Susano Posted July 3, 2008 Report Share Posted July 3, 2008 What would happen if our planet was ever to cross paths with a meteor? Well, according to this simulation it would be bad news for everyone and everything. This is a small scene from a Discovery Channel program called “Miracle Planet” which details the scary thought of a 500 km (or 300 miles) wide meteor hitting our planet in our lifetime. The amount of kinetic energy released when it hits would be enough to cause a firestorm powerful enough to vaporize all life on our planet and evaporate all of the Worlds oceans. Narration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TdRgpGbbaY Music Only: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirgos Posted July 3, 2008 Report Share Posted July 3, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor Great - one more thing I have absolutely no control over to keep me up at night worrying:eek: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sinanju Posted July 3, 2008 Report Share Posted July 3, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor I've seen the video. Yeah, it's utterly grim. But also extremely unlikely--and not something we can do anything about anyhow. So...I'm not gonna worry about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted July 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor I've seen the video. Yeah, it's utterly grim. But also extremely unlikely--and not something we can do anything about anyhow. So...I'm not gonna worry about it. But it does provide fuel for your PA game... or an idea what a world would look like it the alien armada dropped asteroids on them. I see this being a great way to destroy the Xenovore. Who needs to plaster the surface with Nova Bombs? Just send in one of these. You go from Aliens Wars being WWI to WWII in a hurry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSgt Baloo Posted July 3, 2008 Report Share Posted July 3, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor Narration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TdRgpGbbaY Music Only: Scooped, but I love the music-only one. Very cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinecone Posted July 3, 2008 Report Share Posted July 3, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor Dude read Lucifers hammer, or Footfall(????) By Niven and Pournele(Sp?) They both use the "Big Honking Meteor" One is via alien attack.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted July 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor Lucifer's Hammer uses a comet, actually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sinanju Posted July 4, 2008 Report Share Posted July 4, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor ...and in neither case was the impact object (comet OR asteroid) anywhere near as large as the 300 mile diameter behemoth in the video. After all, the aliens in Footfall wanted to conquer earth, not turn it into a molten ball of lava. (And if the comet impact had been that big, there'd have been no survivors to write about.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted July 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor ...and... Lucifer's Hammer calved upon approach, so Earth was hit by a lot of small objects. Or as one character put it -- Earth had a duck's eye view of a shotgun blast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yansuf Posted July 6, 2008 Report Share Posted July 6, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor A 500 km diameter asteroid is basically the size of Vesta (530 km diameter) which is the third largest asteroid in this system (almost tied for second with Pallas.) None of those three are "Earth crossing" bodies, which means that the chance of their hitting Earth (absent some aliens with "god-like" technology moving them) is zero. Statistically, I believe the chance of Earth being fried by a nearby supernova is greater. The chance of another "dinosaur killer" impact is tiny, you are more likely to be struck by a falling airplane than the Earth is to get a "dinosaur killer level impact within the next century. And the asteroid/meteor that killed the dinosaurs was tiny compared to Vesta. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted July 6, 2008 Report Share Posted July 6, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor not something we can do anything about anyhow. So... All the more reason to (a) get off our butts and build the space program to the point where we can move asteroids and ( relocate a breeding population of humans with supporting ecology to more than one planet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manic Typist Posted July 6, 2008 Report Share Posted July 6, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor All the more reason to (a) get off our butts and build the space program to the point where we can move asteroids and ( relocate a breeding population of humans with supporting ecology to more than one planet. Quoted for truth. I don't know why more people don't focus on this. Sure, it's distant and abstract.... but such is life when you're talking about the SURVIVAL OF A SPECIES. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maur Posted July 6, 2008 Report Share Posted July 6, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor Because most people aren't focussed on survival of the species, but on survival of self. They are more concerned with their own job, where to get food, gas, clothing, etc... and barely pay attention to anything outside the 5 foot bubble around themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawnmower Boy Posted July 6, 2008 Report Share Posted July 6, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor Dude: you totally need ten million bucks in your retirement savings to retire comfortably. Deposit it right now. Or, you can put away 5 bucks a week, maybe increase that to 10 after your next raise. The most important thing is to start early, and get time working for you instead of against you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manic Typist Posted July 6, 2008 Report Share Posted July 6, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor ....what? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted July 6, 2008 Report Share Posted July 6, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor Its a simile. I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sinanju Posted July 6, 2008 Report Share Posted July 6, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor Its a simile. I think. Uh, no. It's a metaphor. A simile would be "Time is like a butterfly..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted July 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor Uh, no. It's a metaphor. A simile would be "Time is like a butterfly..." Time flies like an arrow. Fruit files like a banana. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manic Typist Posted July 7, 2008 Report Share Posted July 7, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor I thought so, but I wasn't 100% positive of its message. Hence my indication of confusion. I think I get it... but it's a bit obtuse. Also, isn't a simile (technically) a kind of metaphor? Like all cats are felines, but not all felines are cats? Or somesuch pedantry (which is actually important, in my opinion). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawnmower Boy Posted July 7, 2008 Report Share Posted July 7, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor Me, obtuse? That's the kind of thing that Junius Brutus would say to Squire Western! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manic Typist Posted July 7, 2008 Report Share Posted July 7, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor ....seriously? No idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted July 8, 2008 Report Share Posted July 8, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor I thought so, but I wasn't 100% positive of its message. Hence my indication of confusion. I think I get it... but it's a bit obtuse. Also, isn't a simile (technically) a kind of metaphor? Like all cats are felines, but not all felines are cats? Or somesuch pedantry (which is actually important, in my opinion). Yes, all similes are metaphors, but not all metaphors are similies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawnmower Boy Posted July 8, 2008 Report Share Posted July 8, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor Humanity's progress into space is an important thing, and impatience with it can be counterproductive. It has been the case in the past that those most enthusiastic about a research and development programme can be its worst enemies. To pick upon real, if over the top examples, some of the most avid proponents of the "air age" in the 20s and 30s seriously argued for shutting down the major research institutes and diverting the money to building more of the existing type of planes instead. So this is an important issue, on which I can easily expend enough electrons to produce MEGO in an instant. I intended to be pithy. That meant making a particular kind of claim that leads the reader to fill in the argument as they go; a claim from analogy, like so. "Humanity's progress into space is like a saver's progress towards a fully funded retirement. The full principal cannot be paid out on the first day of the saver's career, because the very purpose of the saver's career is to earn the money that is to be saved towards retirement. In the same way, a gradual, incremental approach to space exploration is the only feasible approach. We need to allocate a reasonable amount of money every pay period, and keep on allocating it over the years. Eventually, a magic comparable to compound interest will ensue." Sorry for being obscure, if not obtuse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted July 8, 2008 Report Share Posted July 8, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor I've seen 1000-km asteroid impacts referred to as "ocean-boiling", i.e., enough energy is deposited to vaporize all the water on Earth's surface and, effectively, sterilize the surface of the planet. That wouldn't sterilize the whole planet, because it wouldn't kill the deep biosphere, but life would have to start all over from single-celled organisms reinvading the surface from ocean floor vents. The comets we see are several-kilometer objects, though there is nothing preventing some really big ones (Pluto-class objects) from being on hairpin orbits such that they spend most of their time in the Oort Cloud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelalex242 Posted July 10, 2008 Report Share Posted July 10, 2008 Re: If Earth was hit by a Meteor Bah. Everyone knows that if a Meteor is coming at Earth, you can do one of two things: Send Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck up in space shuttles to drill into it and drop a few nukes. (Armageddon Movie) Or B:Send in a flower girl in a pink dress to pray for Holy. And then have her die so the Lifestream can back up Holy. (Final Fantasy 7) Take your pick, really Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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