"Space Rock"...

So I just turned on my MSN, Usually the things that pop up there in the "news" thingy dont really catch my attention ,but this did...

A fukken meteor almost hit earth...

I was like... hmm... "I didnt hear about it on the news..."

"..."

"Goddamn Government not telling us shit..."

apparently it was... "as big as a garage"...



Well since it was detected only 15 hours before it nearly hit earth I guess I shouldnt blame the Gvmt...

So what do yall think about that...?

Think a meteor 3X the size of Texas might hit us or be in a collision course with earth some day...?

That big an object will be detected thousands of miles away and the trajectory too can be estimated more accurately than small meteorites.

We should start making a meteorite destruction squad like Armageddon :P or atleast get some missiles or something ready~ Though if it's 3x the size of Texas i doubt anything can be done.

Yes. It has happened before, and it will happen again.

Well, 6km wide wiped out the dinosaurs, a texas sized one will wipe out life, except for those specifically preserved.
One sized 3 times texas... Well... That would rip STRAIGHT through Earth.

A Garage sized meteorite would probably cause the devastation of another 9/11* or so. (Yes, i am guessing on these, but they should be accurate guesses.)
*Just an example, to show how much would go boom.

And true, we should be putting thogether an AEC- (Anti earth collision ---- (= optional things like Organisation) for these things.

So far for my rant.

That would cause a lot of destruction.

And who cares about that small meteor it didn't hit earth so no big deal.

Though small meteorites hit the earth (or vaporizes in the atmosphere) quite often, much more often than you would think. One in the size of a garage wouldn't do much damage if it didn't fall flat on a city or something, but if it's the size of a garage outisde the atmosphere, it wouldn't be larger than a car when it reached the ground. Probably.

A garage sized meteor can create a crater whose size depends on factors like how fast the meteor is, from what angle did it come from, and where it struck. Because i'm no astronomer, I don't know how to calculate the stuff, but I know that a meteor the size of texas can pretty much make another hole in earth even bigger than the pacific ocean.

Though more probable, I don't wish for a meteor Armageddon. I find zombie apocalypse more appealing, no matter how low the odds are.

Most meteors are small in size. And we actually do have a lot of people discovering all the meteors out there to see which ones have potential to collide with the Earth.

Reminds me of that HUEG meteor I remember that's supposed to near the Earth at such a close distance that any miscalculation could mean it hits Earth somewhere between 2030 and 2050 (can't remember when).

If a pretty bad meter DID hit earth I think it'd be something like this...

Perhaps you mean Apophis?

Yeah, that's the one. I vaguely remember our geography teacher telling us 5 years ago.

Well a meteor size of a garage would probably be at least half it's size by the time it lands, But I've heard that some planets (including Earth) have some kind of gravitational field or something that repels meteors or objects that directly heads to the planet, thats why meteors and other large objects tend to curve towards another direction a lot. Although this picture doesn't represent it...so idk.. probably not?

It will happen again eventually, however we will have a better chance of survival than the dinosaurs because we can adapt more easily then they could. Unless one the size of our moon were to hit us, this survival is more or less thrown out the window.

Actually there's ALOT of meteors that is regularly on a close call encounter with Earth, and very plentiful of small meteors burn up in the atmosphere daily.

I won't be surprised to learn there's like 100 at least or more or less on a doomsday collision course with planet Earth.

We're doing pretty decent job at detecting meteors as they come considering that we barely have anything up in orbit of earth.

@Rbz: No, we have never been hit with an asteroid/comet 3 times the size of Texas.

Dudes, an asteroid 3 times the size of Texas would wipe out Earth in one huge explosion. The chicxulub located in the Yucatan Peninsula was created by an asteroid about the size of 10 kilometers or 6 miles, released about the energy equivalent of 100,000,000 MEGATONS of TNT. Our strongest weapon, the hydrogen bomb developed by the Soviets had an energy equivalent of 50 megatons of TNT.

The 100,000,000 megatons of TNT energy force was enough to wipe out the dinosaurs, blot out the sun, create massive earthquakes and tsumanis, and ushered in a "nuclear ice age". Something the size of Texas impacting Earth would be more than enough to destroy it, let alone 3 times the size of Texas. And this was a 6 mile-sized asteroid.

As for the other comments on meteors (more accurately described as meteorites when in and out through the atmosphere), they're generally correct. Most meteors are so small that they either get deflected by Earth's gravity well because of such small mass (and its own momemtum), or they burn up in the atmosphere into nothing.

On the other hand, once meteors enter the atmosphere and survive unscathed (obviously much much smaller size), the scale of destruction is bigger than most people think. A meteorite the size of a car would probably be enough to wipe out a couple of houses. A Meteorite the size of a garage would probably wipe out a block or two. A meteorite the size of a house or larger would probably wipe out many streets or blocks. A meteorite the size of a couple/many of houses or buildings is almost a guaranteed 1-hit KO on a city. Remember that once the meteor escapes the atmosphere, the gravity of the Earth will reaccelerate the velocity of the meteorite, causing it to do more damage than one might think.



The difference is either going out in a bang or in a whimper. Personally, the zombie apocalypse is so much cooler, but if I had to choose my death, I'd rather go out in a bang than have a zombie gnawing at my intestines while I'm dying or dead.

Tactical Orbital Laser Defense System anyone?

There's a good chance that a large meteorite will impact with the Earth eventually. However, I doubt that it would happen anytime soon and even if a large meteorite was on a collission course with the Earth I'm positive something would be done to try and minimize the destruction it is capable of causing.

I just don't see a meteorite as being Earth's destruction, it's a bit too lame.

Maybe the location of the Earth is very special...meteorite can destroy earth when Earth and the universe is younger and unstable.....

That was a very near hit. :O