A 2 kilometer wide asteroid is on course to hit the Earth in 2019, according to the BBC! (www.BBC.com) This is potentially very bad news, people. It was discovered July 5th., and is the first asteroid to have a greater than even chance to hit the planet. This is big enough to destroy a continent and do god knows what to the atmosphere. Scientists are double checking the orbit, etc., to see if the calculations are correct. Let's hope they're not! I'm a big supporter of the space program, and this possibility is one of the major reasons. If this checks out (PLEASE, may it not!), the whole world has to declare an emergency. We have very little time to do something about it... if we can. Sorry if this sounds scary, but it's SCARY!
Is there an actual link to the story?? It's freakin' scary, but I'm not ready to build a bomb shelter just now. A lot can happen in 17 years.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2147879.stm they have to go back and find this thing and track it's orbit over a long period of time but like the story says, it's the most serious threat so far... perhaps enough for a real defense system vs a bunch of good ideas
Let me guess, it's headed straight at Iraq . All jokes aside, we've got some work to do. I want to live.
"Greetings Starfighter. You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier from Xur and the KO-Dan Armada." (yeah...I know the video game and movie quote don't match)
Thanks, Behad and lpbman, for providing the right link. I posted this at the end of a long night. Wish it were something I'd made up! It was strange that I couldn't find the story on AP, Reuters, CNN, the Times or Washington Post. Just happened to check out BBC world news (I'm a news junkie) and there it was. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it misses us after they further refine it's orbit. This is going to happen sooner or later, but let's give our technology at least a hundred years or so to prepare for an event of this kind. We are woefully unprepared. Uh, no... we're not prepared at all. This is why we should be in space, people. We don't need another reason at all.
I agree with boomboom. A good douse of Death Blossom from Gunstar 1 is the only thing that can save us now... BTW, Bruce Willis will be 64 come 2019, so I don't think we can rely on him.
Funny that the 50th "What will Rashard Lewis do?" thread will get far more responses than this one, which basically asks, "Are we all gonna be dead in 17 years?"
Well, that's not good........ *BTW, the Olsen twins would really be looking good by then(and sooooo legal).....
You have to think these things thru. The line into heaven is going to be really long. So you want to make sure you are in line with someone interesting. My plan is to find the local highschool cheerleaders before the comet hits, party into the night, and then enjoy looking up their skirts as we wait to get into heaven. Imagine how long it will take Barkely to get thru judgement. Oh my.
Here's the story http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/07/24/0022211&mode=thread&tid=160 Quote from /. -- <i>The BBC article's headline (and accompanying illustration) are more alarming than the story itself seems to warrant: this asteroid has been given a 0.06 on the Palermo technical scale, which means it shouldn't bump getting run over by a llama off your list of worries.</i>
The picture the BBC used has been used there before when they've had articles about possible asteroid strikes. It's convenient for them to use it. Why should I pay attention to a guy's comment on a message board instead of the BBC. (yes, I see the irony of that statement. )
