99942 Apophis - The actual menace from space

[Frostatine]

There is a difference between plans to prevent, and there actually being something we can do about it. There are a lot of things that might work theoretically, but I wouldn't exactly want to stake my planet on the idea.

[Green Spanner]

Originally Posted by Frostatine

There is a difference between plans to prevent, and there actually being something we can do about it. There are a lot of things that might work theoretically, but I wouldn't exactly want to stake my planet on the idea.

Even when the alternative is being wiped out by a meteor?

Seriously, what do you have to lose?

[Frostatine]

I'm just saying that it would make better business sense for NASA to simply say "Look, guys, we got this." And continue to get funding and support, rather than taking the humble way out. I mean, honestly, who wants to support a space program that can't even blow up stuff in space? InB4 the moon.

And of course there will be a New World Order. Where do you think I've been all this time?

[stefan]

so from what I'm reading once it passes by in 2029, we'll know if its going to hit or not and, if it is, we then have seven years to prepare for it.

this is not exactly Armageddon, where we have only two weeks before impact and have to train a wacky team of misfits to take it down at the last second. I think seven years is enough time to figure out exactly what we need to do.

[Bells]

On the wikipedia Article (not linked) and the the video i linked about it, you can see that this is not even close to be able to wipe us out in one hit.

However, if it does hit it's Perfect-Zero Ground, it will plunge 3 miles in the ocean, explode, and generate a rapid succesion of 5 stores high Tsunami waves that would Sandblast clean the entirety of the West coast of the US (sorry if i mispoke here, it's wherever Malibu is) by a quarter of a mile.

My personal idea also goes to the possibility of some pretty nasty Earthquake Swarms.

[bluestarultor]

Originally Posted by Bells

On the wikipedia Article (not linked) and the the video i linked about it, you can see that this is not even close to be able to wipe us out in one hit.

However, if it does hit it's Perfect-Zero Ground, it will plunge 3 miles in the ocean, explode, and generate a rapid succesion of 5 stores high Tsunami waves that would Sandblast clean the entirety of the West coast of the US (sorry if i mispoke here, it's wherever Malibu is) by a quarter of a mile.

My personal idea also goes to the possibility of some pretty nasty Earthquake Swarms.

I hate to say it, but a quarter mile isn't all that much. You can easily walk that distance. Unless that's how far the wave will get before crashing down, in which case the water might maybe get to a mile in, just to pull a number out of my rear, but again, you can easily walk that far. Mainland areas really don't have too, too much to worry about, and it'll be easy enough to evacuate beforehand. Basically, from what you're saying, a water landing will do less damage than an average hurricane to any cities it affects; it'll just affect more cities. Islands will have a lot more to worry about, though, so they'll have to be evacuated. Finding places for all of Japan, Hawaii, etc. will be pretty difficult, but, hey, we have time to prepare.


My concern is if it hits land, because an impact like that is going to decimate a wide area and throw up a LOT of the crust. My guess is a land hit would make Mount St. Helen's look like a sneeze. Again, just speaking out my behind.

[Eltargrim]

According to the wiki page on this asteroid, we're talking gigaton-range energy. Suffice to say, that would be bad. Luckily, it's a 0 on the Torino scale; not all that worrisome.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Meh, personally I don't get out of bed for anything less than a mile wide when it comes to asteroids. Not exactly an ELE here.


And I wouldn't worry about it creating tsnuamis and destroying america; by that time La Palma would have already collapsed into the sea and wiped out the entire East coast.

[Amake]

I'm mightily disappointed by the amount of misspelled itses in this thread, people. Remember, it's is short for
it is.

Meanwhile, I think the most interesting part of this is that we get to know about it 20 years in advance. Take that, conspiracy theorists. Also, that if it hits us it will be the worst thing that's happened in the history of history, but still not enough to worry about the end of the world. If everyone gets out of the blast zone in good time it might even qualify as Hella Cool. I'm kinda hoping it does hit now, it'd be awesome to see something like that. Like Tunguska but probably 50 times louder.

[Frostatine]

I'm mightily disappointed that people still think the color gold is classy. Its just silly. It's.

Anything striking the planet that is bigger than a car is a bit of a problem. I mean, honestly we can't just chalk it up to collateral damage that we will have to deal with in a few years. Rather, we should put all our great science towards something more productive than killing one another.