'Doomsday' asteroid Apophis more massive than first thought Astronomers following the so-called doomsday asteroid Apophis, which will be whizzing past Earth on Thursday morning, have found the rock is much larger than had previously been assumed. Since the asteroid could hit Earth in 2036, that's a problem. The asteroid, named after an Egyptian god of chaos, darkness and destruction, …
If something that size hits the pacific then we pretty much are. It'll do a damn site more than "sandblast" the west coast of the US , the debris will wipe out the entire continent and will fuck up the world climate for decades. Certainly long enough to make sure there are worldwide crop failures and billions starving to death.
"It's not big enough."
You might want to check out what a purported 100 metre wide comet did to Tunguska. That was a 3rd the diamater and probably half the density so had about 1/50th the mass (using 4/3 * pi * r^3) of this asteroid yet it still produced a blast equivalent of 15 megatons. I don't know about you but potential 750 megaton blast sounds pretty bad news to me.
All the Tunguska blast did was knock over some trees and make a couple of pretty sunsets.
Yes, this impact would cause tidal waves and (bearing in mind the sensitive geological situation of west coast USA) probably earthquakes but it would be on a par with a big natural disaster, like a volcano erupting (bigger than Krakatoa but a long way off the sort of 'supervolcano' scenarios that would result in having to sacrifice Bruce Willis), so:
It's not big enough.
"All the Tunguska blast did was knock over some trees and make a couple of pretty sunsets."
It flattened 80 million trees down over an area covering 2,150 square kilometres (830 sq mi).
Something 10 times the size, impacting the Earth, rather than an airburst like the tunguska bolide, would certainly cause continental-level disaster, and would screw up the climate for a fair while.
> I don't know about you but potential 750 megaton blast sounds pretty bad news to me.
Not a planet killer though. The 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami was equivalent to 9320 gigatons of TNT or about 600 million times the energy of the Hiroshima bomb. Makes Apophis look like a firecracker.
Bullcrap breaking windows in Norway and Finland means a few other neighbors noticed. And you can be sure there is a decent chance the US took almost as good a pictures as the Russians did of it. I know Russian observer ships had a habit of showing up at almost all US tests including right under the space shots.
Not only a lot bigger than 10x the size, but hit in just the wrong place (shallow sea underlain by a lot of limestone) at just the wrong time (after a long period of heavy vulcanism had put paid to a lot of the large wildlife anyway)
land hits = bad
ocean hits = very bad
shallow sea hits = very very bad.
Apophis hitting would make a big mess and disrupt things badly, but it's not a civilisation-ender (unless the civilisation in question is directly under the strike zone), let alone a planet killer.
".....land hits = bad
ocean hits = very bad
shallow sea hits = very very bad...."
Has anyone looked at the chances of it hitting the Moon and playing a bit of inter-planetary billiards? A collison with the Moon could lead to much bigger problems for the Earth than a direct hit by Apophis alone.
"...... It'll do a damn site more than "sandblast" the west coast of the US , the debris will wipe out the entire continent and will fuck up the world climate for decades......" Cool, could you just repeat that a bit louder as I have a few spots left to sell in my bunker complex.....
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I'm a bit worried by this news. Bruce is going to be (say it quietly) really old by the time this monster comes to wreak Michael Bay style havoc on Hollywood.
So shouldn't we pop him in the freezer to keep him fresh for the inevitable (and entirely logical) drill-a-hole-an-bung-in-a-nuke shuttle mission that will save mankind to the sound of Aerosmith? A quick spell alongside the oven chips will also have the beneficial side effect of stopping him making movies.
You forgot the 15-blades razor!
One blade shaves you close!
The second shaves you closer still!
The third blade shaves you even closer!
The fourth blade makes sure the previous three were on the job.
The fifth blade shaves you even closer!
The sixth blade slices skin.
The seventh blade strips your flesh into ribbons.
The eighth blade flenses the flesh from your bones.
The ninth blade cleans your bones.
The tenth blade smooths and polishes your bones leaving you just a grinning skull.
The next five blades are just there because we love blades.
> Aren't you confusing Lucifer's Hammer with Inconstant Moon? It's the latter that features hot fudge sundaes.
Nope, you're wrong. Inconstant Moon is a novella about the Sun barfing at us and frying half the planet.
Lucifer's Hammer is about a comet that hits us and in the early part there's a scene where people are discussing the consistency of comets.
Does it? Ah. Well it's probably both then :)
For the record: Sundae on a Tuesdae.
'Scientists are drawn in for help on the network documentaries, and this leads to some black-comedic dialogue as some Jet Propulsion Laboratory people try to explain the possible effects of a collision:
"When the mass is above a certain size, it stops being important whether Earth has an atmosphere or not."
"Except to us," Forrester said, deadpan.
Sharps paused a second, then laughed ... "What we need is a good analogy. Um ..." Sharps' brow furrowed.
"Hot fudge sundae," said Forrester.
"Hah?"
Forrester's grin was wide through his beard. "A cubic mile of hot fudge sundae. Cometary speeds."''
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