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Once we build the necessary infrastructure to detect a rocks-from-space attack, we might finally have the means to prevent natural asteroid impacts. We have far

Once we build the necessary infrastructure to detect a rocks-from-space attack, we might finally have the means to prevent natural asteroid impacts. We have far too few eyes looking for small, dark objects on a collision course with us.

inglor_cz 5y ago
To be honest, the asteroids that could smite us in an "end of dinosaurs" event are very rare. Most of them have been cleared out of their orbits by either Earth or other planets billions of years ago. It is still worthwhile to watch the sky for them, but the risk per year seems to be lower than any man-made disaster I can think of.
- adrianN 5y ago
  I'm also concerned about asteroids that are not big enough to wipe out the dinosaurs, but big enough to kill a few million people. Those are a lot harder to detect.
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
  Hm. When thinking about how pock marked earth is, I'm not so certain. Also space is dynamic. As I understand it, we only have a vague understanding of what happens in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hills_cloud https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hills_cloud & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oort_cloud https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oort_cloud and how the trajectories of objects therrin could be perturbed by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_planet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_planet s and the movements of our nearest solar neighbours which probably have similar 'clouds' of objects around them. And it wouldn't need to be as big as Dino-Ex, either. Imagine what would happen if something like this impacted or air-bursted with the population density and fragile logistic dependencies of today: https://phys.org/news/2008-03-cuneiform-clay-tablet.html https://phys.org/news/2008-03-cuneiform-clay-tablet.html Also in that region, just a few thousand years earlier: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-60867-w https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-60867-w Suspected as a possible cause for the onset of the Younger Dryas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas_impact_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas_impact_hypothesi... edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_possible_impact_structures_on_Earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_possible_impact_struct... Sort for age, look at diameter of crater in kilometers for the first dozen youngest and think about what that would do for any contemporary agglomeration.

inglor_cz 5y ago

To be honest, the asteroids that could smite us in an "end of dinosaurs" event are very rare. Most of them have been cleared out of their orbits by either Earth or other planets billions of years ago. It is still worthwhile to watch the sky for them, but the risk per year seems to be lower than any man-made disaster I can think of.

adrianN 5y ago
I'm also concerned about asteroids that are not big enough to wipe out the dinosaurs, but big enough to kill a few million people. Those are a lot harder to detect.
LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
Hm. When thinking about how pock marked earth is, I'm not so certain. Also space is dynamic. As I understand it, we only have a vague understanding of what happens in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hills_cloud https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hills_cloud & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oort_cloud https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oort_cloud and how the trajectories of objects therrin could be perturbed by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_planet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_planet s and the movements of our nearest solar neighbours which probably have similar 'clouds' of objects around them. And it wouldn't need to be as big as Dino-Ex, either. Imagine what would happen if something like this impacted or air-bursted with the population density and fragile logistic dependencies of today: https://phys.org/news/2008-03-cuneiform-clay-tablet.html https://phys.org/news/2008-03-cuneiform-clay-tablet.html Also in that region, just a few thousand years earlier: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-60867-w https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-60867-w Suspected as a possible cause for the onset of the Younger Dryas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas_impact_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas_impact_hypothesi... edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_possible_impact_structures_on_Earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_possible_impact_struct... Sort for age, look at diameter of crater in kilometers for the first dozen youngest and think about what that would do for any contemporary agglomeration.