Gold & Silver Forum - Spaceguard Program

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Spaceguard Program

I realize there are all different kinds of SHTF scenarios we should concern ourselves with, but I'd like to make a case for one in particular: Potentially Hazardous Asteroids.

I'm not sure the average person really understands this risk. Nasa's Spaceguard Program finds new asteroids on an almost daily basis, any of which could present enormous danger to Earth. As recently as 2002 a small asteroid detonated over the Mediterranean and generated a force equal to that of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Unfortunately, Nasa's can't even begin looking for these small asteroids because it's too busy cataloging potential planet killers. My main concern at this point though is that the Spaceguard project isn't being funded as well as it should be.

Sooo.... What can we do? Write your congressman! Tell him/her we need more funding for Spaceguard including more ground based and space based telescopes, and more cooperation between Nasa and other nations to catalog as many Near Earth Objects as possible. These are the kinds of efforts I don't mind paying taxes for. Hopefully some of you agree with me.

This really is a serious issue, and no, I don't think so just because I saw Armageddon on cable recently. (Deep Impact was better by the way.)

Of course Yellowstone could turn into a SuperVolcano tomorrow and all of these efforts would be wasted, but let's do what we can. :)

Thanks!

Re: Spaceguard Program

its important point, especially as scientists are now watching a 130 metre rock which is due to strike in 2048.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/nation...778767701.html

Will I be around? probably not but knowing my luck it will hit square on my hole in the ground... if n they let me have my own hole that is.

Re: Spaceguard Program

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elijah (Post 900821)

2048! EEK, better warn the grandchildren. Pretty such I'll not be around then. I'm more worried about the 2012 thing, not sure what that is but I might still be alive then.

Don't worry about the 2012 thing, it doesn't mean the end of the world since we'll just enter a new baktun cycle, no different than the one 3000 years ago. 2012 might be off by a couple years as well.

Re: Spaceguard Program

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delusional (Post 900846)

2012 might be off by a couple years as well.

How is it going to be off?

Re: Spaceguard Program

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ceaser (Post 900864)

How is it going to be off?

2012 is the consensus date archaeologists came up with. but it is not 100% accurate, so it might happen 2013 for all we know.

Re: Spaceguard Program

To my knowledge, the asteroid scientists are currently most concerned with is Apophis, which isn't supposed to hit Earth, but will come close enough to make everyone wet their pants.

Here's the latest on Spaceguard funding:

Quote:

A midsize object of 140 meters (459.3 feet) or larger, with an impact energy of 100 megatons or more, can be expected to hit Earth once every 5,000 years -- a 1% probability of impact every 50 years. In contrast, 1-kilometer or larger asteroids have a mean impact frequency of about once every 500,000 years, according to testimony by Yeomans in November on near-Earth objects before the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology.

Congress didn't set aside money for the expanded asteroid hunt, and out of NASA's annual budget of about $17 billion, it spends just $4.1 million to find potentially hazardous near-Earth objects.

Russell "Rusty" Schweickart, a former astronaut, is now chairman of the B612 Foundation in Sonoma, Calif., which has been pushing NASA and Congress since 2001 to develop a comprehensive plans for dealing with asteroids "with our name on it" that includes a deflection plan.

"The reality is we have the knowledge to be able to protect life on Earth from this happening," Schweickart said. "If we were really responsible, if we really set about his process ... we could essentially preclude any substantial asteroid from ever hitting Earth again."

http://www.computerworld.com/action/...icleId=9055040

Re: Spaceguard Program

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delusional (Post 900846)

WTF is a "Baktun Cycle"???

Is that when the "Lizard People" finally finish us off? :D

Re: Spaceguard Program

In the end, we'll all be dead.

So, pop a top, sit on the curb and drink a cold one.

Re: Spaceguard Program

Yeah. This is pablum.

Re: Spaceguard Program

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glass (Post 900798)

Pretty bad if it happens, not a planetary killer though, life will go on. It's the big rocks that count.

The Shoemaker-Levy comet that hit Jupiter for example, that was pretty incredible...