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What To Do About an Asteroid That Has a 1 In 625 Chance of Hitting Us In 2040?

Posted by Soulskill on from the ignore-it-until-2039-and-then-panic dept.

The Bad Astronomer writes "The asteroid 2011 AG5 is 140 meters across: football-stadium-sized. Its orbit isn't nailed down well enough to say yet, but using what's currently known, there's a 1 in 625 chance it will impact the Earth in 2040. It's behind the Sun until September 2013, and more observations taken then will probably reduce the odds of impact to something close to 0. But does it make sense to wait until then to start investigating a mission to deflect it away our planet? Astronomers are debating this right now, and what they conclude may pave the way for how we deal with an asteroid threat in the future."

20 of 412 comments (clear)

  1. I will be doing one thing about it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Praying it hits. That would be so awesome!

    1. Re:I will be doing one thing about it. by gmhowell · · Score: 4, Funny

      Amen brother. Let's get on the A ship and use the Earth as the B.

      I'll be laughing when you die from dirty telephone handsets.

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
    2. Re:I will be doing one thing about it. by EdIII · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's not the size of the asteroid, but its motion to the ocean.

    3. Re:I will be doing one thing about it. by Abreu · · Score: 3, Funny

      Hah! I'll use a hands-free!

      (years later, dies from dirty hands-free earphone)

      --
      No sig for the moment.
    4. Re:I will be doing one thing about it. by gewalker · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well, I would start with my superior math skills that realize it is 28 years from 2012 to 2040 -- That is sure to impress her.

  2. Just... by MisterMidi · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just threaten to sue it out of existance.

  3. 2040, you say? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Funny

    There is a 1 in 625 chance that I will be taking a long holiday and be unavailable for comment in 2040...

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  4. There is one thing we can do... by OliWarner · · Score: 4, Funny

    We should definitely consider putting Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck and Aerosmith into cryo right now. Without them, we won't have a chance.

  5. Well obviously... by tylersoze · · Score: 5, Funny

    Decisions of how to deal with the massive asteroid are best left to the individual.

    http://www.theonion.com/articles/republicans-vote-to-repeal-obamabacked-bill-that-w,19025/

  6. Re:Set a reminder for 20 years from now by kat_skan · · Score: 5, Funny

    In 2040 Bruce Willis will be 85. What's he gonna do? Tell the asteroid to get off his lawn?

  7. Let's settle the argument... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wherever it hits, those are the people that God hates most. End of debate.

  8. Re:Ignore it by Capsaicin · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ignore it.

    Look I agree, only 1 in 625?! That hardly seems like a threat at all. Anyway, gotta run, I'm off to by a lottery ticket.

    --
    Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
  9. Re:brown trouser time! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    I'm shitting your pants!

  10. Re:Easy answer by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 5, Funny

    get laid

    This is about an asteroid that has a 1 in 625 change of hitting earth, not about hell freezing over.

  11. Relax Everyone by xstonedogx · · Score: 3, Funny

    I got this.

    *shakes fist at sky*

  12. Build a ship for the best and brightest! by www.sorehands.com · · Score: 3, Funny

    Build a spaceship and put in all the telephone sanitisers, hairdressers, advertising account executives, MPAA executives, RIAA executives, and politicians and send them into space.

    --
    Fight Spammers!
  13. I'm not worried by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Funny

    After all, Putin is back! He'll certainly deal with it - shoot it, wrestle it, somehow force it to submit to his iron will.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  14. Re:Ignore it by masternerdguy · · Score: 2, Funny

    We drill. We send in the worlds best deep core driller.

    --
    To offset political mods, replace Flamebait with Insightful.
  15. Re:Slow it down or speed it up just slightly by Jeremi · · Score: 5, Funny

    I saw a recent idea that involved painting it white in order to decrease absorptivity.

    The real trick is to make it look like you're having so much fun repainting it that all the other countries demand to be allowed to repaint it as well.

    --


    I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  16. Re:Idiots! by Darinbob · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hiding in their space ship.