2102 asteroid will be closest shave yet

[UM-Bot]

Image credit: NASA

A space rock capable of sub-continent scale devastation has about a one in 1,000 risk of colliding with Earth early next century, the highest of any known asteroid, watchers said on Thursday. The rock, 2004 VD17, is about 500 metres (yards) long and has a mass of nearly a billion tonnes, which -- if it were to impact -- would deliver 10,000 megatonnes of energy, equivalent to all the world's nuclear weapons.

View: Full Article | Source: Physorg

[Sanjuro]

I bet peoples in 2102 will be able to take out that asteroid with high tech laser or missle.

[zandore]

I have posted this link here before to give an idea just what it would be like if an asteroid was to hit.

Earth Impact Effects Program

Welcome to the Earth Impact Effects Program: an easy-to-use, interactive web site for estimating the regional environmental consequences of an impact on Earth. This program will estimate the ejecta distribution, ground shaking, atmospheric blast wave, and thermal effects of an impact as well as the size of the crater produced.

Please enter values in the boxes below to describe your impact event of choice and your distance away. Then click "Calculate Effects" to learn about the environmental consequences.

Effects

[Irani]

I bet peoples in 2102 will be able to take out that asteroid with high tech laser or missle.

Yeah its ironic.. the weapons we build to destroy might one day save us all

[ShaunZero]

Who cares? None of us will be here, and I sure as hell don't care what happens to the Earth once I'm gone. Well that is if there's no afterlife, I won't be looking at the Earth worried about it. And who cares what affects it'll have if it DOES hit? We'll more than likley be dead!

[different]

I'm glad I won't be alive. It's just that If I get reincarnated right before it hits...

[punish3ment]

I read this in the paper this morning, I freaked because I thought It

said 2012! I hope they dont make the mistake they did in the film 'Deep Impact' and Nuke it

[GreyWeather]

yeah, we'll be able to defend ourselves by then for deffinate, and i hope we do, dont want anything to destroy the earth or throw everything into chaos.

it seems a long way off, but really its quite close, sure we wont be here but our kids or kids kids will be.

[Megalomania]

Right now concentrate on Bird Flu and Oil Supplies.

[feelgoodhitofthesummer]

they say this every couple of months

[aliennobasoure]

I bet peoples in 2102 will be able to take out that asteroid with high tech laser or missle.

i bet the government could do that now

alien

Edited March 5, 2006 by aliennobasoure

[whoa182]

Who cares? None of us will be here, and I sure as hell don't care what happens to the Earth once I'm gone. Well that is if there's no afterlife, I won't be looking at the Earth worried about it. And who cares what affects it'll have if it DOES hit? We'll more than likley be dead!

I'll be here, so i care... and so will you have a good chance of being around at that time

It wont hit anyway, we'll almost certainly have the technology to deal with these things, we could probably build spacecrafts to do the job right now.

Edited March 5, 2006 by whoa182

[Laze]

does it really matter? We wont make it none of us will make it to 2102, we'll be dead. And theres a 1 in 1000 chance... thats pretty slim. I know the saying dont dwell on the past... but I say dont give a crap about whats gonna happen if Im not around.

[Glacies]

while it's a 1 in 1000 chance, that's steep enough for me thanks, and i will be here until my head is taken by a fellow immortal. and i know i'm too good to lose that easily. *There can be only 1!!!*

seriously though i have no real clue if anything we'd try would actually work...unless...we shoot ben affleck at it! that just might work...

[Laze]

naa try tom cruise

[GreyWeather]

while it's a 1 in 1000 chance, that's steep enough for me thanks, and i will be here until my head is taken by a fellow immortal. and i know i'm too good to lose that easily. *There can be only 1!!!*

seriously though i have no real clue if anything we'd try would actually work...unless...we shoot ben affleck at it! that just might work...

haha, well when the last highlander is around in that time, he can go destroy it!

[whoa182]

does it really matter? We wont make it none of us will make it to 2102, we'll be dead.

Only if you want to die... Scientists are very close to being able to extend life my finding compounds that target the SIRT1 gene in humans (equivilent of SIR2 in animals) which extends life. So that could drive the average life expectancy upto about 110-120 and increase maximum to about 140-150. It could only be around 5-10 years before they are on the market.

So we should care, especially people under 30.

Edited March 5, 2006 by whoa182

[Megalomania]

Only if you want to die... Scientists are very close to being able to extend life my finding compounds that target the SIRT1 gene in humans (equivilent of SIR2 in animals) which extends life. So that could drive the average life expectancy upto about 110-120 and increase maximum to about 140-150. It could only be around 5-10 years before they are on the market.

So we should care, especially people under 30.

And you want to live to 150.. why?!

You can't poop! Well, it's hard at least.

Now, 1 in an thousand. Who cares? We get some cool pictures as it barely misses us anyway.

[gizmo91343]

The world would have ended by 2102! So what if an asteroid hits.

[Megalomania]

How do you think Gizmo? Oil Crisis?

[SparkOfOm]

Well if we're goin' to be livin' to 150 years old... we all better triple up on those RRSP contributions.. cause that million dollars at 65 definitely won't last me for another 85 years.

Invest, Invest, Invest!!!

Besides.. space will be privatized by then. That asteroid has to bust through alot of space billboards and space stations to get to the surface. Which would probably be mostly water with all that global warming goin' on. Earth will be quite the sauna when that sucker zeros in.

There are so many different things that will happen before this asteroid might happen.

Anyways... it's all an illusion, we have nothing to worry about.

(read that post on march 7 about illusions)

[SparkOfOm]

Gillette Fusion is quite possibly the closest shave to date

[gizmo91343]

How do you think Gizmo? Oil Crisis?

I think I know the future. Facts are facts. No one's going to be alive in 2102. There is no Earth at that time.

[zandore]

Welcome Gizmo to the UM Forum.

How do you think Gizmo? Oil Crisis?

I think I know the future. Facts are facts. No one's going to be alive in 2102. There is no Earth at that time.

You have my curiousty Gizmo what facts are you talking about?

[Immortal Norway]

Thats whats wrong with us humans: we are scared of the wrong things !

The peoples in 2102 will probobly easeli destroy the asteroid !

Infact the changes that you will die of bird-flue, in a car-accident, wile trying to repair your breadtoster ore something like that is infact a lot of bigger !