End of the world...in simulation

[Masher88]

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1828851

[KeithBMI]

Bring it on!

[Pacman]

Wow...that was depressing.

[L-A]

As long as Keith is here, I feel safe.

[machine gewehr]

Advanture.

But still,Jupiter is pulling such big objects from our orbit,it saved us countless times.Its highly doubtful that such a big object will hit the earth without being effected by Jupiter's gravity.

[Benjamin Strange]

Pssh... as long as we've got Ben Affleck, I'm not worried.

[Linas]

cool.

[Croox]

obviously they didn't send Bruce Willis to blow it up armed only with a aerosmith cd

[blizzard]

My lecturer for orbital mechanics was telling us the other day that one of the post grads at my uni one a competition for solving this very problem. Apparently her solution was something to do with covering it with foil so that it changes the way it behaves in the solar wind and over time will push it off course so that it misses earth. I thought that was an interesting approach to the problem.

[J. Crawford]

Carrots.

[Thunderscreech]

I was bracing myself for the RickRoll, but it did not come.

[Vic Winters]

The answer is very simple. Everyone points their bass cabs towards the asteroid, cranks the volume and we send it back into space.

[f'nar f'nar]

hopefully we have another few billion years to go yet. Even if that doesn't happen we can't escape our sun exploding sadly.

[ADbassman]

Originally Posted by f'nar f'nar

hopefully we have another few billion years to go yet. Even if that doesn't happen we can't escape our sun exploding sadly.

We could always move earth and find a new sun.

[f'nar f'nar]

Or just populate a new planet...

[Mazatleco17]

I call bs an object like that would probably break the earth in many many pieces.

[Emerald_gasH]

at least it's quick.....














hold me

[J. Crawford]

Kind of like the realistic version of Deep Impact with MOrgan Freeman and Elijah Wood. They should name the comet Beeterman, so we can have a movie aspect of death.

[Gard]

Scenarios like this one are why I advocate a strong manned space program. The only way to stop something like that is to find it many years before it threatens us, then go and "nudge" it into a different orbit (possibly using a technique like blizzard mentions). So, we need to spend money on detection, and be prepared to get there and do something about it.

Keep in mind that event isn't a matter of "if", it's a matter of "when" (maybe not a 500km asteroid, but it wouldn't take one that big to wipe us out!). The evidence is all around us that we get smacked around regularly, in the cosmic sense.

Originally Posted by f'nar f'nar

hopefully we have another few billion years to go yet. Even if that doesn't happen we can't escape our sun exploding sadly.

Our sun won't "explode", it's too small for a nova or supernova event. However, it WILL expand into a red giant as it runs out of hydrogen and starts fusing helium, and will eventually be of a larger diameter than our orbit, before collapsing into a white dwarf. All in 4-5 billion years, so we have time to figure out how to avoid becoming a cinder...

[Gard]

Originally Posted by Mazatleco17

I call bs an object like that would probably break the earth in many many pieces.

Doubtful. The prevailing theory for the creation of the moon is that the earth was struck by a Mars (~6780km) sized body about 4.5 billion years ago, the mass ejected by that impact eventually formed the moon. This theory is backed up very strongly by evidence from the moon itself (isotopes in returned lunar regolith & rock samples match those of ancient earth rocks), and numerous simulations.