Armageddon via Meteor: Can it happen?

Everytime I watch the movie Armageddon (1998) it makes me think of the possibility this could happen, I do believe if something of that size was on a path to collide with Earth, I think we would know in plenty of time to do something about it, but if we did know, what exactly could we do about it?

"It happened before, it will happen again...it's just a question of when."



One of the most famous craters is the Chicxulub crater on the Yukatan peninsula in Mexico which is believed to date back to exactly 65 million years ago, the time when the extinction of the dinosaurs occurred.

"Geochronologist Carl C. Swisher III of the Institute of Human Origins in Berkeley Calif., and his colleagues report that rocks from inside the Chicxulub circle formed exactly 65 million years ago."

meteorite.org...

"NASA scientists believe that an asteroid 10 to 20 kilometers (6 to 12 miles) in diameter produced this impact basin. The asteroid hit a geologically unique, sulfur-rich region of the Yucatan Peninsula and kicked up billions of tons of sulfur and other materials into the atmosphere. Darkness prevailed for about half a year after the collision. This caused global temperatures to plunge near freezing. Half of the species on Earth became extinct including the dinosaurs."

www.solarviews.com...

It's clear it has happened before, but will we have the technology to stop it? Could the movie Armageddon actually play out in a situation like this?

Here's an interesting perspective on this:

"The world is ending! ... Again?"
www.backwoodshome.com...

Excerpt:

"People love to talk about scary stuff. Especially when it�s end-of-the-world scary, such as the big asteroid recently in the news that was supposed to hit Earth and destroy all life, including human life. The big media morons went right along with this far-fetched prediction for the sake of a few more viewers and readers, but as usual the truth came out: Oops! Our calculations were off. The asteroid won�t hit Earth after all.

It�s not the first time an on-again, off-again asteroid was headed for Planet Earth, and it�s only one of many �doom and gloom� scenarios the news media likes to pass on to all us ever so gullible humans. Remember Y2K? Everyone went nuts, spending billions to plan for an imaginary monster. BHM, I�m proud to say, was one of the few honest media outlets who insisted from start to finish that Y2K was just a lot of hooey.

But now, today, as we open 2004, I�d like to tell you about a real possible doomsday scenario that is sitting under our very feet. It�s a volcano. Not just any old volcano like another Mt. St. Helens. That thing was just a firecracker. I�m talking about one that could end the world as we know it�a supervolcano. And it�s inevitable."


And this interesting list:

"Asteroids And Comets Turn The Tides Of Civilization?"
abob.libs.uga.edu...


And these:
"The Dark Ages : Were They Darker Than We Imagined?"
gchbryant.tripod.com...

"Comets and the Bronze Age Collapse"
abob.libs.uga.edu...

"Disaster that struck the ancients"
news.bbc.co.uk...


Personally and IMHO, the detecting and deflecting of comets or asteroids is a 'must' and 'probable' (doable)technology. Let's hope that "we" won't have to find out anytime soon....



regards
seekerof

It could happen. It IS just a matter of time. All it takes is for one meteor to come around, and yeah..we're screwed. Nothing we can do about it, either, so why worry? Its kinda like dying..its gonna happen no matter what..so why fret about it? Hopefully, by the time it does happen, we will have this "Star Wars" Program thing up, and hopefully they can destroy it before it gets too close.

-wD

I heard somewhere that apiece of a meteor after being burnt by the atmosphere if is the at least the size of basketball can do some major damage to us.

So the changes of something crashing into earth and destroying us are very high if we stood still and there were nothing protecting us.

Fortunately, we are orbiting the earth and the moon is orbiting us and we have numerous obstacles before us to stop a meteor having interstellar origin.

Of course it has happened before, at least once maybe even up to a thousand times. In the beginning when earth was forming, at least numerous meteors would have crashed into proto-Earth and make the Earth be the planet it is right now.

We humans occupy a very small place in the history of Earth, so I doubt we would ever see a meteor crash into us like in the movie. Therefore, there isn�t enough evidence to start worrying, yet.

Forgive me for babbling. I had nothing else to do.

The odds are we wouldnt see it coming... most near collision objects aret noticed untill AFTER they have passed and the danger is over... the main reason for this is they come towards us from the direction of the sun so we're blind to them... i think a collision event is the most likely way we'll be thwarted

it's either that or John Titor's predictions

I think I'll go with asteroid

Sure, it could happen. I think that Yellowstone caldera, and the ones we haven't found yet, are a bigger problem right now, though.