Scientists seek ways to ward off killer asteroids

Source: McClatchy

Scientists seek ways to ward off killer asteroids

By Robert S. Boyd, McClatchy Newspapers Robert S. Boyd, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Wed Dec 17, 11:55 am ET

WASHINGTON — A blue-ribbon panel of scientists is trying to determine the best way to detect and ward off any wandering space rocks that might be on a collision course with Earth.

``We're looking for the killer asteroid,'' James Heasley , of the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy , last week told the committee that the National Academy of Sciences created at Congress' request.

Congress asked the academy to conduct the study after astronomers were unable to eliminate an extremely slight chance that an asteroid called Apophis will slam into Earth with devastating effect in 2036.

Apophis was discovered in 2004 about 17 million miles from Earth on a course that would overlap our planet's orbit in 2029 and return seven years later. Observers said that the asteroid — a massive boulder left over from the birth of the solar system — is about 1,000 feet wide and weighs at least 50 million tons.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20081217/sc_mcclatchy/3125382

---

Note that only $41 million has been spent on detecting asteroids that could destroy the entire USA or human civilization, while over $600 billion has been wasted on Iraq.

Preferably with Aerosmith playing in the background.

None of them even made it back alive!

Since this object could potentially destroy life on earth, then every resource available should be put toward defending us from space rocks. EVERY resource! No more spending on anything else at all until we are totally safe from asteroids. I wear a hard hat every day everywhere I go just in case a micro-meteoroid happens to hit me. I live in fear constantly.:P

Fear is fashionable. Fear is as American as Apple Pie and easier to get.

and would make an earthquake of about 7.8 magnitude. Not a civilization-ending event. I love playing with this website: http://janus.astro.umd.edu/astro/impact/ It's so much fun to repeatedly destroy the Earth. For a second opinion, but without Marvin the Martian, you can try http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/

:sarcasm:

:puke:

people whose despair is misrepresented as misanthropy

So what? Does the asteroid have oil?

It may not work, but we would all be mercifully Bruno-free for the remainder of our short lives

Spray-painting the side facing the sun with either reflective or light-absorptive paint. They just better have their calculations correct.

If an asteroid hits while Obama is President and destroys the human race, the Republicans will finally have KKKarl Rove's 100 year super-majority to lord over the cockroaches.

That way, we may yet save humanity, albeit possibly as a tasty snack food.

despite what the movies teach, at this point, we have no way of deflecting a killer asteroid bent on destroying the earth hence there is NO benefit to detecting it in advance

what is the point of knowing about a problem that can't be fixed?

would the dinosaurs have been better off worrying and angsting before the killer asteroid hit, or would they have been just as well to go out in a "poof" since they could not stop the impact anyway

there is never any point in worrying about things you can't do anything about

when we have a method for destroying killer asteroids harmlessly, look for them then

otherwise don't borrow trouble