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Scientists call for plans to change course of Asteroid Heading toward Earth

guardian.co.uk — It's called Apophis. It's 390m wide. And it could hit Earth in 31 years time. Scientists are imploring governments to decide on a strategy for dealing with it.

Who dugg this? Made popular Dec 7, 2005

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  • FunHeadlines, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8How various well-known individuals will deal with the impending asteroid:

    Right-wing Christian fundamentalist: We can pray this away, and if not, it's because of YOU, you sinner!

    Bush: The jury is still out on this asteroid theory. It's not valid science.

    Rice: The United States does not believe in asteroids, and does not condone any studies of them.

    New York Times: Third world trembles at asteroid threat.

    Digg reader: Old news! No digg!
  • egbert, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Impact Probability: 1.8e-04
    0.018% chance of Earth impact
    99.982% chance the asteroid will miss the Earth
    1 in 5,560 chance
  • Tresmer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis
  • distrbnce, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Holy crap here it comes!

    Seriously though, I think by 2039 the singularity will have hit. We'll be able to handle it.
  • nightscrawler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Odds that AN asteroid will hit the earth and cause mass extinction (perhaps not this one):

    100%

    What say we make Aphophis a dry run/test case? Maybe we can accelerate the Singularity in the bargain, or at least develop transport in case we have to flee earth when machine intelligence goes online and begins iteratively bootstrapping itself into a weakly godlike power. What, haven't you read Accelerando by Charles Stross? :-)
  • miscoco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Cue W's announcement on our new "War on Asteroidic Extremism" in 3...2...1...
  • lbermude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"People are understandably reluctant to take food out of anyone's mouth for efforts to visit distant rocks and gas which won't pay off for a hundred years."

    I seriously think now that is not food related:
    "Iraq war costs US $6bn a month"
    http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1846173,00.html
  • jc265, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2*in a jar jar binks voice* We sa gonna die!
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Just tell George there is a terrorist on the asteroid, oh yeah and a bit of oil. He'll send the military in and their blow it up trying to save it!
  • ksgant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Who will save the Earth?

    I WILL! I spent my youth in arcades playing Asteroids until my fingers bled. In 31 years they will call me back, to a specially made weapon interface and heads-up display.

    And yes, I always got the little saucer that ran across the top, don't worry, I can do this!
  • Lostcosmos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Impact Effects:

    Final Crater Diameter: 4.64 km = 2.88 miles
    Final Crater Depth: 0.47 km = 0.292 miles

    The fireball appears 404 times larger than the sun
    Thermal Exposure: 6.68 x 108 Joules/m2
    Duration of Irradiation: 46.1 seconds

    http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~marcus/cgi-bin/crater.cgi?dist=2&diam=390&pdens=1500&pdens_select=0&vel=17&theta=45&tdens=2500&tdens_select=0
  • Choppinski, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1How about redirecting it to hit the Middle East. All our problems would be solved.
  • Vektuz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I bet we get scam phishing emails because of this.
    "PLEASE RUN THE ATTACHMENT TO HELP DEFLECT THE ASTEROID"
  • Dexity, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Apophis was the ancient spirit of evil and destruction, a demon that was determined to plunge the world into eternal darkness.

    Now why the hell would someone name an asteroid that. Why cant they name it cotton candy. Cotton Candy never did anything evil and its what strippers smell like, so it must be good.
  • LoKi128, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Lets keep this in perspective:
    http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/a99942.html
    99.982% chance the asteroid will miss the Earth
  • Shen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Why does the link remind me of this: http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1506073
  • CableCarrier, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1OUENDAAAAAN!
  • exoendo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's also got the christian rapture and the end of the mayan long count to go through ;)
  • Chango_Family, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Screw Baldy Willis, we need Jack O'Neill.

    I knew that damn Go'auld Apophis would never stay dead long enough.


  • TVarmy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If it sideswipes Asia, that anti-everyone Topeka minister (see godhatesgays.com ) will go on and on about how God killed Thailand in a glorious act of justice. Then, a week later due to gravity and orbits, it will hit the western hemisphere and as he burns to death, he will type "The man upstairs finally got America."

    He did the same thing durring the tsunami, and I have not checked his site about Katrina. But I bet he said that was glorious, too.
  • kiteflyer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1
    Here is a test, God gives someone a red button that can only be pressed once.

    If he presses it, there is a one 1 in 6000 chance everyone on the planet . He can be bought off for the right price. How high would the world go before they decide the cost is too high?
  • FAT_PIGGY, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1lol christian rapture. what is every one christian now ?
  • kludwig, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Didn't SG-1 take care of Apophis already?
  • mrgomel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"with an estimated impact-probability of 1 in 5,560"

    That means that out of every 5,560 alternate reality Earths, one gets hit. Do you want to live in the wrong parallel universe?

    The solution is obvious.

    I shall start immediate construction of a transdimensional quantum gateway so we can *slide* into safety.
  • stonebear, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Meh.

    The space industry is constantly seeking reasons to justify diverting money from more practical, down to earth endeavors. Fear has always been a good motivator; look at all the mileage they milked out of cold war terror! The public supported them unconditionally as they "beat the Soviets to the moon."

    The president's Star Wars program has garnered only moderate support, as has the international space station, manned trips to mars, or a return to the moon. People think they are a good idea in a theoretical sense, but they show little apparent short to intermediate term benefits which would make funding them popular. People are understandably reluctant to take food out of anyone's mouth for efforts to visit distant rocks and gas which won't pay off for a hundred years.

    Besides the fact that anything we plan today will be made pointless by obsoletion sooner than 30 years from now, changing the course of the asteroid, like most else to do with extraterrestrial gas and rocks, is a long shot that people are just not going to care much about.
  • brianegge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If the asteroid doesn't kill us, the 2038 bug will. http://www.2038bug.com/ Maybe scientist should urge governments to fix this bug!
  • raotheconqueror, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Dude! its like that cool flash game with the asteroids circling the planets until their gravitational forces pull em in.
  • NJerseyGuy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The fact is that a 0.01% chance of this hitting earth is still a significant concern. Considering that the world economy is of the order 40 trillion dollars, it would be very reasonable to invest a billion in a program that could avert an impact causing more damage than an atomic bomb.
  • lowgas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0in 31 years, china will take care it for us.... and everything else.
  • AuAndCs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Meh, no one will be here if it hits. The world ends December 22nd, 2012. :P
  • Web_Weasel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Since the odds are 100% that something big from space will eventually hit Earth it's not a bad idea to learn how to deflect them.
    That is unless we screw up and deflect it towards us.
  • LeeVal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0i find this hard to belive just think how long the earth had been going without a hit
  • lem0ns43, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Somebody get the frickin' laser...
  • vostek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Finally, we can find a use for those 1000s of tons of nuclear weapons that can acutally save humanity instead obliterate it.
  • Lynxpro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0
    Or we could send He-Man up to move the asteroid. I saw him move a planet on the old cartoon once. No big whup.
  • yoops, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0A Goa'uld cargo ship + SG-1 + Naquadah bomb problem solved
  • jlgosse, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"However, a NEO larger than 1km [wide] will collide with Earth every few hundred thousand years and a NEO larger than 6km, which could cause mass extinction, will collide with Earth every hundred million years. We are overdue for a big one."

    I find that ***** hilarious. They talk about how it must be bigger than 6km to cause mass extinction, but this one is 390 METERS.

    Wow, real scared now, SERIOUSLY. I will just put a matress on my bathtub and wait it out.
  • Abatrour, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I would hate to die 2 days after my birthday :P
  • Sell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Has anyone tried yelling at the asteroid? That usually works for me.
  • LittleOni, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'll be 68 by then, I'll have had a good run.
  • bhauth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0We should capture it to high earth orbit.
  • muikano, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Regardless of whether this article is genuine or not, space aeronautics is a field that every Advanced country to explore. Asteroid deflection and Space colonization technology go hand in hand.

    America's stupid war with Iraq could have funded the space program twice over.
  • Sunking, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0so funny yet so true dupswapdrop
  • Philotic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The chance of Apophis passing through the keyhole, a 600-metre patch of space, is 1 in 5,500 based on current information.
  • Halovixen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Wow. That is the first that i have heard of the asteroid. I at first reading the blog i was skeptical, then i read the article and was surprised. I cant believe that the earth may throw the asteroid on a collision coarse for itself on the way back around. Let's hope that NASA can come through and devise a great idea that will save the eastern countries.
  • goldthroat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Dam! Just when I was getting comfortable.
  • gmikej, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Chuck Norris round house?

    Bah!

    Now Sam Becket's round house was vast superior.
    (Scott Bakula > Chuck Norris)
  • dr00d, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0yippy ki yay mother *****
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I say let it hit. It'll be one lesson we won't bounce back from. ;) Die, humans, die!
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