Armageddon (Comet, Asteroid) Hitting Earts

[MrFoley]

I was watching Armageddon last night for the 9000th time and it got me wondering. If a comet or Asteroid was heading towards earth and was guaranteed to hit earth, how would it be dealt with?

I don't expect two shuttles to go up in to space and them land on it, drill through it and blow it up but I really can't think of any ways of protecting the earth from one hitting.

[MrFoley]

Hitting Earth**

[boxtops]

You should watch the repeats of Stargazing over the last 3 nights, on i-Player - they were talking about things like that on there.

[MrFoley]

I will check that out Boxtops, thank you :)

[Milvus]

There are observatories dedicated to look at that. There was a large hit possibility in 2036 but in the last couple of days they have said it will miss. We are having a couple of close passes right now. They are planning various ways of changing orbits of the objects, from explosives for the smaller ones to powered additions to change orbits for the larger ones. In the end it may just be a case of putting your head between you knees and kissing your a*** goodbye much like the dinosaurs

[MrFoley]

Milvus, great answer! was really interesting to read.

[Milvus]

The great thing Mr F is that we should see 2 or perhaps 3 comets this year (one returns) with naked eye. The late one (Nov - Dec) may be really bright.

[MrFoley]

Might invest in a really good telescope then!

[Milvus]

No need, you'll be able to see them direct like Hyakutkake in 96, which we could see with the naked eye for weeks. Binocs will improve it.

[mjwman]

If it were a comet I guess they would call in administrators to deal with it!

[fineart]

Whilst I agree with Milvus's reply, planet Earth has many more nearer to home catrosphies to worry about and will happen before we get hit again by a life threating Asteroid and that's aside from earthquakes and so on.

The one that comes to mind and is so overdue is Yellowstone.

Next, well there is that Volcano that's likely to slip in to Atlantic or is it the Pacific?, when that happens that will cause more then a few wet ankles.

At the moment we don't have the technology to blow up safely or shift a giant killer asteroid or meteorite out of a direct hit path to our planet, assuming of course we could see the damn thing early enough to do something about it.

More of a question, last time around, could the dinosaurs have really kissed their a*** good bye?

[jno]

why not?

http://dinosaurpalaeo.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/kiss.jpg

And some dinosaurs had long necks

[DTCwordfan]

Jellystone is still 350000 years away from the caldera being full.....

there is a major difference of opinion to the slippage of the headland in the Canaries (the Cumbre Vieja) where volcanic activity could be the trigger to a megatsunami. The last one we had was the Gibraltar Fault which wiped out Lisbon and had a 10ft tsunami here in Cornwall and Ireland, knocking down part of the city walls of Galway. British Columbia has a candidate too.....

[fineart]

[quote] why not?

http://dinosaurpalaeo.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/kiss.jpg

And some dinosaurs had long necks. [/quote]

Be fair jno the above is more of a sideways slurp instead of a kiss a***.

And while yours and mine aren't dinosaurs don't Girrafes have long necks?

Now find me a Croc'----

[fineart]

But geologically Yellowstone is overdue.

That's interesting, which canididate?