when will the world end?

[lushrhian]

is there ever going to be a day where the world ends? or is it going to keep going. But how can it when there is so much pollution?

[a7x]

The sun is about half way through it's life now so we've got a long way to go yet.

[mibn2cweus]

In the interim pollution will diminish the population of the polluters until an equilibrium is established between the pollution they cause and the deaths that result from their polluting.

[lushrhian]

thats amazing so the world does actually HAVE to end?

[crete]

monday at 5 45 pm i heard

[theprof]

I've read this week in The Daily Telegraph about the danger we are facing from the comet Apophis in 2036.

It seems that there is every likelyhood that at least a part of the comet will collide with Earth in May 2036.

According to the newspaper, scientists are looking fo suggestions from their fellow scientists and laymen about what can be done to avert the risk during the next thirty years.

It was all news to me until I checked on the internet, where there are many references to the potential collision.

So I think that if minimise further conflict in the world, we might well make it to 2036 but not beyond that!

[reinganum]

The interesting thing in the Telegraph article is that the predicted date for the "encounter" with Apophis in 2036 will be Easter Day. Now if anyone else can think of a more appropriate day for the Second Coming....

[Rufio]

Noooo way, really?

[kuhugaq]

It's a healthy thing to think of the place of Earth among the other planets, and its place in the sun. The sun gave life and ultimately it will bring death."

[theprof]

its true Rufio

[mibn2cweus]

I propose that people who predict the end of the World get marmite squirted into their ears the day after the date of their predictions. I'll help you hold them down bernardo.

[theprof]

Yummee. I love Marmite. I'll ring the editor of The Telegraph and he and his reporter can come along to the big squirt-in.

[Roden]

What is the exact date they predict then??

[Clanad]

Except... it's not a comet, but an asteroid...
From Space.com,Ask an Astronomer...Apophis was discovered last year and is named after a snakelike Egyptian god of darkness and chaos. The name is appropriate. For a brief period of time last winter, scientists had given Apophis, then known as 2004 MN4, a 1-in-40 chance of colliding with Earth in 2029.

Contd.

[Clanad]

Contd.


Additional observations ruled out the 2029 impact, and scientists now predict there is about a 1-in-10,000 chance that the asteroid will hit Earth in 2036, on yet another of its trips around the Sun on a course that crosses the orbit of Earth.

Contd>

[Clanad]

Last: (Forgot, weekend posts won't work when long...)

A large part of the uncertainty surrounding Apophis' movements is due something called the Yarkovsky Effect. When rotating bodies like asteroids pass through our solar system, they absorb solar radiation from the Sun that they then re-radiate.

The miniscule but persistent pressure from this re-radiation can cause a rock to speed up or slow down and change its flight path....

[theprof]

Yes, you are right Clanad. I've checked the DT article again and they did state that Apophis was an asteroid. I got confused with a webpage I looked at a little later referring to a comet impact in May 2006.

Details here:

http://neverknwo.gnn.tv/blogs/14534/Former_Mil itary_Air_Traffic_Controller_Claims_Comet_Coll ision_with_Earth_on_May_25_2006

I wonder what happened.

There some interesting stuff on the 2036 asteroid here:

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/features/archive /news/2005/11/20051106p2g00m0fe006000c.html

[dawkins]

but the chances of apophis hitting earth are very small and at 300 meters in diameter it is too small to cause a global catastrophe even if it did hit.

D