Fascinating! wow.. makes me think of the movie Armaggeddon with bruce willis! Only they landed on the asteroid, and drilled and planted a nuclear warhead* As the NASA person said in hte movie...imagine a firecracker in your hand, light it what happens, poof nothing. Now, wrap your hand around the same firecracker and light it, yuor wife is gunna cant remember the rest he said...but it deos make sense* Blowing up an asteroid within, so the energy created by explosion ripps n tears itsway through its center out, halfing it. Of course, that too could make more probs..now you might have 2 halves comijng at us, or many smaller peices raining down on us at 20,000 MPH.

Would be VERY interestnig though, as an experiment, so to speak. See how a nuclear rocket would affect everything about an asteroid nearing us...change of orbit? bow it into pieces, depending on its internal structure, aka iron asteroid? rocky asteroid? nothing happen at all? very interesting

So what happens if instead of deflecting this asteroid away from the Earth, they deflect it towards the Earth?

I dunno, i have been aware of apophus since it's discovery and have read all the calculations of the chances of an Earth collision; and while i believe it's a very real possibility and there should be a plan in place should the need evr arrise.

Now the thing is this just seems like a distraction, from the Norway spiral and other such events, kinda weird to me that all of a sudden they come out publicly with plans to deflect an asteroid, sorry not buying it, not now at least. More is going on and everyone on THIS site should know that lol.

I never understood - why not just detonate a few high powered explosives or nukes beside the asteroid and use the explosion's shock wave to alter the asteroid's course? Once you push something in a certain direction in a zero vacuum it keeps going that direction.

I know there is plenty of objection to nuking very large asteroids — say, larger than a few miles in length, as the attempt may just break the asteroid into several large pieces.

However, in the case of Apophis, which is a relatively small asteroid — at 800+ feet, it's actually smaller than a modern cruise ship — why wouldn't a small tactical nuclear warhead just vaporize it instantly?

I mean, I'm not quite clear on why we need to tamper with Apophis in the first place — chances are, IF it ever actually collides with Earth in 2029 or other future date, this asteroid is going to impact in the ocean, which might produce a minor tsunami, but it's not going to be catastrophic. Certainly not as catastrophic as any typical earthquake on Earth.

If there is a chance of it hitting a populated land mass, we're not going to know for certain until the final hours of approach — still, even at that late date, a small tactical nuke atop a missile would reduce such a small asteroid to gas and dust. Instantly.

Is this Russia plan just a training run for intercepting and deflecting asteroids? It's not worth the money and effort, in my opinion.

— Doc Velocity

Originally posted by JIMC5499
So what happens if instead of deflecting this asteroid away from the Earth, they deflect it towards the Earth?

That may be considered to be more bang for the buck?

Seriously though, the Bible Code mentions a comet strike in 2012 but also mentioned something along the lines of an alternate timeline whereas the comet is pulverized

Now it's been said that the Dark Rift of the galaxy in which our solar system will be entering in 2012 is akin to a cosmic pinball machine of asteroids and comets. This may be an example of science and religion merging.

The problem with nuking the asteroid is that there is no air in space. The majority of the damage in any explosion is the shock wave moving a wall of compressed air before it. Unless you can get the nuke inside the asteroid it is going to have very little effect.

I think getting a program such as this going is a good idea, in case something a lot more threatening shows up on the radar. Then we will be prepared, and hopefully know what to do. Use Apophis as the first attempt to learn how to deal with a certain situation. It would be much better than relying on a hail mary pass.

This is a good opportunity for all world superpowers to work together
even China

Reminds of the book "EON" Where a giant asteroid comes in very close to earth and the US and russia fight over it. Inside is a technology that links this one "wormwood" i thikn they called it.... to everyother wormwood throughout the multiverse... so you could use it to travel through time and to differnet dementions.

And of course aleins were there fighting eachother to.... of course.

Without mentioning NASA findings, Perminov said that he heard from a scientist that Apophis is getting closer and may hit the planet. "I don't remember exactly, but it seems to me it could hit the Earth by 2032," Perminov said.

Russian Scientist : "Hey Comrades, I just told Anatoly a big asteriod is going to hit the Earth in 2032 bwahahaha"

Comrades: " Hahahaha! good one... but I think he took you seriously"

Russian Scientist. "Oh crap!"


[edit on 30-12-2009 by Zarniwoop]