The way things are going down here I'm cheering for the asteroid tbh.
this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2025
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Eh calculated impact path ranges from south america through africa and india. None of these are where i want it to land.
Same here but I figure the rates are going to be really cheap so I can just use up my vacation days and travel to wherever it hits.
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Even if it's at the top end of the predicted range, an impact would be ~40MT equivalent. Enough to level a city, but not an extinction event by any means; plus the likely impact path is across central America, the Atlantic, central Africa and north India - not really regions that have the resources to respond to a threat like this. Personally I'm hoping it misses, because I don't see the counties that could do something about it stepping up right now, so you'd be looking at maybe 100 million people displaced from their homes and an insurmountable humanitarian crisis
Personally Iβm hoping it misses
In midst of all this funnymaking, I'd like to point out for the record that anybody who genuinely wants it to hit Earth is fucking insane. Some combination of sociopath and psychopath.
The only scenario in which I would really want it to hit would be if it would lead to moderate global cooling without hitting populated areas. If it can dislodge enough particulates over one of the poles to block out some sun and give us a couple of years of reprieve from global warming, without actually killing anyone or destroying much wildlife, that would be nice.
It would be an ice agea where crops fail, people starve and we go back to business as usual.
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Most countries on Earth would treat this as a global catastrophe and put up funds regardless of where it's projected to impact.
Maybe not the current US, though.
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Even if it misses, it has a chance to come back every 4 years
So like American elections
Its not that catastrophic.
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Came here to remark, βIn hopes they can steer it at us?β
π€
For those interested in how they come up with the impact probabilities and why it's really important that JWST is looking at this, Scott Manley did a great video on this recently: https://youtu.be/Esk1hg2knno
Yeah, great video. Deflecting it seems surprisingly doable if the will is there.
I like how he brought up the fact that if we try and fail, then what? What happens if NASA bumps it just enough to push it from Africa to India?
An impact from such a rock wouldn't trigger a mass extinction like the much larger, dino-snuffing Chicxulub impactor did 66 million years ago. But an asteroid that size could wreak regional havoc similar to the Tunguska impactor that flattened some 80 million trees in the Siberian wilderness in 1908
Finally, some good news in the current media cycle
Donβt look up
But we might be able to mine it for trillions. Think of all the cell phones we could make!
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Can it direct the asteroid to mar a Lago?
I don't believe it is a possible target given how the orbital disk of the asteroid intersects with the surface of the earth. That's of we don't change the orbit, if we decide that is necessary, we'll probably try to get a complete miss instead of just changing the impact site.
DON'T LOOK UP
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Spoilers: it looks like a big rock
I got the image from James Webb early.
Spoiler
On screen. Magnify.
Enhance.
I'm team asteroid. Let it come baby.
Here's my nominee to head up the "study"
Ngl at this point Iβm rooting for the space rock
The space rock is likely not going to hit earth. If it does it's unlikely to hit land. If it does, it's unlikely to hit major population centers.
If it defies all odds and does that, it's going to happen in a location that is already struggling, and not in an area that's causing the suffering.
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2.3% Got my hopes up for a second there
Hell, I got excited when I saw it was that high.
in 2032
FUCK.
Xcom programmers say the asteroid has a roughly 2.3% chance of impacting Earth in 2032.
So it's a sure thing!
Can't wait to empty a SMG clip into an alien's face point blank and miss.
Whoever had βcity killer asteroidβ on their bingo card you can check it off now.
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