MRB_Doom Posted May 31, 2013 Large asteroid zipping past Earth, dragging its own moon along 1998 QE2's moon, which is 2,000 feet wide, is large enough for NASA to term it a "potential city killer." This sounds pretty neat. Or not if it takes out a city of course. 0 Share this post Link to post
Scet Posted May 31, 2013 "potential city killer." Usual fear mongering, the odds of anything from space hitting a city are incredible low. Most of the Earths surface is ocean or barren land. 0 Share this post Link to post
Aliotroph? Posted May 31, 2013 That was true until the UAC set up gravity funnels to guide asteroids to cities. 0 Share this post Link to post
Quasar Posted May 31, 2013 Scet said:Usual fear mongering, the odds of anything from space hitting a city are incredible low. Most of the Earths surface is ocean or barren land. No they freely admit there's no chance of this hitting the earth. Any sensationalism is coming from the media. The term "city killer" is used to describe a class of meteorites that is below the threshold of "planet killer" or mass extinction event asteroids, for which our cataloging is significantly behind in terms of completion. They are called this based on the Megatonnage of the explosion that would be generated on collision, being sufficient to wipe out a metropolitan area, much like an air blast nuclear weapon. 0 Share this post Link to post
Bucket Posted May 31, 2013 It's my understanding that in the past few billion years, orbits have stabilized around the sun and most space debris has fallen together or escaped the system. The chance of anything large enough to destroy Earth being on a collision course is infinitesimal. 0 Share this post Link to post
Technician Posted May 31, 2013 Bucket said:The chance of anything large enough to destroy Earth being on a collision course is inevitable.Fixed. EDIT: Define "destroy earth." 0 Share this post Link to post
Remilia Scarlet Posted May 31, 2013 That's no moon. It's a space station. 0 Share this post Link to post
Aliotroph? Posted May 31, 2013 The chance is inevitable? That's the most awkward-sounding phrase I've seen all day. Anyway, the second part of your post is the relevant one. George Carlin applies here: the planet will be fine; we might be fucked, but the planet will be fine. 0 Share this post Link to post
Infirnex Posted May 31, 2013 Chances are that one day there WILL be an asteroid on a collision course to Earth. We are in a giant ass shooting gallery after all. So we either build a defense system, or move, or both. Preferably both. The asteroid should be a reminder if anything. 0 Share this post Link to post
Quast Posted May 31, 2013 Bucket said:It's my understanding that in the past few billion years, orbits have stabilized around the sun and most space debris has fallen together or escaped the system. The chance of anything large enough to destroy Earth being on a collision course is infinitesimal. ...Said one dinosaur to his friend. 65 million years is not a long time ago for earth or our solar system. But as far as orbits stabilizing, I don't know what to say. The asteroid belt contains millions of chunks of rock that only require a proper shove from jupiter and a ricochet here or there to careen into the inner solar system. And these are only the ones we can find so far. Seriously, it's a shooting gallery out there. 0 Share this post Link to post
NiTROACTiVE Posted May 31, 2013 Well that's interesting. An asteroid that has something following it. It really doesn't look like a moon from looking at the pictures, but we don't know for sure. yukib1t said:That's no moon. It's a space station. That just might be the case. 0 Share this post Link to post
188DarkRevived Posted June 1, 2013 Neat! Such a headline sounds almost like the synopsis of a storyline from a Sailor Moon episode. :) 0 Share this post Link to post
neubejiita Posted June 1, 2013 The freds have shifted Deimos through hyperspace to Earth. The happening begins. J U N 1 2 0 1 3 . 0 Share this post Link to post
Quasar Posted June 1, 2013 I believe that, unlike the definition of planet (the new one, at least), the definition of "moon" has no lower mass limit; rather, it's simply defined as an object gravitationally bound to a larger object in an orbit. If they were roughly the same size they'd only be called a binary asteroid system (which they can be called at any rate). Feel free to correct me if you know better though. 0 Share this post Link to post
GreyGhost Posted June 1, 2013 Technician said:EDIT: Define "destroy earth." How about - "any collision more destructive than the Theia impact". 0 Share this post Link to post