3 ms·

> nobody wants to live there Speak for yourself, I and many people I know would leap at the opportunity. As an Australian I have already considered applying fo

by L_226 4y ago

> nobody wants to live there Speak for yourself, I and many people I know would leap at the opportunity. As an Australian I have already considered applying for a rotation with the Australian Antarctic Division, and I will likely do so in the future when my life circumstances allow. With regards to your comment about bolide impact - you do realise that there is a non-zero probability of an impact that will destroy the actual crust of the Earth and remove the ability for _any_ life to exist on the planet right?

lgl 4y ago
Agreed. Way too many people seem to think that any asteroid impact would be similar to a thermonuclear device and could somehow be "survivable", which would only be true for relatively "small" asteroids. The reality is that a large enough or fast enough mass hitting not only Earth but any of it's neighboring planets could completely destabilize the solar system on a (literally) planetary scale. So even our fear of asteroids hitting earth is already too modest as we should really worry about them hitting any planet, especially the inner ones.
- z3c0 4y ago
  On the other side of things, celestial objects are not flying around at random. They have trajectories typically leading away from us, and the odds for one to suddenly veer through what is mostly a void to hit another spec of dust are just as astronomically small as surviving the impact, should it actually happen.
eloff 4y ago
By non zero you mean effectively zero though. Those kinds of impacts happened early in the history of the solar system. They’re not impossible, as there are still objects that size out there, but something would have to sling them towards the Sun. Arguably were most at risk only during the next few centuries. After that our space capabilities will probably make us nearly immune to fast moving rocks from space.
sangnoir 4y ago
Visiting Antarctica and living there are 2 completely different things. The smae goes for Mars: I'm sure plenty would love to visit

by L_226 4y ago

lgl 4y ago

Agreed. Way too many people seem to think that any asteroid impact would be similar to a thermonuclear device and could somehow be "survivable", which would only be true for relatively "small" asteroids. The reality is that a large enough or fast enough mass hitting not only Earth but any of it's neighboring planets could completely destabilize the solar system on a (literally) planetary scale. So even our fear of asteroids hitting earth is already too modest as we should really worry about them hitting any planet, especially the inner ones.

z3c0 4y ago
On the other side of things, celestial objects are not flying around at random. They have trajectories typically leading away from us, and the odds for one to suddenly veer through what is mostly a void to hit another spec of dust are just as astronomically small as surviving the impact, should it actually happen.

eloff 4y ago

By non zero you mean effectively zero though. Those kinds of impacts happened early in the history of the solar system. They’re not impossible, as there are still objects that size out there, but something would have to sling them towards the Sun. Arguably were most at risk only during the next few centuries. After that our space capabilities will probably make us nearly immune to fast moving rocks from space.

sangnoir 4y ago

Visiting Antarctica and living there are 2 completely different things. The smae goes for Mars: I'm sure plenty would love to visit