53 replies to this topic

[shrooma]

what we need,
is a death star.....

[Frank Merton]

I don't know that we need to prepare for rogue planets heading out way.  That would indeed be difficult.

[skookum]

I was watching something about asteroid impacts and the effects on life.  I really don't know enough about the physics of it all but there are scientists who say the effects of asteroid impacts on Earth are often wildly over estimated.

Obviously an impact will be devastating however maybe not as globally destructive as it is often portrayed.  It was sometime ago I saw this so I am trying to rack my brain to remember.  If I remember rightly they studied Amphibian life in the vicinity of known impacts and how it effected them.  Apparently Amphibian life is the most fragile to sudden change and dies out quite quickly, around the known craters where they can study Amphibian life they found very little extinctions of species if any after the impact.  

So again it ignites the debate whether an asteroid did wipe out the dinosaurs, they also concluded that the dinosaurs were well on their way to extinction way before the impact.  I can never understand why certain dinosaurs such as crocodiles and alligators managed to pull through when all others died, maybe somebody could help me there?  I can totally buy small mammals surviving because they burrowed under ground but they were not the only survivors.

Point I am getting too is maybe we could simply relocate people if we knew an impact was imminent if the technology isn't there to stop them.

Edited by skookum, 21 March 2013 - 08:46 AM.

[shrooma]

Frank Merton, on 21 March 2013 - 08:27 AM, said:

I don't know that we need to prepare for rogue planets heading out way.  That would indeed be difficult.

.

i'm not really bothered about rogue planets frank, I just want to build a huge space-based death ray!
besides, who WOULDN'T want to look up at the night sky, point, and say ''that's no moon, it's a space station'' in their best obi-wan kenobi voice....?
:-)

Edited by shrooma, 21 March 2013 - 08:50 AM.

[shrooma]

I know what you mean skookum.
the deccan traps in india had been erupting for thousands of years around the time of the asteroid impact, and as the dinosaurs were dying out over the same thousands of years and not overnight, i'd say they were more of a factor than the asteroid.
although, being hit in the face with 500 miles of high-speed space rock can't have been good.....
and I also think that underground bunkers would come into play to save us from total extinction if it were to ever happen again.

[AsteroidX]

Quote

I can totally buy small mammals surviving because they burrowed under ground but they were not the only survivors.

I would guess that the small mammals did it right by burrowing under ground. I guess there be a lesson. Amphibians being cold blooded I would see as having a harder time. I imagine small pools of warmer water would be there necessary habitat being fast reproducers both these creatures could breed there own food supply in a sense. I guess that would be my best guess IMO. Im not sure how well humans would fair as we are so complex and I dont see the elitist opening up the door of the underground city for me so Im going to go the way of the mammals and take a few bunnies to my secret place I like to go when Im running from Giant Asteroidi.

[Still Waters]

Charles Bolden, the chief of the Nasa, has warned that the US space agency's best advice on how to handle a large asteroid heading towards New York City is "pray".

http://www.telegraph...Earth-pray.html

[Coffey]

Nice.... Sometimes it's better to say nothing.

[Lilly]

Well, at our current level of technology praying is really all that we could do.

I think saying this actually highlights our (meaning humanity) need to focus on the development of ways to divert/deflect/move dangerous NEOs before they threaten to slam into us.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

[Mikko-kun]

I can't believe it's all we can do as a species, even if it was all we could as single people. Bill Gates actually has a base in Antarctic (or was it the other pole) for this kind of stuff, so I've read, supposed to be a lot of species there preserved in case anything happens. Norvegians have invested in this sort of stuff too, they're a wealthy country. I think it'd be sensible for the rest of us to do so too a bit more, not saying everyone should dig shelters in their backyard but a much more concentrated effort than what has been done now. Considering how deep we can dig in to mine minerals with the current tech, I dont think it's impossible.. just a lot of work.

[Taun]

While what they said is probably true.. it sure strikes me as:

When in danger
Or in doubt
Run in circles
scream and shout...

Funny, easy to remember... but useless...

[Waspie_Dwarf]

I've merged two threads here as, although slightly different, both were about the House Subcommittee Hearings in to threats from space and it seems to make sense to have one discussion on that.

[Mikko-kun]

csspwns, on 21 March 2013 - 02:51 AM, said:

Here's a realistic video of a huge asteroid impacting Earth and the results:

This is pretty much a death sentence for anyone near the impact area, because it goes beyond the earth crust of few kilometers at most and into the lava below it. But what about the other side of the planet? Even if there surface is hot, in that video it really doesn't look like all the infrastructure is melting (might be just because of dramatization but still) so could it be possible that some deeper places on the earth's crust could hold livable temperatures even after that? If it's "just" a heatwave and no big enough shockwaves, maybe a complex sturdy enough could be built. Another thing is getting the colonies in Mars to a self-sustaining level so that they can develop fully independently.. to me those seem to be the easiest ways out of this... you can't hope to redirect a Moon-sized object far enough with any nukes we possess, can you? Maybe a concentrated, trapped explosion which'd release a trendemous amount of pressure compared to nuke but how do you do that.. I'd say there's already ways we can deal with this and should probe into them more because the value of things we can bring with those who live can be trendemous to avoid past mistakes, if used so.

[WoIverine]

shrooma, on 21 March 2013 - 08:17 AM, said:

what we need,
is a death star.....

Yeah...if an asteroid were ever to hit us, I bet the powers that be will regret not proceeding along with the Death Star petition's plans.

[CrimsonKing]

We are finite beings in a infinite universe,until we start coming together with one plan to expand,we will never become immortal as a species.

One big shot from the unknown can make us vanish at any given moment!Enjoy it while we have it