The near earth asteroid 2012 DA14 discovered last year is not going to hit Earth next year, scientists say. Phew. And yet, it will still be coming in way too close for comfort (17,000 miles away--closer than many orbiting satellites), and may hit us the next time around, in 2020, or on another orbit in the more distant future.

This threat, which would have the impact of a thermonuclear bomb, ought to sufficiently scare us into contemplating several courses of action:

1. Watch the skies

Imagine if 2012 DA14 had been on course to hit us. We would have been caught with our pants down. There was insufficient time to build a spaceship capable of colliding with the asteroid to destroy it or bump it off course, a project that experts say would have taken two years. We need a better early warning system to detect the next gloomy discovery and give ourselves a fighting chance. Right now, when we detect an asteroid with a telescope we learn its position, but it is harder, and takes longer, to nail down its orbit. That is still the case with 2012 DA14, which astronomers are keeping a close eye on.

2. Invest in technology to stop an asteroid

There are many different ideas about how to stop an asteroid, which range from destroying it (with a nuclear device, for instance) to changing its course. The latter action would require hitting it with a kinetic interceptor or using a bit of "solar powered orbital mechanics" that involves painting (yes, painting) the asteroid white to change the ratio between reflected and absorbed radiation. We could also strap a rocket to the space rock to steer it away from us or "tow" it away with a "gravitational tractor." Others have suggested solar sails, "giant mirrors that fly through space via the force of sunlight reflecting off them."

While some of these ideas may seem far-fetched, at the very least we ought to give the best ideas their day in court right now, as we will only get to do this experiment once.

In the worst-case scenario, we would need to be prepared for the event of an asteroid making impact, in which case we would need to figure out ways to move large populations and possibly develop a fair lottery system for what would be much coveted space in the bunker. Some people, of course, may choose to accept our fate, if not embrace it, when the doomsday event draws near. On the other hand, experts such as Stephen Hawking have suggested that we need to be prepared to abandon Earth altogether, which would require the construction of a space colony.

This post was edited by undertow85 on Mar 13 2012 08:25am

Lol. If they find out an asteroid is going to hit earth and theres only a small amont of space in bunkers do you actually think people would be fine with their neighbour getting to live and them not? No there would be war in every country.

Anyways, there isn't going to be an asteroid threat that warrants significant attention for a long time, and by the time there is, we'll know about it, and we'll have the means to stop it.

we need to build a death star to destroy incoming asteroids.

other thread has a video of neil degrasse tyson talking about an asteroid named Apophis that will come as close as we've seen. if it comes within a certain area, it will hit a few years later.
the terrible thing about those though is we dont have/give the funds to actually locate and determine the paths of EVERY asteroid out there. i forget what the percentage was, but its something like only 5% of them have actually been recorded. just bits i remember from my astronomy class a few years back.

if it hits earth, the blast will be smaller than tunguska blast of 1909

I'm ready to colonize space. Let's do it!

We are on the brink, but we get cut off before it happens.

Did you come from the future?

your not?

It's not these known ones that are a threat, it's the large amount of unknown ones that we haven't mapped, and they hit us out of nowhere, and they are on the rise.