Human extinction by 2036!?

[MidGe]

We will have Apophis (http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/9660/1066/) to thank for it.

It seems that the treat is taken seriously enough!

[yukoncpa]

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We will have Apophis to thank for it.

It seems that the treat is taken seriously enough

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Hiya Midge,
Well I'm glad to see that scientists can spot these meteors so early. I always thought that with the huge volume of meteors out there that such a task would be very difficult.

[purnell]

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The first on Friday April 13 2029 will see the asteroid pass within an uncomfortable 30,000 kilometers. However, it is the second pass seven years later that have scientists worried. They're not sure whether the first pass will see Earth's gravity drag Apophis into a direct impact trajectory in 2036.



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...so even if we don't completely destroy ourselves with WMDs or environmental poisoning, nature is standing by, ready to finish the job. Nice.

[whiskeytown]

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We will have Apophis (http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/9660/1066/) to thank for it.

It seems that the treat is taken seriously enough!

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inneresting - would like to see if it really happens or if it's just an excuse to dump billions into more military programs - they were putting out estimates that it'd hit us in 2004 to something as low as 1 in 50 - which in astronomical terms, is as close as you'd ever see it get - it got revised several times and now I think we're looking at 1/45000 according to info posted online

wonder if I'll be around by then? - I'd always assumed I'd be killed as an enemy of the state by then /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Know what scares the hell out of me though? -- massive colonies of Honeybees dying off mysteriously for no reason - you lose those, and you've lost humanity in about 3 years, they figure - growers have resorted to having to cart in hives of bees from all over to get the pollenation done -

rb

[DCopper04]

I'll bet anyone my entire bankroll that we're still here in 2036.

[alphatmw]

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I'll bet anyone my entire bankroll that we're still here in 2036.

[/ QUOTE ]so i can choose between dying in 2036 or living and being broke? hmmmmm PM me for details plz.

[FortunaMaximus]

Never bring a pebble to a rock fight.

250m rock small? Yeah, start worrying when Phobos makes a beeline for us then.

Shotgun on the first slow boat to the Oorts, please.

Eh. Whether it's this rock or one later on, it happens. I found Y2K fearmongering hilarious. Betting with 30 more years I'll be mildly amused in '36.

Assuming I don't meet Orpheus' fate by then.

[DCopper04]

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I'll bet anyone my entire bankroll that we're still here in 2036.

[/ QUOTE ]so i can choose between dying in 2036 or living and being broke? hmmmmm PM me for details plz.

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This is the first time I can say I've actually "leveled" someone on this forum.

[MidGe]

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I'll bet anyone my entire bankroll that we're still here in 2036.

[/ QUOTE ]so i can choose between dying in 2036 or living and being broke? hmmmmm PM me for details plz.

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This is the first time I can say I've actually "leveled" someone on this forum.

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Yep, it looks like a loose-loose position for you /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[chezlaw]

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Another suggestion, is to deflect the asteroid's course using the weak gravitational field of a spacecraft hovering nearby.

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Sounds like a must see movie, maybe I can star as the gravitational mass.

chez

[Combusted]

This would be a really cool way to die.

[SitNHit]

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We will have Apophis (http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/9660/1066/) to thank for it.

It seems that the treat is taken seriously enough!

[/ QUOTE ]

inneresting - would like to see if it really happens or if it's just an excuse to dump billions into more military programs - they were putting out estimates that it'd hit us in 2004 to something as low as 1 in 50 - which in astronomical terms, is as close as you'd ever see it get - it got revised several times and now I think we're looking at 1/45000 according to info posted online

wonder if I'll be around by then? - I'd always assumed I'd be killed as an enemy of the state by then /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Know what scares the hell out of me though? -- massive colonies of Honeybees dying off mysteriously for no reason - you lose those, and you've lost humanity in about 3 years, they figure - growers have resorted to having to cart in hives of bees from all over to get the pollenation done -

rb

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Why would a Bee extinction end humanity? Just curious as I can't remember the last time I had something that contained honey? Is polin some source of medicine? Thx.......

[malorum]

Perhaps The third world could trade some of its debt in return for accepting an increased hit probability.
Its just like offsetting your carbon emissions quota.

And as for terrorism, well bush's successor can say bye bye not only to iran and n korea, but perhaps the whole of china as well.

There is so much potential for good in nudging around asteroids like Apophis.

[malorum]

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Hiya Midge,
Well I'm glad to see that scientists can spot these meteors so early. I always thought that with the huge volume of meteors out there that such a task would be very difficult.

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The really fast ones aren't worth worrying about as they are likely to wipe us out without us being able to do anything about it. They usually spot the ones that missed tho.

Impact effects depend on velocity as well as size and small fast objects are kinda hard to spot and track (I remember a wasp flying into my motorbike jacket. It was on the third sting that I realized what had happened)

[gumpzilla]

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This would be a really cool way to die.

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You might enjoy Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven, which is an end of the world book which follows life on Earth following a hit from a comet. I don't think it would be a particularly cool way to die.

[Al68]

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Why would a Bee extinction end humanity? Just curious as I can't remember the last time I had something that contained honey? Is polin some source of medicine? Thx.......

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Pollination = fertilization for many plants and is requred for them to reproduce and bear fruit.

[PLOlover]

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Pollination = fertilization for many plants and is requred for them to reproduce and bear fruit.

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That's just total propaganda by scientists who are funded by big agriculture. You have to follow the money in situations like this.

[madnak]

At the same time, we can't really measure the impact. Extinction of the human race? I doubt it. But it would give us some trouble.

[chezlaw]

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At the same time, we can't really measure the impact. Extinction of the human race? I doubt it. But it would give us some trouble.

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If plants that require propogation are killed off then the void will quickly be filled by plants that don't.

No way this is a serious threat to the survival of humanity.

chez

[Al68]

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Pollination = fertilization for many plants and is requred for them to reproduce and bear fruit.

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That's just total propaganda by scientists who are funded by big agriculture. You have to follow the money in situations like this.

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LOL. Another massive conspiracy designed to brainwash people into believing that flowering plants are fertilized by pollination so we won't find out that they really have sexual relations like we do. Yeah, that's it. /images/graemlins/blush.gif

[madnak]

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At the same time, we can't really measure the impact. Extinction of the human race? I doubt it. But it would give us some trouble.

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If plants that require propogation are killed off then the void will quickly be filled by plants that don't.

No way this is a serious threat to the survival of humanity.

chez

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I think it's the economic and sociological effects we'd have to worry about more than the biological effects.

[purnell]

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If plants that require propogation are killed off then the void will quickly be filled by plants that don't.

No way this is a serious threat to the survival of humanity.


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You're probably right, but I sure would miss my flowers.

[FortunaMaximus]

It's not big enough. It'd have to be several kilometres across before you could really say it would have immediate effects as far as a threat to all of humanity goes.

But not that big. Something as little as 50 kilometres across would do it, I'd imagine.

Still, you'd rather it hit land and not water. That "Oh, whoa" moment as you sit on a beach lookin' up at a iminami. Board would look like a toothpick then. Eh.

[chezlaw]

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At the same time, we can't really measure the impact. Extinction of the human race? I doubt it. But it would give us some trouble.

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If plants that require propogation are killed off then the void will quickly be filled by plants that don't.

No way this is a serious threat to the survival of humanity.

chez

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I think it's the economic and sociological effects we'd have to worry about more than the biological effects.

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Plenty to worry about but these type of things are only threats to short-term peace and prosperity.

Then its just the stuff of history.

chez