Interesting article.

[oldfruit]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27039285

[red dwalf]

scarry

[Guest]

I saw this on Twitter today. Although I'm far more likely to be hit by old age or a car in the next 20 years, I think we need more research on this NOW or we could go the way of the dinosaurs

[Guest devil74]

Yes very scary..but don't forget we have one lethel weapon in our armour that no asteroid would dare tackle...Bruce Willis

[stash]

Research is useless a planet killer isn't going to be stopped by anything we have at present and I doubt I would be on any evac list if we knew it was coming - I , for one, would not wish to know it until the last day or so think of the panic that would erupt. 

 

Think we should be more worried about super Volcanoes on earth (e.g. Yellowstone etc) as we are due one around now give or take 500 years 

 

I would love to see one about the size of the Russian one (2013) come over UK into North Sea (no one hurt of course) now that would be a sight or another Crab Nebula I would settle for that.

[stash]

Yes very scary..but don't forget we have one lethel weapon in our armour that no asteroid would dare tackle...Bruce Willis

No he is too busy "Fracking for Gas" in Blackpool 

[Daz Type-R]

Research is useless a planet killer isn't going to be stopped by anything we have at present and I doubt I would be on any evac list if we knew it was coming - I , for one, would not wish to know it until the last day or so think of the panic that would erupt. 

 

I would have to disagree with that statement.

 

We can not stop cancer with what have at the minute but funding and research is driving us further towards that goal every year.

 

Science and research into near Earth objects is just as critical (IMO) as all other sciences, without research and trial and error, the first aeroplanes would not have been flown, no rockets would be made and we would have no rovers on Mars, just because we can not do it now, does mean we can not do it in 5, 10 or 20 years time.

 

If we track them now and plot their future course (just as we did with Apohis that was supposed to hit us in 2026 or there about), research got that chance of a hit from 1 in 36 to a 100% certainty that it would miss, if was to hit us, I bet billions of dollars would have been thrown at a project to stop our demise.

 

If we were to track a planet killer that was due to hit us in 5 or 10 years, then in that time we may be able to adapt or come up with something to alter it trajectory.

 

That's my 2p's worth anyway.

 

[xanthic]

Chelyabinsk should have been a massive wakeup call IMHO. It only grazed the atmosphere yet did a massive amount of damage to the ground. I suspect had that happened over Europe or the US, we'd have a fleet of probes up there already.

 

NASA are looking into ways to towing asteroids, so I don't see why that technology couldn't be adapted.

[Guest]

Yes very scary..but don't forget we have one lethel weapon in our armour that no asteroid would dare tackle...Bruce Willis

... and our own astronomer who was born on EXACTLY the same day/year: Me!

[Guest]

Even if we can't stop it, we can save some of us by moving them to higher ground, especially if we can predict the impact point nearer the time.

 

I doubt if I'd be on any list of people to be saved and I woudl rather they saved places for people expected to live another 50 years.