a dent in it You don't 'blow it up'. You hit it to alter trajectory. Think pool. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2021-05-04 11:54 |
| #1 Haven't we known this since the movie Meteor? |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2021-05-04 11:10 |