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Large 'Spooky' Asteroid to Narrowly Miss Earth on Halloween

And what is the condition of the military budget?

There are many taxpayer funded sites like this. Read up.
 
I'm saying maybe this particular one isn't getting it's just reward.

It is a new observatory, quite a good one. Even so, it can only image to mag 24 or so. Which is exceptionally dim..plus, there is a lot of sky out there to survey, it isn't as easy as you might think. There are limits. You can only build a telescope mirror so large before its weight causes it to not be perfectly flat. I don't think you really understand much about astronomy, that isn't a slam against you, lots of people don't get it.
 
That's a good thing.

I based that theory on the fact that God said he would never again destroy the Earth with flood after Noah.

That's fine and all, but from a statistical perspective as well as one that's proven out in the fossil record, it is going to happen again some time in the future.

I just hope that it's after we've permanently colonized other planets.

But on the other hand, in the vastness that is this universe, with the billions and billions of galaxies each of which has billions and billions of stars, and billions and billions of planets, it all adds up that human kind isn't really all that significant except in our own minds.

Should an larger asteroid hit the Earth and an ELE occurs, no great loss. Look at the mess we've historically made of everything.
 
Seriously? And we're suppose to worship the idol of science?

Science is not an idol, like Conservatism is.

Science is a method, a way to reveal Universal Truth to any intelligence that is intelligent enough to accept reality.

More often than not, that does not include Conservatives and/or Republicans. They often reject anything Scientific.
 
Science is not an idol, like Conservatism is.

Science is a method, a way to reveal Universal Truth to any intelligence that is intelligent enough to accept reality.

More often than not, that does not include Conservatives and/or Republicans. They often reject anything Scientific.

Science is nothing apart from conservatism, or liberalism. Everything runs through a political filter, nowadays.

By the way the spooky asteroid isn't that spooky. There recently was an asteroid that passed by even closer, it went between the earth and the moon, iirc.
 
Damn...I was hoping it would hit...or come REALLY close at least.

What the world needs is a good asteroid scare that makes many of us frightened to death...only to have it fall harmlessly in an ocean or something.

Kind of like the millenium nonsense about planes falling out of the sky...but only bigger.

You never really know what someone is made of until they are facing great adversity.
 
It is a new observatory, quite a good one. Even so, it can only image to mag 24 or so. Which is exceptionally dim..plus, there is a lot of sky out there to survey, it isn't as easy as you might think. There are limits. You can only build a telescope mirror so large before its weight causes it to not be perfectly flat. I don't think you really understand much about astronomy, that isn't a slam against you, lots of people don't get it.

I appreciate the complexity of astronomy, I just believe something as serious as a planet-killing body[or even something much smaller] deserves more attention.
 
Should an larger asteroid hit the Earth and an ELE occurs, no great loss. Look at the mess we've historically made of everything.

Because we are frail and imperfect. What fun would it be if we got everything right. :)
 
Science is not an idol, like Conservatism is.

Science is a method, a way to reveal Universal Truth to any intelligence that is intelligent enough to accept reality.

More often than not, that does not include Conservatives and/or Republicans. They often reject anything Scientific.

[This reply deserves no response due to the Leftist parroting nature of the post]
 
Damn...I was hoping it would hit...or come REALLY close at least.

What the world needs is a good asteroid scare that makes many of us frightened to death...only to have it fall harmlessly in an ocean or something.

Kind of like the millenium nonsense about planes falling out of the sky...but only bigger.

You never really know what someone is made of until they are facing great adversity.

This might make someone wewe a bit in their drawers;

21745461463_69bc4b1949_b.jpg
 
Any images available yet?

No images yet but....

[video]https://videos.files.wordpress.com/FD4c52W4/nasa-alert-huge-asteroid-2015-tb145-to-skim-past-moon-on-10-31-15-highly-uncertain-orbit_dvd.mp4[/video]
 
Science isn't religion. The aim of religion is to provide all the answers right now, completely regardless of whether or not those answers bear any resemblance to reality. The scientific process is a bit more...restrained. It has to go through a tedious baby-step procedure whereby each conclusion is tested arduously before being accepted. Therefore, science doesn't get to just pop out of a box one day and say, "Ta dahh! We can control teh universe!"

Basically, if you applied the same standard to religion that you did to science, you'd be an atheist in five minutes. Why? Because, tell me this: who was it that found the meteor at all? Scientists or priests? If the meteor did actually hit the earth, at least scientists would know it twenty days in advance, whereas at the end of the month religious people would look up at the sky and say, "Hey, does anybody else see tha-?"

Finally, who is more likely to eventually develop a way to divert an oncoming asteroid in the future? Scientists or priests? Once again, if you applied the same standard to religion that you did to science, you'd be an atheist in five minutes.

I understand what you are getting at here, Cardinal...and in a way, I agree. But actually...if you applied science to religion...you would become an agnostic...not an atheist.

One cannot get to "it is more likely that there are no gods than that there are" using science, logic, or reason.

One CAN get to "I do not know if there are gods or not...and there is not enough unambiguous evidence upon which to base a meaningful guess"...using logic and reason.

Just sayin'!
 
Damn...I was hoping it would hit...or come REALLY close at least.

What the world needs is a good asteroid scare that makes many of us frightened to death...only to have it fall harmlessly in an ocean or something.

Kind of like the millenium nonsense about planes falling out of the sky...but only bigger.

You never really know what someone is made of until they are facing great adversity.

Any asteroid of a size large enough to do significant damage if it hit land...would probably do just as much damage if it fell into an ocean.
 
Because we are frail and imperfect. What fun would it be if we got everything right. :)

I'd really like the opportunity to try and experience that sometime. :)
 
Damn...I was hoping it would hit...or come REALLY close at least.

What the world needs is a good asteroid scare that makes many of us frightened to death...only to have it fall harmlessly in an ocean or something.

Kind of like the millenium nonsense about planes falling out of the sky...but only bigger.

You never really know what someone is made of until they are facing great adversity.

Any asteroid of a size large enough to do significant damage if it hit land...would probably do just as much damage if it fell into an ocean.

Actually, large Earth strikes in oceans are far more destructive than large Earth strikes on land. It has to do with the Tsunami that results from such a strike, and when that hits land.

Earth strikes, no so much.
 
I understand what you are getting at here, Cardinal...and in a way, I agree. But actually...if you applied science to religion...you would become an agnostic...not an atheist.

One cannot get to "it is more likely that there are no gods than that there are" using science, logic, or reason.

One CAN get to "I do not know if there are gods or not...and there is not enough unambiguous evidence upon which to base a meaningful guess"...using logic and reason.

Just sayin'!

The type of atheist I am aside, keep in mind the OP and therefore the context of the thread. WCH read an article on a passing asteroid and saw it as referendum on the failure of science. Ergo the science vs. religion theme.
 
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Actually, large Earth strikes in oceans are far more destructive than large Earth strikes on land. It has to do with the Tsunami that results from such a strike, and when that hits land.

Earth strikes, no so much.

While the tsunamis are certainly destructive in the "short" term, the land falls really are a lot worse. I listened to a podcast by a scientist on the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, and he brought up a unique aspect of a meteor collision I hadn't considered. When the meteor collides the impact is so gigantic that it actually sends debris into space. Gravity takes its hold on that debris which re-enters the atmosphere. That in itself is no big deal, except there's a massive amount of debris, and the re-entry creates a butt-ton of kinetic energy and will super-heat the earth to several hundred degrees. And this happened all over the planet.
 
No images yet but....

[video]https://videos.files.wordpress.com/FD4c52W4/nasa-alert-huge-asteroid-2015-tb145-to-skim-past-moon-on-10-31-15-highly-uncertain-orbit_dvd.mp4[/video]

Thanks,

Who was that? You?
 
Actually, large Earth strikes in oceans are far more destructive than large Earth strikes on land. It has to do with the Tsunami that results from such a strike, and when that hits land.

Earth strikes, no so much.

Depends on where one is located. A mountainous region such as ours might survive impact based tsunamis.
 
While the tsunamis are certainly destructive in the "short" term, the land falls really are a lot worse. I listened to a podcast by a scientist on the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, and he brought up a unique aspect of a meteor collision I hadn't considered. When the meteor collides the impact is so gigantic that it actually sends debris into space. Gravity takes its hold on that debris which re-enters the atmosphere. That in itself is no big deal, except there's a massive amount of debris, and the re-entry creates a butt-ton of kinetic energy and will super-heat the earth to several hundred degrees. And this happened all over the planet.
Yeah, that's true. Let's hope that the Earth has had it's large strike for the next millennia or two.

Need to dispel the idea that something of size 'harmlessly falls into the ocean' idea.
Depends on where one is located. A mountainous region such as ours might survive impact based tsunamis.
Low lying areas are going to get hit big, such as we've seen in Japan and Banda Aceh (granted Earthquake cause Tsunami, but the impact's are the same).
 
Low lying areas are going to get hit big, such as we've seen in Japan and Banda Aceh (granted Earthquake cause Tsunami, but the impact's are the same).

Among a few benefits of not having access to the sea and being a mountainous region (higher lying lands).
 
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