Russia hit by meteor.

AdamD said:
I think at the very least, they could've put an alert out, to stay away from windows/glass.

Can only hope this isn't the start of something bigger, ala armageddon hehe
Click to expand...

True... although warning people to stay away from glass (even if they had enough time to warn) might cause more overall indirect harm to people. I mean if are like... "Okay... there's a giant meteor coming. We don't know exactly where, but it's going to be somewhere in an area the size of the United States." While most probably would be okay, do you really think every person in that area is going to be calm and rational and be like, "Okay... I'm going to stay away from glass. I'm not going to panic and go looting and killing people I don't like... End of the world, right? Let's go out with some fun!"

You give too much credit for people being logical. :)
 
digitalpoint said:
True... although warning people to stay away from glass (even if they had enough time to warn) might cause more overall indirect harm to people. I mean if are like... "Okay... there's a giant meteor coming. We don't know exactly where, but it's going to be somewhere in an area the size of the United States." While most probably would be okay, do you really think every person in that area is going to be calm and rational and be like, "Okay... I'm going to stay away from glass. I'm not going to panic and go looting and killing people I don't like... End of the world, right? Let's go out with some fun!"

You give too much credit for people being logical. :)
Click to expand...
If it was as big as The United States.... Staying aways from glass would be the least of your worries. :p
 
The human race is literally in a race for survival. Will we have the technology and capability to deal with the big one whenever it arrives? The same thing can be asked about any apocalyptic event.
 
Ditto said:
Takes a while for an asteroid to travel from space and hit earth, doesn't take 1 second to happen.

Some-kind of Early Warning system detecting an incoming asteroid on a trajectory path to hit earth maybe?
Click to expand...
There are such systems but they cannot detect and track all objects. Thousands of such objects are already known, many of them much, much bigger than the one that hit Russia and big enough to trigger a global disaster. Some of them big enough to cause a mass extinction.

How many smaller, not yet detected objects are out there - we don't know and we currently do not have the resources (+ technology) to detect and track them all. Maybe this will change in the future.

Besides, this wasn't the biggest hit in modern times. The 1908 Tunguska event was a lot stronger at an estimated 10 metagons (like a large thermonuclear device) and devastated an mostly unpopulated area of more than 800 square miles. Should such an object hit a densely populated area, there could be millions of of victims. The size of the object is estimated at about 50 to 100 meters - not exactly a big one either.

Such events happen on a regular base. Luckily, 2/3 of our planet are covered with water and of the remaining 1/3, only a relatively small part is densely populated, so chances to be hit by an extra-terrestrial object are quite small.

However, a big one will hit sooner or later and unless we find a way to defend ourselves, such an event may end the human race.

More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-Earth_object
 
meanwhile..... at "Internet Brands HQ":

meteor_cartoon.jpg
 
Take the planet. All of it. Now put a box around. Scale that box to the size you think would make a good early warning perimeter. Now imagine what it would take to keep an eye on all of that (outer) space, all of the time. A lot of us can't even watch a movie without getting up to pee. Factor that and the limitations of technology together, and I'm guessing we miss a lot.
 
I tracked deep space objects for three years. When an object was 18,000 to 50,000 miles away the computer driven telescope had no problem locking in on it and tracking it. At 30,ooo miles plus, the telescope moved so slowly that I hardly noticed it. The closer an object was the faster the telescope moved. When an object was close to the earth (ie the MIR space station), it moved so fast the telescope could not lock on to it and you needed to try manually if you wanted to get a glimpse.

You can cover the whole planet with RADARs and still it would be impossible to catalog all objects in space; it is just too large the further away you go, or the objects are so close they move way too fast.

When one of the first space shuttles was launched they had an issue with the space arm, a six inch bolt floated away when they opened the cargo doors. We found it, only because we knew where to look. Even with today's technology, finding objects in space is like finding needles in a haystack that covers acres of land; keeping looking and eventually you will come across a few, but you will never find them all.
 
// 2/3 of our planet are covered with water...

I wonder if "small" objects hitting the ocean undetected may be the source of rogue wave that hit coast lines from time to time?

The experts also say that there is no connection to the near miss that happened the same day. I don't like coincidences. I wonder if both objects and others might be part of a larger object that broke apart some time in the distant pass and is actually a something similar to the Leonids, for example? Maybe on a smaller scale.

Just my $0.02 cents worth.
 

Similar threads

creativeforge
Ban country by code?
Replies
11
Views
510
creativeforge
creativeforge
Mitchy71
Discover the Ultimate Sonic Adventure at Lil Rawkers Radio!
Replies
0
Views
221
Mitchy71
Mitchy71
C
  • Question Question
XF 2.2 Bounce post on Word Censor hit
Replies
3
Views
275
chris p
C
Haydric
Tempest Roleplaying - Beginning Again
Replies
4
Views
687
CedricV
CedricV
R
Need developer for established adult forum
Replies
1
Views
527
Claudio
Claudio
Top Bottom