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Asteroid targeting system proposed


william joseph

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Rumors started as soon as that popped up on the web as what a wonderful way to begin the weaponizing of space. I hope these types of ideas are thoroughly thought through before any testing/building occurs. We only need one maybe two systems that will work and they need to be good. So take the time to make sound decisions and Im on board. Good idea.

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This was a conspiracy theory wasn't it? An attack from space would lead to the arming of the moon?

Hmmm.

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strange, how the meteorite went from being 'a couple of metres' across, to 50ft across. in my book, a couple of metres is six feet, not fifty!

who did the maths on this thing, forrest gump??

a 50ft meteorite would've done more than break a few windows I reckon, and I wonder what kind of TARDIS effect allowed a 50ft object to fit inside a 16ft crater.....?

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strange, how the meteorite went from being 'a couple of metres' across, to 50ft across. in my book, a couple of metres is six feet, not fifty!

who did the maths on this thing, forrest gump??

a 50ft meteorite would've done more than break a few windows I reckon, and I wonder what kind of TARDIS effect allowed a 50ft object to fit inside a 16ft crater.....?

It did, a roof fell and a building's brickwards went inwards

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It did, a roof fell and a building's brickwards went inwards

I do more damage than that at parties!!

:-D

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Judging by the reports so far, the space rock that exploded over Russia was probably in the range of 16 feet to 33 feet (5 meters to 10 meters) in diameter.

Compare that with the Tunguska object (from back in 1908) who was an estimated 130 feet (40 m) in diameter,... A 50-meter object is 1000 times as big in terms of explosive energy than a 5-meter object. About a thousand times the explosive power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Edited by Hazzard
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the report on this thread, from yahoo news, said the object was 50ft in diameter, which is a loooong way from the initial '2m' it was judged to be.

so reports have gone from 6ft, to 16ft, to 50ft, who's reporting on this thing, fishermen??

it's like the daftest game of chinese whispers i've ever heard, and i've studied politician's expenses claims.....

:-)

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A meteor explosion over Russia injured hundreds of people today (Feb. 15), just hours before an asteroid about half the size of a football field gave Earth an extremely close shave, catapulting the need to protect our home planet from hazardous space rocks into the spotlight.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BUT how are they going to protect us when they never even saw it coming?

Apparently this piece of rock was not from an asteroid near us, they do not know where it came from. So how are we going to be protected?

As we have seen on the other thread, it was not possible to detect this meteorite!!! they have not seen the asteroid it came from originally, So are they going to target asteroids at the edge of our solar system? I doubt it!

Edited by freetoroam
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BUT how are they going to protect us when they never even saw it coming?

Apparently this piece of rock was not from an asteroid near us, they do not know where it came from. So how are we going to be protected?

As we have seen on the other thread, it was not possible to detect this meteorite!!! they have not seen the asteroid it came from originally, So are they going to target asteroids at the edge of our solar system? I doubt it!

maybe now, NASA'll do the right thing and build a fleet of X-wings so we can just zoom out there and blast 'em in situ?

I guess a Death Star is a little beyond their funding atm.....

(Ps, 'english is my bestest'?? surely you can do MUCH betterer than that?! I mean, which school did you went to for goodness sakes!!)

:-D

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maybe now, NASA'll do the right thing and build a fleet of X-wings so we can just zoom out there and blast 'em in situ?

I guess a Death Star is a little beyond their funding atm.....

(Ps, 'english is my bestest'?? surely you can do MUCH betterer than that?! I mean, which school did you went to for goodness sakes!!)

:-D

i really would much rather someone spend the money on getting rid of the nuclear weapons which are popping up all over the joint.

Thats where the real danger lies.

Funny really, they were all watching the DA14 and on the other side of the world we were getting bombarded with "small rocks" no one knew they were coming or where they came from.

ps: my school where one them bestest in Sauf London. 14343640-illustration-featuring-a-satisfied-smiley.jpg

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due to my penchant for truly horrible shirts, I get bombarded with small rocks all the time!

*sob*

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DE-STAR 2, DE-STAR 3? No, no, no! DEATH STAR. There goes asteroid Alderaan. Get with the program!

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BUT how are they going to protect us when they never even saw it coming?

Apparently this piece of rock was not from an asteroid near us, they do not know where it came from. So how are we going to be protected?

The same way that we are protected from earthquakes we can't predict and hurricanes we can't destroy. Mankind is not omnipotent and life comes with risks.

As we have seen on the other thread, it was not possible to detect this meteorite!!! they have not seen the asteroid it came from originally,

What asteroid it came from originally? There is no evidence that it came from a larger object.

So are they going to target asteroids at the edge of our solar system? I doubt it!

Firstly asteroids don't come from the edge of the solar system. Most of them orbit between Mars and Jupiter, but they are no threat to us.

Secondly, asteroids as small as the one that exploded above Russia are not the biggest threat. It is larger objects which can survive all the way through the atmosphere that would cause global catastrophe. It is possible to detect these and there are several projects around the world to do precisely that.

There are also many ideas for how to deflect or destroy an asteroid that posses a threat.

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The same way that we are protected from earthquakes we can't predict and hurricanes we can't destroy. Mankind is not omnipotent and life comes with risks.

I agree, thats why i am saying there is no way they can protect us fully.

What asteroid it came from originally? There is no evidence that it came from a larger object.

You are right. Is there evidence it did not either?

So its not a meteorite then, cos i was told the meteorites come from asteroids and are only called meteorites when they enter Earths orbit.

Firstly asteroids don't come from the edge of the solar system. Most of them orbit between Mars and Jupiter, but they are no threat to us.

Secondly, asteroids as small as the one that exploded above Russia are not the biggest threat. It is larger objects which can survive all the way through the atmosphere that would cause global catastrophe. It is possible to detect these and there are several projects around the world to do precisely that.

The one which exploded over Russia was a meteorite? or an asteroid??

There are also many ideas for how to deflect or destroy an asteroid that posses a threat.

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A meteorite is simply an object that has entered another bodies atmosphere (in this case planet Earth) and survived travelling through the atmosphere to impact the ground. An asteroid never impacts another bodies atmosphere, and has no atmosphere itself. An asteroid can range in size from small to very large, and even have their own moon/s.

Edit - to simplify the difference, they are both basically the same thing, both originating from space, they are separated only by location, an asteroid stays in space, a meteorite is what hits the ground.

Edited by Sky Scanner
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Hasn't this idea been around for years? Aim a laser of some kind and the vaporized materials push the asteroid out of the critical path.

What scares me is the 1.4 Megatons of energy being tossed around. Whoever controls this De-Star4 thing could just as easily turn it on the Earth and fry cities with zero chance of defence.

Myself, I favor sending an ion drive robot satellite to individual asteroids and using those to push the asteroids away.

strange, how the meteorite went from being 'a couple of metres' across, to 50ft across. in my book, a couple of metres is six feet, not fifty!

who did the maths on this thing, forrest gump??

a 50ft meteorite would've done more than break a few windows I reckon, and I wonder what kind of TARDIS effect allowed a 50ft object to fit inside a 16ft crater.....?

It likely created a smaller hole because... most of it vaporized 15 miles up.

It also blew out just windows because.... most of it vaporized 15 miles up. 15 miles......

So.... You want every report to be the same, starting immediately after the event and not being changed later to reflect incoming data? No one had any idea how big it was at first, but after people analyzed the energy output and area affected and reviewed how high it was and at what angle it came in at.... All that leads to a better guess on the size... 50 feet in diameter.

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A meteorite is simply an object that has entered another bodies atmosphere (in this case planet Earth) and survived travelling through the atmosphere to impact the ground. An asteroid never impacts another bodies atmosphere, and has no atmosphere itself. An asteroid can range in size from small to very large, and even have their own moon/s.

Edit - to simplify the difference, they are both basically the same thing, both originating from space, they are separated only by location, an asteroid stays in space, a meteorite is what hits the ground.

I thought the difference between an asteroid and a meteoroid is only size. They can be made of the same materials and both can impact other bodies in space. From what I've read, generally an asteroid has to be larger then 10 meters in diameter. Smaller then that and it is a meteoroid. It is a meteor when it hits the atmosphere, and a meteorite if it reaches the ground.

In 1961, the International Astronomical Union defined a meteoroid as "a solid object moving in interplanetary space, of a size considerably smaller than an asteroid and considerably larger than an atom". In 1995, Beech and Steel, writing in Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, proposed a new definition where a meteoroid would be between 100 µm and 10 meters across. Following the discovery of asteroids below 10 m in size, Rubin and Grossman refined the Beech and Steel definition of meteoroid to objects between 10 µm and 1 m in diameter. The smallest asteroid (based on absolute magnitude) is 2008 TS26 with an absolute magnitude of 33.2, and an estimated size of 1-meter.Objects smaller than meteoroids are classified as micrometeoroids and cosmic dust. The Minor Planet Center does not use the term "meteoroid".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteoroid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid

So, going off Wiki, this 50 foot, 15 meter, rock could be considered a mereoroid, or an asteroid. Or, perhaps even both.

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I thought the difference between an asteroid and a meteoroid is only size. They can be made of the same materials and both can impact other bodies in space. From what I've read, generally an asteroid has to be larger then 10 meters in diameter. Smaller then that and it is a meteoroid. It is a meteor when it hits the atmosphere, and a meteorite if it reaches the ground.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteoroid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid

So, going off Wiki, this 50 foot, 15 meter, rock could be considered a mereoroid, or an asteroid. Or, perhaps even both.

Well yes and no, really, lol. Size becomes less relevant when compared to composition, yet they are both more or less the same material too....it depends how indepth you want to get about it really, hence just giving a simplified version. This explains it pretty well:

http://www.universetoday.com/36398/what-is-the-difference-between-asteroids-and-meteorites/

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A meteorite is simply an object that has entered another bodies atmosphere (in this case planet Earth) and survived travelling through the atmosphere to impact the ground. An asteroid never impacts another bodies atmosphere, and has no atmosphere itself. An asteroid can range in size from small to very large, and even have their own moon/s.

Edit - to simplify the difference, they are both basically the same thing, both originating from space, they are separated only by location, an asteroid stays in space, a meteorite is what hits the ground.

Getting this now. So the name changes when it enters Earths orbit. Like a foreigner is only a foreigner once they enter someone elses country.

So if the meteorite never hits the ground and stays in space, it is still an asteroid?

If a piece of rock broke off from an asteroid, is it still classed as an asteroid or is it now a piece of space rock until it hits earths orbit then it becomes a meteorite?

My initial "confusion" was that the meteorite came from an asteroid, i was asking where is that asteroid? I can understand if it is too far out to even think about, but when the others hit in other parts of the Earth I just thought this too much of a coincidence if they were not related to each other.

Only one asteroid has been spotted and none of these meteorites which have hit Earth come from it....are you seeing my confusion?

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I thought the difference between an asteroid and a meteoroid is only size. They can be made of the same materials and both can impact other bodies in space. From what I've read, generally an asteroid has to be larger then 10 meters in diameter. Smaller then that and it is a meteoroid. It is a meteor when it hits the atmosphere, and a meteorite if it reaches the ground.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteoroid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid

So, going off Wiki, this 50 foot, 15 meter, rock could be considered a mereoroid, or an asteroid. Or, perhaps even both.

Edited by freetoroam
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when they hit our atmosphere, they're meteors, but when they hit the ground they're meteorites, and the one in russia left a 16ft hole in the ground, so it's DEFINITELY a meteorite!

:-)

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Getting this now. So the name changes when it enters Earths orbit. Like a foreigner is only a foreigner once they enter someone elses country.

So if the meteorite never hits the ground and stays in space, it is still an asteroid?

If a piece of rock broke off from an asteroid, is it still classed as an asteroid or is it now a piece of space rock until it hits earths orbit then it becomes a meteorite?

My initial "confusion" was that the meteorite came from an asteroid, i was asking where is that asteroid? I can understand if it is too far out to even think about, but when the others hit in other parts of the Earth I just thought this too much of a coincidence if they were not related to each other.

Only one asteroid has been spotted and none of these meteorites which have hit Earth come from it....are you seeing my confusion?

It's not the case that it just has to enter earths atmosphere, on it's travel through the atmosphere it is a meteoroid, and not all meteoroids hit the ground, some skim the atmosphere and shoot off into space again, it's only when it hits the ground that it's a meteorite.

So if a piece of asteroid breaks off in space, it's still an asteroid, unless it enters the atmosphere of another body, then it changes again.

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"Do you mean asteroid. An object is only a meteorite if it has actually hit the ground."

Thankyou Sky scanner, I understand it now. its the above bit from another thread which originally confused me.

Either way, it still stands that they are not all detectable...at this moment in time.

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I suspect our arrogance will doom us before any phisical threat of nature. We seem to keep "all eggs in one basket" rather than putting more effort into survival of our speices. Nature seems to roll dice.

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