6equ35

[6EQUJ5]

I think that the asteroid 65 / 66 million years ago went into shallow sea water near to land.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater

I will not be following the current asteroid. I believe that although it will pass through the orbital path of various satellites, with a bit of luck it will not hit any of them.

In the extremely unlikely event of our calculations being wrong and it hitting Earth it would probably hit land that is unpopulated or hit the sea. We believe that parts of the Earth are crowded but there are vast deserts and polar regions that are unpopulated. 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by water. This asteroid is also too small to do serious damage.

[6EQUJ5]

There are massive asteroids out there of course but if one did come our way,say 5 miles across,could we actually do anything about it or do NASA keep quite and get pissed up waiting for the bang,it seems a bit of waste of time taking notes and observations under the circumstances

It may be that this asteroid was below the size that NASA would deem to be dangerous, their searches being for bigger asteroids. Last year they picked out an asteroid that would not arrive anywhere near Earth at all and was a 5 year journey away. They sent an unmanned craft to deflect it as an experiment. It worked. I think that they just attached rockets to it and fired them up.

Most thought on this seems to be about deflecting an asteroid up or down, left or right. But I have another thought. If an asteroid is going to hit Earth in 5 years and do serious damage, why not either slow it down or speed it up. Think of it, the calculation is that the asteroid is moving in a straight line towards where Earth will be in its orbit around the Sun in 5 years time. Simply slow the asteroid down so that it arrives too late to hit Earth or speed it up so that it arrives too early at that point in the Earth's orbit before Earth has arrived there. Put rockets on its front firing it backwards or put rockets on its rear firing forwards.

If we detect that an asteroid is going to hit Earth, then the sooner that we detect it the better. The further away that it is when we can detect it the less force it will take to alter its progress such that it misses Earth.

[Chauncey]

Simply slow the asteroid down so that it arrives too late to hit Earth or speed it up so that it arrives too early at that point in the Earth's orbit before Earth has arrived there. Put rockets on its front firing it backwards or put rockets on its rear firing forwards.

I've a feeling that it's not going to be as easy as you say 6EQ,did you think of this late one night in the pub written on the back of a fag packet? 🤔

Apart from attaching the rockets just how big would they have to be to work,who's going up to do the job and what rates of pay are they on? How long would it take to build the rockets and would the Russians want a piece of the action?

[6EQUJ5]

Well the Yanks at NASA did it last year using an unmanned craft which attached rockets to an asteroid and changed its course. The further out there that it is the lesser the deflection would need to be. If it was estimated to be 5 years away then an unmanned craft would be able to attach the rockets and it would need only the most subtle of deflections to change its course to make it miss Earth. The technology exists now and has worked on an asteroid that would not have hit Earth. It was a test of the technology.

We would hope that in the event of a really serious case the Yanks, Russians, the European Space Agency, the Indians and the Chinese would co-operate. They all have space craft, indeed it is by no means certain what nationality will be the first person to set foot on Mars.

Yes the Yanks changed the direction of an asteroid last year though they did not try to either slow it down or speed it up. But surely that is just a variation on a theme.

[Chauncey]

I've got to say that I always find your posts very interesting 6EQ,you sound very knowledgeable about space and when explaining things don't get to technical,thanks for your views,it's appreciated

[yoonited]

2.200; miles!

Why the chuff did you tell me that!

That's practically skipping over the roof tops in space terms,I'm hiding under the bed this weekend

With a bit of luck it'll just miss us by a fanny hair, if not we'll be plunging into an abhorrent, deep, dark abyss, which is precisely what happens when you probe through fanny hairs.

[Chauncey]

With a bit of luck it'll just miss us by a fanny hair, if not we'll be plunging into an abhorrent, deep, dark abyss, which is precisely what happens when you probe through fanny hairs.

Hmmm,I'm not sure that 6EQ would have explained it in quite that way younited and to be honest it's not put my mind as ease

[6EQUJ5]

It was / is a third of the size of the smallest example in this table. It would have burned up in the Earth's atmosphere, so it posed no danger whatsoever, not getting to the surface of Earth.

[Chauncey]

See yoonited,see!

This is what the public wants in its explanations and not comparing it to a ladies nether regions

Thanks 6EQ

[griff]

public here, did someone call? I prefer the nether regions, thanks for asking.