Earth dodged a bullet

[PromoTheRobot]

3 minutes ago, /dev/null said:

 

FTFY

 

I'll put money my on won't if it happens soon.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

1 hour ago, /dev/null said:

any chance it will swing by before early November of next year and put us out of our misery?

Not to worry.  We’ll still be ‘in the hunt’...?

[Nextmanup]

5 hours ago, plenzmd1 said:

was never looking all the great to start with!

 

City killer they call this one Can they somehow get Willis and Affleck to point it to Boston?

I have always found her to be an interesting mix of hot and weird looking.

 

 

[The Plastic Cup]

3 hours ago, /dev/null said:

any chance it will swing by before early November of next year and put us out of our misery?

 

Hear me out.....all we need to do is knock this asteroid off course, eke out a win in Foxboro, go 3-1 in December and hope the Bengals’ third string QB beats Pittsburgh, and we’re in the playoffs!

 

 

Edited July 27, 2019 by The Plastic Cup

[Marv's Neighbor]

6 hours ago, /dev/null said:

any chance it will swing by before early November of next year and put us out of our misery?

The pics are just in and it has high cheekbones.

[Punching Bag]

On 7/26/2019 at 12:28 PM, plenzmd1 said:

was never looking all the great to start with!

 

City killer they call this one Can they somehow get Willis and Affleck to point it to Boston?

 

Boston?  There are some good things in Boston.  Aim it  for 28 miles southwest of downtown Boston.

 

[Warcodered]

On 7/26/2019 at 11:20 AM, Johnny Hammersticks said:

This is exactly why we need to have Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck at the ready at all times.  What’s Liv Tyler looking like these days?  We might need her too.

Pretty sure Elves don't age.

[John from Riverside]

So serious question

they almost missed what were they gonna do if they DID miss it

 

do we have a plan to stop it from hitting us?

 

its fate

[Warcodered]

1 hour ago, John from Riverside said:

So serious question

they almost missed what were they gonna do if they DID miss it

 

do we have a plan to stop it from hitting us?

 

its fate

I mean they mention two theories they have on avoiding one but I mean that's if they detect it if they don't it kind of just hits and they go "OH *****"

 

I mean not really a way to deflect something if they don't see it unless they built some sort of shield around the planet but that seems more scifi then actual science right now.

[PromoTheRobot]

7 minutes ago, Warcodered said:

I mean they mention two theories they have on avoiding one but I mean that's if they detect it if they don't it kind of just hits and they go "OH *****"

 

I mean not really a way to deflect something if they don't see it unless they built some sort of shield around the planet but that seems more scifi then actual science right now.

 

They only have a chance at deflecting one if they have years advanced notice. Several more orbits before impact, enough time to maybe nudge it off course. Something like this it's goodnight Irene. And blowing it up with a nuke is probably not a good idea.

Edited July 28, 2019 by PromoTheRobot

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

There's an aspect to this that NASA is missing.  Everybody's talking about deflecting the path of the asteroid to make it miss earth.  Nobody's talking about deflecting the path of the earth to make it miss the asteroid.

 

Y'all know why a curveball pitch, curves, right?  It's caused by the spinning seams of the ball, that jut out a bit outside the otherwise spherical surface of the ball.

 

So let's build some seam-like giant berms on earth, increase the earth's spin, and curve the earth's path to an orbit that's slightly more distant from the sun than the present one.  End result:

 

1.  Earth's path changes to miss the oncoming asteroid without having to shoot anything into space or blow anything up;

 

2.  The more distant and therefore colder earth orbit also solves global warming (a symbidiotic effect); and

 

3.  I win the Nobel prize for simultaneously saving the world and curing global warming in one fell swoosh.

[PromoTheRobot]

15 hours ago, ICanSleepWhenI'mDead said:

There's an aspect to this that NASA is missing.  Everybody's talking about deflecting the path of the asteroid to make it miss earth.  Nobody's talking about deflecting the path of the earth to make it miss the asteroid.

 

Y'all know why a curveball pitch, curves, right?  It's caused by the spinning seams of the ball, that jut out a bit outside the otherwise spherical surface of the ball.

 

So let's build some seam-like giant berms on earth, increase the earth's spin, and curve the earth's path to an orbit that's slightly more distant from the sun than the present one.  End result:

 

1.  Earth's path changes to miss the oncoming asteroid without having to shoot anything into space or blow anything up;

 

2.  The more distant and therefore colder earth orbit also solves global warming (a symbidiotic effect); and

 

3.  I win the Nobel prize for simultaneously saving the world and curing global warming in one fell swoosh.

 

Get everyone on the planet to jump at the same time.

[sherpa]

Kiko Alonso, but only when he played for us.

[Augie]

5 hours ago, sherpa said:

Kiko Alonso, but only when he played for us.

 

You think if he cooks dinner for it....it might stay away? 

[DC Tom]

On 7/27/2019 at 10:58 PM, PromoTheRobot said:

 

And blowing it up with a nuke is probably not a good idea.

 

It depends.  The problem with nuking one is that you don't really change the trajectory, you just break the asteroid into a bunch of smaller asteroids.  

 

Now, that can be beneficial, since smaller rocks burn up in the atmosphere, whereas big rocks land.  So you don't get the same ground-effect as you do from one big rock...but you're still popping all that orbital energy into the earth's atmosphere.  Which isn't too bad for smallish asteroids, but beyond a certain size (pretty large - about a mile across) all that energy heats the atmosphere and causes a good bit of destruction on its own.  

 

Basically, the difference between a "nuked" and "whole" asteroid is the difference between buckshot and a deer slug.  But you're not deflecting an asteroid with a nuke, unless you do it "Armageddon" style (bury it, split the asteroid in half, and the halves recoil away from each other.  Literally, the only physics the movie got even remotely right.)

7 minutes ago, Augie said:

 

You think if he cooks dinner for it....it might stay away? 

 

Beam soup commercials at it, it'll run away.

[Greybeard]

On 7/28/2019 at 8:03 PM, ICanSleepWhenI'mDead said:

There's an aspect to this that NASA is missing.  Everybody's talking about deflecting the path of the asteroid to make it miss earth.  Nobody's talking about deflecting the path of the earth to make it miss the asteroid.

 

Y'all know why a curveball pitch, curves, right?  It's caused by the spinning seams of the ball, that jut out a bit outside the otherwise spherical surface of the ball.

 

So let's build some seam-like giant berms on earth, increase the earth's spin, and curve the earth's path to an orbit that's slightly more distant from the sun than the present one.  End result:

 

1.  Earth's path changes to miss the oncoming asteroid without having to shoot anything into space or blow anything up;

 

2.  The more distant and therefore colder earth orbit also solves global warming (a symbidiotic effect); and

 

3.  I win the Nobel prize for simultaneously saving the world and curing global warming in one fell swoosh.

         The spinning ball needs air to make it change its path.   Last I knew, there is not much air in space. ?

[RochesterRob]

  At this point you might as well throw Kirok at it.

[ICanSleepWhenI'mDead]

1 hour ago, Greybeard said:

         The spinning ball needs air to make it change its path.   Last I knew, there is not much air in space. ?

It doesn't matter if there's air elsewhere in space.  I'm not suggesting curving the path of the asteroid, which has no atmosphere.

 

As for the earth, what is it you think you're breathing?

 

Roll tide!

[Greybeard]

6 minutes ago, ICanSleepWhenI'mDead said:

It doesn't matter if there's air elsewhere in space.  I'm not suggesting curving the path of the asteroid, which has no atmosphere.

 

As for the earth, what is it you think you're breathing?

 

Roll tide!

         I didn't interpret your post as the earth spinning within it's atmosphere but the seams extending beyond, so no atmosphere.  Within the atmosphere it makes for an interesting physics problem.   I wonder what the spin rate would have to be to make sufficient force to make an object as large and heavy as the earth to actually move.    Within the closed earth system, if there were large enough seams to create force, I would think they would drag the atmosphere around with them.   Thus no force could be created.

It takes a differential of pressure on the ball to make it move, which requires the object to be moving through the medium, not drag the medium with it.

 

 

 

[AllenLongBall]

On 7/26/2019 at 2:53 PM, Gray Beard said:

Even if we know it is coming, what are we supposed to do about it?  Duck and cover?

No equipment exists to nudge it off course, and there may not be enough advance warning anyway. 

 

That would not have been one that could have been nudged. "Nudging" only works with very early detection.