10-14-2006, 01:01 AM
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#2
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wins 10 internets
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: slightly to the left
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with it showing the Earth as a red planet at the end, kinda makes you wonder if something similar happened to Mars millions of years ago
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10-14-2006, 02:31 AM
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#3
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Lifetime Suspension
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda
with it showing the Earth as a red planet at the end, kinda makes you wonder if something similar happened to Mars millions of years ago
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Something like that has already happened to the earth.
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10-14-2006, 04:25 AM
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#4
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wins 10 internets
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: slightly to the left
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HOZ
Something like that has already happened to the earth.
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a meteor of that size? a rock that's a fraction of the size shown in that simulation would be enough to cause the mass extinctions that we know about. but something the size of a small moon hitting the Earth would wipe out all life on the planet, and i'm guessing could even throw off the orbit so that life couldn't return
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10-14-2006, 05:27 AM
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#5
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Powerplay Quarterback
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: SW Calgary
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That's one big meteor lol...I'm sure if one that big was coming our way we'd know a few years, or even tens of years in advance, but what could we do? Wait...I know..the Lifestream will save us! (Final Fantasy VII fans will get this  ).
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10-14-2006, 09:03 AM
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#6
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Lifetime Suspension
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda
a meteor of that size? a rock that's a fraction of the size shown in that simulation would be enough to cause the mass extinctions that we know about. but something the size of a small moon hitting the Earth would wipe out all life on the planet, and i'm guessing could even throw off the orbit so that life couldn't return
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Actually one theory has one hitting the Earth the the subsequent debri created the Moon
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10-14-2006, 09:15 AM
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#7
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Redundant Minister of Redundancy
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Montreal
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BlAcKNoVa
That's one big meteor lol...I'm sure if one that big was coming our way we'd know a few years, or even tens of years in advance, but what could we do? Wait...I know..the Lifestream will save us! (Final Fantasy VII fans will get this  ).
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Actually, most scientists predict that we'd have no advance warning if a meteor was to ever hit earth. There are literally millions of meteors floating around in space and its very hard to predict their path. The only way we currently have of knowing if a meteor was going to strike Earth is if someone just happened to be looking at one through a telescope; there is no system to track them.
And even assuming we did spot a meteor coming towards Earth, what would we do? Launch a nuke at it, a la Armageddon. All that would accomplish would be splitting the meteor into smaller meteors. Then the Earth would be pelted with several smaller, now radioactive, meteors.
In short, we'd be screwed.
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10-14-2006, 10:02 AM
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#8
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Farm Team Player
Join Date: Aug 2004
Exp: 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BlackEleven
Actually, most scientists predict that we'd have no advance warning if a meteor was to ever hit earth. There are literally millions of meteors floating around in space and its very hard to predict their path. The only way we currently have of knowing if a meteor was going to strike Earth is if someone just happened to be looking at one through a telescope; there is no system to track them.
And even assuming we did spot a meteor coming towards Earth, what would we do? Launch a nuke at it, a la Armageddon. All that would accomplish would be splitting the meteor into smaller meteors. Then the Earth would be pelted with several smaller, now radioactive, meteors.
In short, we'd be screwed.
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Actually we would just fly a small space craft in front of it and the space crafts gravity would cause a change in the path of the meteor.
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10-14-2006, 10:36 AM
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#10
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n00b!
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Slightly disturbing how chipper the host sounds while narrating...
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10-14-2006, 11:34 AM
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#12
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Lifetime Suspension
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BlackEleven
Actually, most scientists predict that we'd have no advance warning if a meteor was to ever hit earth. There are literally millions of meteors floating around in space and its very hard to predict their path. The only way we currently have of knowing if a meteor was going to strike Earth is if someone just happened to be looking at one through a telescope; there is no system to track them.
And even assuming we did spot a meteor coming towards Earth, what would we do? Launch a nuke at it, a la Armageddon. All that would accomplish would be splitting the meteor into smaller meteors. Then the Earth would be pelted with several smaller, now radioactive, meteors.
In short, we'd be screwed.
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Actually there is a Nasa Program that tracks these, can't remember the name of it now. And one this big would be relatively easy to spot and would have quite a few years warning simply because of the size of it. It's the smaller one's that are more menacing just because there are so many of them.
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10-14-2006, 11:38 AM
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#13
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Farm Team Player
Join Date: Aug 2004
Exp: 
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But at the same time, the small ones pose no real threat to our ecosystem and are therefore not worth fretting about. If they don't completely burn up in the atmosphere, they aren't large enough when they hit the ground to do any major damage. Might destroy a house if they hit one directly but that's about it. I'm talking up to the size of a small car.
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10-14-2006, 11:40 AM
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#14
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Lifetime Suspension
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fokakya
But at the same time, the small ones pose no real threat to our ecosystem and are therefore not worth fretting about. If they don't completely burn up in the atmosphere, they aren't large enough when they hit the ground to do any major damage. Might destroy a house if they hit one directly but that's about it. I'm talking up to the size of a small car.
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Oh, I was talking about a meteor from 1/2 to 1 km across. They think that was the size of the one that hit the yucatan peninsula and wiped out the dinosaurs.
The one in the video was hundreds of km's across.
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10-14-2006, 11:47 AM
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#15
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Farm Team Player
Join Date: Aug 2004
Exp: 
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Yeah, I can see us not seeing one 1km across until it was too late. It would be pretty catastrophic if one that size hit but humanity would easily survive it. If dumb, small, rodent-like mammals survived the last big one, us "smart" humans could easily. There would certainly be a high loss of life close to the impact zone though.
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10-14-2006, 02:21 PM
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#16
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#1 Goaltender
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Richmond, BC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BlackEleven
Actually, most scientists predict that we'd have no advance warning if a meteor was to ever hit earth.
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Believe me, we'd have a lot of advance warning if a rock the size of Pluto was coming at us.
__________________
"For thousands of years humans were oppressed - as some of us still are - by the notion that the universe is a marionette whose strings are pulled by a god or gods, unseen and inscrutable." - Carl Sagan
Freedom consonant with responsibility.
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10-14-2006, 02:42 PM
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#17
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Atomic Nerd
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Calgary
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Coolsurfer79
Actually we would just fly a small space craft in front of it and the space crafts gravity would cause a change in the path of the meteor.
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Gravity is dependant on mass. Hence "small" spacegraft will have comparatively zero gravity. If anything the giant asteroid will pull the spacecraft into it's own gravity well and crush it.
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10-14-2006, 02:59 PM
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#18
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Powerplay Quarterback
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Quote:
Originally Posted by White Doors
Actually there is a Nasa Program that tracks these, can't remember the name of it now. And one this big would be relatively easy to spot and would have quite a few years warning simply because of the size of it. It's the smaller one's that are more menacing just because there are so many of them.
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Even Nasa can't track all of the big ones or even most of them. At least thats what my Astronomy prof says.
Although this one looked to be the size of North America so maybe.
Edit: well just watched the video again... more like Australia.
Last edited by Jake; 10-14-2006 at 03:01 PM.
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10-14-2006, 03:44 PM
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#19
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#1 Goaltender
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Calgary
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Quote:
Originally Posted by White Doors
Actually there is a Nasa Program that tracks these, can't remember the name of it now. And one this big would be relatively easy to spot and would have quite a few years warning simply because of the size of it. It's the smaller one's that are more menacing just because there are so many of them.
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The program is Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT). It started up in 1995.
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10-14-2006, 05:08 PM
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#20
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#1 Goaltender
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BlackEleven
Actually, most scientists predict that we'd have no advance warning if a meteor was to ever hit earth. There are literally millions of meteors floating around in space and its very hard to predict their path. The only way we currently have of knowing if a meteor was going to strike Earth is if someone just happened to be looking at one through a telescope; there is no system to track them.
And even assuming we did spot a meteor coming towards Earth, what would we do? Launch a nuke at it, a la Armageddon. All that would accomplish would be splitting the meteor into smaller meteors. Then the Earth would be pelted with several smaller, now radioactive, meteors.
In short, we'd be screwed.
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There has been a theory that firing several nuclear weapons infront and to the side of the object over a period of time, might alter the projectiles trajectory and hopefully avoiding a collision.
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