Asteroids Danger Essay, Research Paper

The universe is a shooting gallery and earth is the bullseye. The earth is

always under threat of a doomesday asteroid that will wipe out civilization.

There are over one thousand asteroids traveling toward earth and only three

quarters are accounted for. Where are the other one forth? No one knows because

the government doesn’t fund NASA astrologists enough to cover the astroids. Just

one impact could end civilization as we know it. No matter where it hits

everything would die, even bacteria. To give an estimate how much is spent on

asteroid detection. It is said to be less than the cost to operate a single

McDonald’s franchise. Total disaster would occur no matter where the asteroid

hit. Land, sea it doesn’t matter. Ocean impact would create a number of things.

First, a Tsunami(tidal wave) would be created on impact. The wave would be

hundreds for feet high traveling hundreds of miles per hour. It would start to

slow down crashing ashore through all coastal city. Then, finally wash up

hundreds for miles inland. " The mid-Atlantic Ocean impact ranging from 400

meters to 5 kilometers in diameter. This would generate a tsunami that would

sweep across the upper East Coast of the United States to the Appalachian

Mountains."(Gottschalk 1) The blast of the impact would equal a 300 gigaton

blast of T.N.T. Also, 2.4 seconds after impact, a small fireball with a

temperature of 5000′C would sweep across long island. A land fall strike would

cause total divistation. The asteroid would create a earth trembling impact

causing earth quakes around the world. The binding flash will show impact and

the crater would be twenty miles across. Then, a blanket of dust and debris

would blanket the earth and block the sun’s light. This would occur for hundreds

of years and the climate would be disrupted. Global killer no matter where it

hits. The end of the world is only 28 years, 10 months, 19 days, 1 hour, 45

minutes, and 39 seconds away. An asteroid named XF11 is on route to hit earth

directly. October is the month and 2038 is the year. Discovered by Jim Scotti on

December 6, 1997 while looking at star with the Arizona Spacewatch Group. The

asteroid "is predicted to pass at a rather comfortable distance of about

600,000 miles (about 960,000 kilometers) in 2028," "reported Dr.

Donald K. Yeomans and Dr. Paul W. Chodas." (http://www.voicenet.com/~phycoid/XF11/1997XF11.html

1) Tim Scotti disagrees saying is a matter of cover-up for national security.

Spectulations go both ways, some say it’s gonna hit others disagree. The last

lines of defense are either blowing it up or using nuclear power. The solutions

are to either destroy the asteroid or bounce it into another orbit. Nuclear

weapons being the first and only line of defense. Even though nuclear weapons

are forbiden in space by the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963 and the Outer Space

Treaty of 1967. Exeptions hopefully will be made. The bomb that will be used is

called the Neutron Bomb. It would create "standoff bursts" that would

change the velocity and the orbit of the asteroid.