Just saw this NASA depiction of the orbits of all known "Potentially
Dangerous Asteroids" in our solor system. There are about 1400 of
them, represented by the light blue lines.

http://i.space.com/images/i/000/031/771/original/potential-hazardous-asteroids-crop.jpg?1376492388

On 2/16/2014 11:05 AM, wrote:
On Sun, 16 Feb 2014 10:25:04 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:


Just saw this NASA depiction of the orbits of all known "Potentially
Dangerous Asteroids" in our solor system. There are about 1400 of
them, represented by the light blue lines.

http://i.space.com/images/i/000/031/771/original/potential-hazardous-asteroids-crop.jpg?1376492388


And that is just the ones they know about. We can't even see "city
killer" sized objects until they are damned near here. If it has a
long period orbit, we were not even looking the last time we had a
near miss.


I was just reading some more about asteroid hits. On average the earth
has been hit by a major asteroid once every million years, yet the last
one was 70 million years ago (the one that killed off the dinosaurs and
most of life). If those numbers are accurate, then it would seem we are
*way* overdue.

Steven Hawking posed a theory that asteroid hits on planets in and near
our solar system is the reason higher life forms don't exist outside of
earth and the only reason it evolved on earth is because of the 70
million year absence of a major hit.

If all true, it won't be global warming that does us in.

On 2/16/2014 12:50 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 16 Feb 2014 11:32:15 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 2/16/2014 11:05 AM, wrote:
On Sun, 16 Feb 2014 10:25:04 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:


Just saw this NASA depiction of the orbits of all known "Potentially
Dangerous Asteroids" in our solor system. There are about 1400 of
them, represented by the light blue lines.

http://i.space.com/images/i/000/031/771/original/potential-hazardous-asteroids-crop.jpg?1376492388


And that is just the ones they know about. We can't even see "city
killer" sized objects until they are damned near here. If it has a
long period orbit, we were not even looking the last time we had a
near miss.


I was just reading some more about asteroid hits. On average the earth
has been hit by a major asteroid once every million years, yet the last
one was 70 million years ago (the one that killed off the dinosaurs and
most of life). If those numbers are accurate, then it would seem we are
*way* overdue.

Steven Hawking posed a theory that asteroid hits on planets in and near
our solar system is the reason higher life forms don't exist outside of
earth and the only reason it evolved on earth is because of the 70
million year absence of a major hit.

If all true, it won't be global warming that does us in.


I imagine humans will survive all but the most devastating hit but
civilization as we know it might be doomed. We have the advantage of
being very adaptable and we can eat almost anything if we have to. We
are also dispersed uniformly around the planet, so if any area is
spared, someone will be there.
It might just set us back a thousand years.
Heluva science fair experiment huh?


According to the experts the largest impact (not necessarily due to a
direct hit, but economically) will be on the United States.

Rich,it seems that the U.S is effected by, and effects everything, y'know?