Fact Sheet :: Asteroid Threat to Earth

Secure World Foundation (SWF) has released a new fact sheet: Protecting Earth from Near Earth Objects.

Credit: NASA/Don Davis

Since the discovery of the Chicxulub crater and its likely association with a mass extinction event — some 65million years ago — scientists have uncovered increasing evidence that celestial objects have a history of impacting the Earth and affecting its inhabitants.

Over the past decade a growing amount of research has begun to identify the types of objects that pose threats to Earth and potential mitigation strategies.

As a free service, SWF calls your attention to this new fact sheet that details:

• What are NEOs?
• Dealing with the threat
• Policy and legal issues

The fact sheet also includes footnotes for additional research and is available through the Secure World Foundation.

Where Not To Live

Long Story Short

We are all going to die, maybe, sort of . . . possibly not.

The report offer three  solutions . . .

• If the Asteroid is coming in slowly . . . we turn to Dr Ed Lu to push it away.
  • If the warning times are on the order of years or more, several constant thrust techniques could be used to gradually change the threatening objectâ’s orbit over time. For example, a gravitational tractor (conceived by physicist and former astronaut Dr. Ed Lu ) uses the gravitational attraction between an asteroid and a nearby spacecraft to â’towâ’ the asteroid into a different orbit. Go Ed Go!!!
• If the Asteroid is coming in fast . . . we go nuclear.  Wait, Wait, Wait!!  What happened to Dr Ed Lu’s idea?
  • Kinetic methods of deflection may be effective. These include repeated ramming the [Asteroid] with a series of projectiles or detonating a nuclear device close to the [Asteroid]. The detonation would cause surface material to  superheat and ablate away from the asteroid, thereby pushing it in the opposite direction. In a 2007 report NASA concluded that this  nuclear push option was the only currently feasible method, a conclusion that others refuted. (Not time to debate boys and girls — make a decision and make it good.  Why not send up Bruce Willis?)
• If the Asteroid is coming in way too fast . . . nothing. I repeat nothing.  Science will not do anything.
  • If there is no warning or deflection is not a possibility, then the only course of action is mitigation which involves disaster preparedness,  emergency response, and disaster recovery. Hopefully it will not land in the United States, because those who do survive will end up dying in FEMA trailers.

Note : All incoming Asteroids are not associated with any religion or affiliation. Basically praying will not help.  It might help being on your knees during impact, but not much else will help.  It will be luck of the draw.

Tags: asteroid, death, nuclear, science, world