Credit: → Kunde ←/YouTube
You may remember the meteorite which exploded over Chelyabinsk in Russia earlier this year. Seems the damage caused may be greater than first believed:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/06/chelyabinsk-meteor-russia
It gets worse — the danger is nothing less than the destruction of civilisation itself.
http://hhg2tech.blogspot.com/2011/12/whats-6-miles-wide-can-end-civilization.html
http://hhg2tech.blogspot.com/2013/02/heres-what-would-happen-if-huge.html
But there may be ways to avert Armageddon.
More about those big, massive, fast moving things up there:
http://hhg2tech.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-sky-is-falling-flash-video.html
http://hhg2tech.blogspot.com/2012/07/striking-streaks-15-photos-of-meteors.html
A further risk of a major impact similar to the Tunguska meteorite (Russia, 1908) is that it could be mistaken for a nuclear missile strike, triggering a major nuclear exchange. / acclaimed British scientist Stephen Hawking urgent call continuation space exploration programs programme program beyond Earth live next millennium species extinct space humanity Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Los Angeles proponent space exploration planet Earth continue to support human life population finite resources planet Earth growing exponentially, technical ability change environment genetic code selfish aggressive instincts survival advantage avoid disaster next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million Hawking our only chance of long-term survival spread out into space space exploration global financial crisis major spending cuts NASA NASA’s budget planetary science cut $300 million exploration prediction Kepler mission discovering scores potentially habitable planets new technology fusion powered fusion-powered rockets rocket journey planets starship threats posed space rocks meteor meteorite asteroids hit Earth risk impact crater shock wave passed overhead blew out windows injured hundreds of people 2012 DA14 zipping past Earth inside orbit some man-made satellites astronomers strikes NASA America's space agency watching the sky rock orbits bring them close to Earth near-Earth object NEO track tracking tracked down around 90% of the very biggest NEOs planet killers a kilometre or more across wiped out dinosaurs 7-10km heavyweights are smaller less dangerous damage hit town city hard harder to spot NEO-detection detection Japanese Space Agency universities ask for more money to expand their search researchers, meanwhile pondering what to do if an asteroid is detected that is indeed on a collision course with Earth blast dangerous asteroid apart using nuclear weapons doomsday scenario fracture large asteroid into several smaller ones 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty bans nuclear explosions in space The European Space Agency mission called Don Quijote large heavy spacecraft ram asteroid away alter send sending rocket engine asteroid could work asteroid relatively small detected plenty time spare proposal paint one side asteroid light dark colours colour color colors tweaking tweak trajectory neat bit physics called Yarkovsky effect describes which sunlight gives celestial bodies force gentle push gravity tractor orbit around asteroid rely relying gravity tug rock gently out of the way /
