creation of the world.

lady of shallot · Mon Apr 25, 2011 10:15 am

Last night on the National Geographic channel they had a wonderful show on the creation of the world (actually may have started with the universe)

It was very interesting. . . problem is I was very tired and kept falling asleep. I hope they repeat this and urge everyone to watch cause its great to see depictions of what we know to be true. Anyway my question is about the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, allowing our animal ancestors to emerge in prominence and evolve into us.

I know the scientific community is aware and watchful for such an asteroid hitting the earth again, but I wonder, does anyone know how possible it is? What could be done to divert or explode such a large one as hit the earth then? This is the only possibility of a disaster that concerns me. Not that tsunamis and hurricanes etc. don't do a lot of damage but not on this scale.

johnson1010 · Tue Apr 26, 2011 10:24 am

Well, it's virtually inevitable in the long run.

It is thought that an event like this was responsible for the formation of the moon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_impact_hypothesis

There is a large object which will dip below the level of our satelites coming up pretty soon, and depending on the exact path it takes leaving our gravity, we will know whether it will smash into us on the next pass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis


	Quote: Wikipedia: 99942 Apophis ( /əˈpɒfɪs/, previously known by its provisional designation 2004 MN4) is a near-Earth asteroid that caused a brief period of concern in December 2004 because initial observations indicated a small probability (up to 2.7%) that it would strike the Earth in 2029. Additional observations provided improved predictions that eliminated the possibility of an impact on Earth or the Moon in 2029. However, a possibility remained that during the 2029 close encounter with Earth, Apophis would pass through a gravitational keyhole, a precise region in space no more than about a half-mile wide,[6] that would set up a future impact on April 13, 2036. This possibility kept the asteroid at Level 1 on the Torino impact hazard scale until August 2006, when the probability that Apophis will pass through the keyhole was determined to be very small. Apophis broke the record for the highest level on the Torino Scale, being, for only a short time, a level 4, before it was lowered.[7] Its diameter is approximately 270 meters (885 ft).[2] As of October 7, 2009, the odds of an April 13, 2036 impact are considered to be 1 in 250,000

Inspiration for the naming:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apep

There are some plans for diverting near earth objects of this kind, but they are woefully underfunded. Most invovle long-term strategies of deploying some kind of satelite that would ride next to Apophis (or other near earth objects) and slowly pull the object into a different orbit because of the gravitational interaction. The satelite will maintain distance with propulsion of some kind and Apophis will gravitate toward the satelite, altering the orbit by minute amounts until it is no longer in the earth's orbit.

lady of shallot · Tue Apr 26, 2011 10:41 am


	Quote:

Johnson:


	Quote: It is thought that an event like this was responsible for the formation of the moon.

We heard a wonderful series of lectures, I think in 2008 about the big bang and ensuing formation of the universe. The astronomer giving those lectures, said that the moon was "spun" off from the earth during the rotation of the matter that became the sphere that is our planet, but of course was held in orbit of the earth by gravity.

lady of shallot · Tue Apr 26, 2011 10:49 am

One time I had a dream about what I think was (is) probably this catastrophe. I was in a room with a small child (a girl) I knew that what was about to happen was inevitable and would be fatal. I sat in a chair and asked the child to come sit on my lap.

When I was telling my husband this, in talking about the show the other night, he said he had read a book about the different ways people would react to such a happening. For me, the way I dreamt (or as close as possible to it) would be my choice. Wonder what others would choose?

Interbane · Tue Apr 26, 2011 11:13 am


	Quote: There is a large object which will dip below the level of our satelites coming up pretty soon, and depending on the exact path it takes leaving our gravity, we will know whether it will smash into us on the next pass.

We should have a national "fire a projectile into space day". Since the middle east is the middle of the world, have the billion of them congregate and shoot stuff straight up to push Earth onto a slightly different trajectory. We'll keep it a secret that the bullets won't reach escape velocity.

GreggMattson · Wed Apr 27, 2011 9:57 pm


	lady of shallot wrote: I know the scientific community is aware and watchful for such an asteroid hitting the earth again, but I wonder, does anyone know how possible it is? What could be done to divert or explode such a large one as hit the earth then? This is the only possibility of a disaster that concerns me. Not that tsunamis and hurricanes etc. don't do a lot of damage but not on this scale.

Not only is it inevitable, there is no way to know when. Theories that try to explain cyclic mass extinctions suggest one or more massive bodies exist beyond our solar system and occasionally orbit close enough to disturb and launch debris from the edge, causing rocky objects to fly toward the sun. Sometimes, Earth gets in the way.

The scientific community tracks many objects at this time. Unfortunately, being at the edge of the solar system, many more exist which cannot be seen and we won’t know their existence until too late to react with any success, assuming their track crosses our orbit, or worse, strike one of the moons of the gas giants, sending it our way.


	lady of shallot wrote: One time I had a dream about what I think was (is) probably this catastrophe. I was in a room with a small child (a girl) I knew that what was about to happen was inevitable and would be fatal. I sat in a chair and asked the child to come sit on my lap....Wonder what others would choose?

Referencing my previous statement, while writing my novel, this scenario was one of the sub-themes that drive the story. I expended a lot of research on this question. What would people do if they had time to contemplate their ultimate demise?

I analyzed reactions to disasters and found that people would react to a collision from space exactly as they would react to any other life threatening event where they have time to consider the consequences. Mass hysteria? Depression? Sugary red drinks? Pillage and loot? Of course there would be some of all that.

The top reaction surprised me. It was acceptance. Humans will fight to survive if they perceive a chance of winning. When faced with absolutely hopeless odds for survival, people accept their fate and enjoy the show.

DWill · Thu Apr 28, 2011 6:39 am

National Geographic, that bastion of extremism. I've wondered what it must be like to not be able to open the pages of the magazine or to switch on the NG channel, because in every issue or episode there will be multiple references to the age of the universe and the evolutionary history of life on earth. Even the NG is in the conspiracy to discredit young earthism.

Robert Tulip · Thu Apr 28, 2011 8:45 am

The big one before the 65 million year ago asteroid hit was the end of the Permian Age.


	Quote: The Permian–Triassic extinction event, informally known as the Great Dying, was an extinction event that occurred 251.4 million years ago, forming the boundary between the Permian and Triassic geologic periods. It was the Earth's most severe extinction event, with up to 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species becoming extinct. It is the only known mass extinction of insects. Some 57% of all families and 83% of all genera were killed. Because so much biodiversity was lost, the recovery of life on Earth took significantly longer than after other extinction events. This event has been described as the "mother of all mass extinctions". Researchers have variously suggested that there were from one to three distinct pulses, or phases, of extinction. There are several proposed mechanisms for the extinctions; the earlier phase was likely due to gradual environmental change, while the latter phase has been argued to be due to a catastrophic event. Suggested mechanisms for the latter include large or multiple bolide impact events, increased volcanism, and sudden release of methane clathrate from the sea floor; gradual changes include sea-level change, anoxia, increasing aridity, and a shift in ocean circulation driven by climate change.

In my opinion the worst likely disasters this century will be from earthquakes and climate change and possibly war.

lady of shallot · Thu Apr 28, 2011 10:52 am

Robert Tulip:


	Quote: In my opinion the worst likely disasters this century will be from earthquakes and climate change and possibly war.

You may be right and while I should not care for my descendants any more than any other living human beings, if such an event happened in the 22nd century it would happen to people descended from me that I am very likely to have met.

Horrible as earthquakes etc are they are not on the same scale as the harm done by a large asteroid.

BTW we don't hear much these days about climate change here in the North East or maybe even the whole USA after the winter we had and the price of gasoline and heating oil.

GreggMattson · Thu Apr 28, 2011 11:32 am


	lady of shallot wrote: BTW we don't hear much these days about climate change here in the North East or maybe even the whole USA after the winter we had and the price of gasoline and heating oil.

You may not hear as much about “Global Warming” but check the past month of news. Severe weather, tornados, blizzards and excessive heat are all the result of higher energy levels in our planet’s atmosphere and oceans. This energy manifests itself as more extreme extremes as well as the more expected climate changes.

Is this a normal trend? Who really knows? Antarctic core samples of CO2 levels indicate these days are unprecedented. Maybe that is just for this cycle. Life, as we know it, has had the luxury of growing up with a moderate climate, a climate that has seen variations caused by volcanoes and falling chunks of stuff, yet settles back to a norm.

Being in the middle of all this, we are ill equipped to judge since we can’t really predict the future. As happens with the predictions of Nostradamus, I think that our progeny will possibly look back and say, “Yup, it was Global Warming.”

johnson1010 · Thu May 05, 2011 4:07 pm

There goes one now...

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... -Nasa.html

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