Well, it's not like we can do something about it. I mean, really, what is there to do when a giant rock from space suddenly decides to hit your planet? Is there anything we could do? No, seriously, now I am genuinely curious whether we could do something like blowing it up (wouldn't that create more smaller-but-still-giant space rocks heading for us?) with today's technology.
Who ya gonna call? I heard "Bruce Willis Kicks Asteroid"!....well, maybe not seriously! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120591/
Alright, we just have to prepare Bruce Willis mentally for doing something he's done in a movie, only this time for real. I've never seen that movie, but I'm guessing that it had a happy ending, and I hope that will be how things turn out in reality too.
Most species on Earth, including dinosaurs, were wiped out during such an asteroid disaster, so we are well advised to study these things. If we can know, well ahead of time, so that we can properly prepare, the best way to handle the problem is to nuke the rock on one side, nudging it out of orbit so that it misses the Earth. Breaking an asteroid into pieces might be better than one huge rock, but that is not the best option. NASA has a database of known rocks that have orbits that come near the Earth. We will have plenty of warning if any of these become a problem. The bigger danger is if an interplanetary rock we don't know about heads in our direction. There is a high chance that we might not discover it in time to take action. Fortunately the odds are on our side. The last disastrous strike was over sixty million years ago. We just might not be alive to see the next one.
Asteroid Day: A global day of awareness slated for June 30, 2015 http://www.astronomy.com/news/2014/12/asteroid-day-a-global-day-of-awareness-slated-for-june-30-2015 More than 100 leading scientists, astronauts and business leaders around the world have signed a declaration calling for the hundredfold increase in the detection and monitoring of asteroids.
Thanks a lot for the insight on this issue! I really think that the folks at NASA have been researching this kind of things for a while now, I bet they, just like us, don't want to be wiped out by a giant rock falling from space.
The EU is working on a solution right now. Just something to shoot it with, I believe. The problem is the release date isn't anywhere near June
@Jennifer Graves , that is extrememly interesting news ! Do you have any kind of a link to the news report for that , so we can get more information on what they are actually planning on doing, and when ? The asteroid that is coming early in July is supposed to be a small one, so it might not do any more damage than the Russian one did a couple of years ago. The only worry would be if it happened to impact in or near a large metropolitan area. I was just reading today that something started one of the motors on a small spacecraft docked at the ISS, and the motor pushed the ISS out of its orbit The report says that they do not know why the engine suddenly started itself up. However, there is nothing that I saw in the article about putting the space station back in its original orbit; which leads one to wonder if it was moved to a new orbit on purpose ? ? http://news.sky.com/story/1499579/mystery-glitch-sparks-space-station-alert
I had the initials wrong. It's the ESA rather than the EU. I'll try to get the video link, too. I just have to find it http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S...ogy/ESA_s_planetary_defence_test_set_for_2020