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Scientists: Huge Life-ending, Gravity-defying Asteroid Hurtling toward Earth

Discussion in 'All other topics' started by ireland, Aug 15, 2014.

  1. ireland

    ireland Active member

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    SMOD Is Real And It’s Headed For Earth

    Scientists: Huge Life-ending, Gravity-defying Asteroid Hurtling
    toward Earth



    No, this is not a drill. A huge asteroid is heading for our planet, and with a diameter of one kilometer, a strike by it could wipe out human life. Don’t cancel any plans, give contemporary doomsayers a pat on the back, or descend into ’roid rage just yet, though. Despite a speed of nine miles per second, or 38,000 mph, the object’s arrival isn’t expected till 2880 — March 16, to be precise.
    When that time does come, however, there will be cause for concern (assuming man is still traipsing about our blue orb). The asteroid — identified as “1950 DA” — has a 1 in 300 chance of striking Earth. That’s far greater than the odds of being murdered in Chicago (1 in 6,250) or dying in a car crash (1 in 5,000).
    But there is good news other than the fact that, along with our national debt, 1950 DA is posterity’s problem. Scientists believe that the more than 800 years till its arrival give us ample time to avert disaster. Unlike in the film Armageddon, however, this wouldn’t be achieved by blowing the asteroid up. University of Tennessee researchers claim this would just increase the devastation by creating multiple impacts. Instead, writes The Independent’s Lizzie Dearden, “small changes could be made to its surface to disrupt the forces keeping it together and cause it to break up in outer space.” Dearden doesn’t explain how this would have a different effect from that of blowing 1950 DA up, but, presumably, it would cause a disintegration that would reduce the asteroid to harmless-size pieces, to ones with a trajectory that would take them away from Earth, or both.
    Aside from its troubling trajectory, the space rock has another unusual characteristic. Writes Dearden, “The University of Tennessee researchers said 1950 DA is rotating so quickly it ‘defies gravity’ and is held together by cohesive forces, called van der Waals, never before detected on an asteroid.… Previous research has shown that asteroids are loose piles of rubble held together by gravity and friction but by calculating 1950 DA’s thermal inertia and bulk density, the team detected the action of cohesive forces that stop it breaking up.” In fact, scientists say that the asteroid is spinning so rapidly that it would disintegrate if gravity were the only force acting on it. Moreover, this rapid rotation actually causes “negative gravity,” which means that if you attempted to stand on 1950 DA’s surface, you’d be cast into deep space.
    What aren’t unusual are asteroid strikes themselves. For instance, it is widely believed that a devastating impact 66 million years ago wiped out virtually all the dinosaurs and approximately 70 percent of all other species on our planet, though some scientists now say the culprit was a comet. Just last year a 10-ton meteor (essentially a particle from an asteroid or comet) approximately 10 feet in diameter exploded in the lower atmosphere near the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, shattering more than one million square feet of glass and injuring 1,200; ironically, later the very same day an even larger object — 55 yards across — missed the Earth by only 17,000 miles, a hair’s breadth by cosmic standards. And then there was the now legendary 1908 Tunguska impact, in which a 120-foot asteroid exploded above Siberia, destroying 800 square miles of forest, lighting up the night sky as far away as Asia, and creating a shockwave detected even in England.
    In fact, asteroid strikes have occurred millions of times during Earth’s history, with most causing little or no damage. More devastating impacts are rarer, with 1 km (0.62 mile)-diameter objects striking the Earth every 500,000 years on average and 5 km (3 mile)-diameter asteroids hitting once every 20 million years. And the reality is that our planet finds itself in a sea of asteroids. As The Week’s Chris Gayomali reports, “Near-Earth objects (NEOs, for short) are objects that orbit the sun nearer than 1.3 times the Earth's orbital distance. In 2012 alone, roughly 8,800 NEOs have been logged,” and there are “580,000 known asteroids throughout our solar system.”
    The bright side is that NASA “keeps close tabs on these potential H-bombs,” writes Gayomali. As for 1950 DA, we will likely thwart its designs on us even if Bruce Willis isn’t around. Nonetheless, this writer intends to have his affairs in order by then.


    http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/...ravity-defying-asteroid-hurtling-toward-earth
     
  2. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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  3. aldan

    aldan Active member

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    posterity,this ones for you.lol.you would think that in 800 years we will have figured out a way to divert it.
     
  4. xboxdvl2

    xboxdvl2 Regular member

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    if it defies gravity then why assume the earths gravitation pull will pull it downwards and make an impact???????????either it obeys the laws of gravity or it doesn't?????????
    it will be 1/100th of the size or less if it actually does impact earth as the earth atmosphere will burn it as soon as it enters.
    not even sure if i will be alive in 800years but i don't plan on dying anytime soon.
     
  5. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    don't count on it being reduced to 1/100 of original size before inpact as that is determined by what it is made up of as nickel\iron less likely to be reduced that much compared to just rock.
     
  6. attar

    attar Senior member

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    The UN has come up with an excellent plan.
    Starting Tuesday fortnight, classes in 'Duck&Cover' will be initiated in K through 12, then by birthdate until the whole planet can present the smallest target possible (on the big/last/rapture/oh shit, day, the maneuver will be synchronized according to time zone).
    Politicians will be exempt from taking the classes since all of them are already adept at bending over backwards and covering their asses.
     
  7. aldan

    aldan Active member

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    hahaha,good one.i remember the duck and cover classes from school.useless as we all know we cant bend over and kiss our asses goodbye.lol
     
  8. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    you bend forward to kiss your ass goodbye not backwards. who told you that you do it backwarks as they don't know what they are talking about? must be a politician\lawyer as they are all full of BS.
     
  9. xboxdvl2

    xboxdvl2 Regular member

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    to kiss your own ass you'd need to be very flexible as you'd have to get shoulders parellel with legs as you bend over and then maybe it could be done, contortionist are the only 1's i've seen that would be capable of that.
     
  10. aldan

    aldan Active member

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    hey you snarky bugger i just said bend over,didnt say which way.LOL
     
  11. attar

    attar Senior member

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    You can always invoke the implied 'mutual assistance pact' with a close friend.
     

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