a Potentially Devastatinga Asteroid Approaching Earth for 2036

[just an allusion]

As an addendum to my previous comments regarding potential solutions to deferring an asteroid impact...Inasmuch as it does appear that we do not currently possess the technology required to construct a weapon capable of generating a sustained and directional magnetically repulsive force, the next best solution left to us that is within our conventional technological grasp is the "concussive force" detonations that I earlier mentioned.

Fashioning a "daisy chain" of concussive force missiles targeted at the trajectory, NOT the asteroid itself, of the targets intended flight path, detonated either by pre-programed timer, proximity detection, or both, that detonate in succession in the front of an incoming asteroid could potentially serve to slow, deter, or even halt the progress of the asteroid without fragmenting it, which is the best possible outcome.

In physics the question asked is "what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?", with the inevitable answer being complete annihilation of both, which is why this outcome must be avoided at all costs.

Detonating a chain of explosions in the path of an asteroid would best serve to deter it's progress, if not halt it altogether, and avoid the indeterminable hazard of fragmenting it, subjecting us to a multitude of missile-like shards of varying size that would be neigh on impossible to guard against.

Said yield and number of missiles required could easily be extrapolated based on the size & potential mass (the MAIN factor) of the incoming object times(x) the explosive yield of a given payload, which could be increased in sequence to exact the necessary outcome, i.e., halting the objects progress without multiplying the threat...Or at least that's what I came up with the more I scratched my head over it.

[JourneyJerker]

"Prepare yourself
You know it's a must
Gotta have a friend in Jesus"
-- Norman Greenbaum

[Glorious Estefan]

2036 is far enough out that I really don't care. Three decades is plenty of time to devise a plan for preventing total annihilation. Methinks it will involved nuclear missiles.

[_Space1]

Glorious Estefan wrote:

2036 is far enough out that I really don't care. Three decades is plenty of time to devise a plan for preventing total annihilation. Methinks it will involved nuclear missiles.

The experts are thinking to launch the missiles to steer away the asteroid from Earth.

[litesong]

Sabrina wrote:

it happend (sic) before and it will happen again

Other people are named Sabrina. It is nice to know different Sabrinas.

Different asteroids have collided with Earth. It is nice to know different asteroidal orbits.

[litesong]

_Space1 wrote:
An asteroid killed the dinosaurs in this planet in the past. Their fossils are the living proofs that it is possible to happen. There were asteroids that hit Jupiter few years ago. I don't see why there are still people who are skeptical on what's coming.
==========
naman wrote:
It did. But that was 64 million years ago - such things does not happen exactly once a day.
==========
litesong wrote:
It has been theorized that Jupiter is so massive ( 330+times the mass of the Earth), that it has acted like a vacuum cleaner. Clearing the solar system of meteors & asteroids, the Earth is now considered to be 1000 times safer than the Earth was in the early periods of the existence of the solar system.

Yes, collisions between large solar orbiting objects don't happen every day. I do testify, I telescopically saw the fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levi 9 plow into Jupiter in 1994....15 years ago, NOT 64 million years ago. But Earth is 1000 times safer....safer.....safer......

[_Space1]

If it is safer how come there is an asteroid headed our way?

[Glasnos]

amazing how so many are obsessing over a possible asteroid strike. We have a lot more plausible disasters to consider.
Why is no one talking about the earth's magnetic field? It has weakened 10% the last 100 years ... but more importantly, our magnetic north pole is moving significantly in the last 20-30 years. Why?
We have also seen an increase in earthquakes and volcanic activity recently.(earth's magnetic field is linked directly to earth's magma core)
The last major asteroid strike is millions of years ago ... the last pole shift? 75,000 yrs ago.
Einstein predicted we are nearing a pole shift.
Pole shift is a possible explanation for mammoths found frozen with grass still unchewed in their mouths.
Pole shift .... far mare likely than an asteroid strike.

[litesong]

_Space1 wrote:

If it is safer how come there is an asteroid headed our way?

I meant my three repeated 'safer' words to be interpreted as a computer voice in a repeating error mode.

[Mustaches Wild]

I bet Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Steve Buscemi and Owen Wilson have some advice on the matter.

[just an allusion]

Mustaches Wild wrote:

I bet Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Steve Buscemi and Owen Wilson have some advice on the matter.

No effing Hollywood actor is gonna know jack shit about methods for diverting an impending asteroid...All that they are going to know is how to 'act' like they know.

[just an allusion]

litesong wrote:

<quoted text>
I meant my three repeated 'safer' words to be interpreted as a computer voice in a repeating error mode.

Try, though hard that it may be for you, to avoid the temptation to toy with her ("_Space1") as she is truly concerned over the prospect of an asteroid impact.

[just an allusion]

To conclude my clarification the unlikelihood of Lake Okeechobee being a crater formed by an asteroid strike limestone, which is the basin of the lake, is an inherently 'soft' rock when it comes to rock compositional consistency or hardness, as it were.

If an asteroid had of stuck in the Lake Okeechobee area, there wouldn't be a 'lake' there as the limestone would have been pulverized into dust.

Instead, the Florida peninsula would have been segmented into more islands as there would have been a separation of northern Florida from that of southern Florida defined by the ocean intersecting the two.

Here is a link that is more informative on limestone composition, as well as it's inherently indigenous locales:

http://geology.com/rocks/limestone.shtml

FWIW, Lake Okeechobee would make an excellent wading pool (I understand that subsequent damming has lowered it's primary level to only 9 feet in depth), that is, but for the gators and snakes....

[just an allusion]

Glasnos wrote:

amazing how so many are obsessing over a possible asteroid strike. We have a lot more plausible disasters to consider.

Inasmuch as the Earth has been struck by asteroids on several occasions, with cataclysmic results a number of times, anyone would have to conclude (not to belittle the potential for other cataclysmic disasters to befall us) that the likelihood of such an occurrence is VERY "plausible" and THAT is the subject of this thread.

[just an allusion]

_Space1 wrote:

It's coming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch...

Damn...I've only just now bothered to watch the video (boy, do I have egg on my face), but it's at least good to know that I'm reaching much the same conclusions as the NASA astrophysicists for potential candidates for a solution.

I have to say that I find the idea of using a "satellite" to alter the course of an incoming asteroid interesting, though questionable, as the satellite will have to be of a mass capable of exerting an influence on an object likely several times it's mass (think David and Goliath) and traveling at several thousands upon thousands of miles a minute.

This possibility poses several issues, not the least of which being the ability to power a rocket with enough thrust to enable a satellite of such mass to escape the pull of the Earth's gravity and enter space, then there's powering it to the vicinity of the asteroid (which really isn't much of an issue given the none existent inertia and gravity of space) only to somehow halt it's progress upon arrival to await the arrival of the asteroid upon which it's desire is to exert it's influence, that is, unless the NASA physicists were just planning on the satellite doing a 'fly by' of the asteroid and exacting whatever influence the pass would accomplish, which would likely be minute given the varying logistics involved.

However, if a satellite were devised and constructed that was capable of exerting an immense magnetic force, that is, an immense DIAMAGNETIC force (as the intent would be to REPEL the asteroid and not necessarily draw it to the satellite or, as would likely be the case, cause the satellite to be drawn to the asteroid whereat it would crash upon impact and be destroyed), it's actual physical size would be negligible and that would serve to circumvent the handicap posed by excessive mass.

This possibility brings us to the question of how to generate a powerful enough DIAmagnetic field of a size capable of exerting influence on an object several times it's mass (this is where the asteroid's "composition" comes into play), as well as the accompanying logistics that would be involved in such a feat.

<cont. below>

[just an allusion]

<cont.>

One very viable possibility is a flywheel-powered generator. If it were constructed of material compositions that were capable of generating, say, an electromagnet field (albeit a dia-electromagnetic field), then it could serve the twofold purpose of both powering the satellite's propulsion and generating the necessary repulsive field of sufficient strength and intensity, both very realistic/achievable goals given that we'd be able to readily circumvent a number of the laws governing thermodynamics in both the design and, in particular, in implementing/actuating it in the vacuum of space.

It would also be necessary to remotely switch the generated field on and off, or perhaps even increase it's strength or intensity, so as to prevent it from becoming of a strength and operational duration capable of exerting it's influence on other extraterrestrial objects/planetary bodies within it's vicinity that could potentially disrupt the gravitational stability of the surrounding Cosmos...Think about it.

I mean, we currently have a twenty to thirty second, one way, communication time lag between the Earth and the International Space Station (ISS) and an eight to twenty minute lag between the Earth and Mars, so it would be necessary to extrapolate the amount of time required to both send and receive signals from the Earth to the satellite that would conditionally have to be positioned far enough outside of our Solar System's elliptical sphere of influence so as to not effect our terrestrial and extraterrestrial planetary alignment's stability, as well as calculate the cumulative yield of the satellite's gravitational/magnetic force over elapsed time so as to know just how long is required for it to reach the desired yield strength, as well as to shut it off once it had accomplished it's goal (diverting or halting altogether the progress of the incoming asteroid).

Essentially, what we're talking about here is engineering, deploying and operating a relativistic 'sinkhole', a trap, a mechanical "gravity well", that we'll use to alter the course of, or perhaps even snag, an asteroid from it's intended trajectory.

Hmm, now why am I thinking of banana splits, I wonder Dede?

[Sol]

just an allusion wrote:

...we currently have a twenty to thirty second, one way, communication time lag between the Earth and the International Space Station (ISS)...

WTF? Prove it.
The MOON isn't even a three second round-trip!

[just candid]

Glasnos wrote:

amazing how so many are obsessing over a possible asteroid strike. We have a lot more plausible disasters to consider.
Why is no one talking about the earth's magnetic field? It has weakened 10% the last 100 years ... but more importantly, our magnetic north pole is moving significantly in the last 20-30 years. Why?
We have also seen an increase in earthquakes and volcanic activity recently.(earth's magnetic field is linked directly to earth's magma core)
The last major asteroid strike is millions of years ago ... the last pole shift? 75,000 yrs ago.
Einstein predicted we are nearing a pole shift.
Pole shift is a possible explanation for mammoths found frozen with grass still unchewed in their mouths.
Pole shift .... far mare likely than an asteroid strike.

Now we're talkig! Pole shifting is something we can understand & enjoy. Maybewe will get to see and enjoy it ourselves.

[just an allusion]

Sol wrote:

<quoted text>WTF? Prove it.
The MOON isn't even a three second round-trip!

Lol...Just making sure that you (or 'anyone') were paying attention and following the conversation as it covers what could be considered some fairly heady material.

As it were, my misstatement of the Earth to ISS communication time lag is a rhetorical device I employ to both insure the reader's attention, and to serve to emphasize the importance of a particular aspect of the concept/idea/theory that I am attempting to convey (as the calculation of the exact time of initiation and operational duration of the device's mechanism, as well as it's culmination of yield strength over elapsed time, are EXTREMELY important to the stability of our Solar System), so I'm glad that you're paying attention.

There is up to only about a second of communication time lag between the Earth and the ISS due to it's relative proximity to the Earth and the inherent absence of potential interference from undefined cosmological phenomena due to such proximity as radio and microwave frequency signals propagate at almost the speed of light in space, however already in the range of long distance manned missions, several minutes of latency can be experienced.

For example, planet Mars' orbit is approximately 56,000,000 km to 399,000,000 km from Earth, which means a 6.5 to 44 minutes of delay in transmission.

In addition, for about two weeks every "synodic period" (the time a body in the solar system takes to orbit another body once and return to the same orbital relationship), when the Sun is in between Earth and Mars, direct communication can be blocked.

For our purposes, we'll require the calculation of the lag over an exponentially increased distance far farther than that of our farthest planetary body in our Solar System inclusive of any potential spacial disturbances or interference.

This page contains a complete listing of the communication time lags that we're currently aware of between the Earth and the other planetary bodies or conglomerations both in and beyond our Solar System for reference:

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/astronom...

BTW, thank you for asking.

[Jedi mind tricks]

this is only an illusion...you will not see anything...go young Skywalker.