End of The World: Anyone else read about this??? (1 Viewer)

[Scooter]

There is supposedly a planet in epliptical orbit the comes close to Earth every 3,000 years or so and is expected to wreak havoc on our planet in 2003.

Anyone else know about this or have any links to info???

 

[Julie K]

No. There is no planet like you describe. We've got all those well-observed and they sit in very nice non-threatening orbits.

What there are are asteroids. There are quite a few of them in earth-crossing orbits too. These have hit us before and will undoubtedly hit us again. There are people who search for new ones, but sometimes they aren't observed until after they make a close pass by earth. (BTW, we're talking on the order of 10s of km in diameter or smaller.)

But, there is not a single one found so far that poses a threat. There was one case where some old observations indicated a possible threat, but new observations refined the orbit and removed the worry. In any case, there is absolutely nothing coming our way in 2003 that we know about.

 

[Dheiner]

Aw, come on Julie.

What the heck are you doing, stopping the panic?

 

[Julie K]

No, just trying to spread a little truth.

 

[Scott Hayes]

http://www.solcomhouse.com/yellowstone.htm
check this out if you want something to worry about. I wonder why no one has tried to eleviate the pressure that is building up. Its not as if our lives or our children/grandchildrens lives may depend on it or anything.

 

[Frank Anderson]

Eat right, exercise, stay healthy and die anyway.

 

[NickSo]

Wow, that yellowstone volcano description sounds like a giant pimple!

 

[Scott Hayes]

Wow, that yellowstone volcano description sounds like a giant pimple!

With big red 1000 degree puss that will cover the country!

 

[Jeffrey Noel]

Damn, that does sound like one hell of a pimple. If it's true about the power this thing possesses, I'm sceered!
Someone should start making a huge air purifier system!!

 

[BrianW]

I wonder why no one has tried to eleviate the pressure that is building up.

Scott, we can't alleviate the pressure. Most magma pressure is caused simply by the weight of the Earth’s crust sitting on a pool of liquid trying to find a way out. But under Yellowstone, it’s more like a warm can of soda. The magma under Yellowstone has gases dissolved in it. If we lance the boil and try to alleviate the pressure, then the dissolved gases will begin to escape solution and expand, which will lead to more pressure, which will cause further rupture, which will alleviate more pressure, which will lead to more gasses expanding, which will lead to more pressure – a catastrophic chain reaction that cannot be stopped or stifled once it has been started.

I don’t know what the solution is, but lancing the boil isn’t it.

 

[Scott Hayes]

Brian, I hear what you are saying, but I dont believe in can't. It may take a while but I am sure with some serious study something could be figured out. Maybe there could be a way to make the explosion less severe. For instance if you pour black powder on the ground you get a quick fire, wrap it up tight and you get an explosion. Perhaps a way could be devised to extract the gas. I dont know, I am not a scientist. However I say that something should at least be attempted. I really dont want to be swallowed by lava or go thru an ice age. Thats just me though

 

[Matthew Chmiel]

If that Yellowstone volcano ever goes off, I'm hauling my ass to the UK.

 

[Carlo_M]

All the more reason why you should live life so that even if it ends in 5 minutes, you try to minimize the regrets you'll have.

Enjoy life!

 

[RobertR]

The amusing thing about the "volcanic winter" that the article says would be caused by an eruption of this thing is that it would render the current environmentalist obsession with "global warming" moot, and it would be ironic that it would be caused not by human effort (which they dislike), but by nature (which they love).

 

[Scott Hayes]

All the more reason why you should live life so that even if it ends in 5 minutes, you try to minimize the regrets you'll have.

I am not making fun or flaming you but it always makes me laugh when people say something like this. What are you going to be thinking when a pyroplastic flow covers the country coast to coast? Are you going to be thinking of all the things you did or did not do or are you going to be thinking "AHHHHH I AM ON FIRE IT HURTS OH MY GOD IT HURTS WHY DIDNT WE LISTEN TO SCOTT AND FIX THIS THAT DAMN BASTARD WAS RIGHT OHHH THE HORROR OHHH THE PAIN!!!!"

 

[Hugh M]

Uh,
if there was a planet coming at us, why would we be told?
second thing is that there was an asteroid that came very close to us very recently and scientists did NOT know until it was too late to do anything about it. It was big enough to kill half the people on the planet I believe.
I agree, just live I guess, there's nothing we can do about it.
here's something like this:
http://newton.dm.unipi.it/cgi-bin/ne...iskpage:0;main
I heard the story about the unexpected onject last week I believe, but I can't find any info about it.

 

[Scott Hayes]

I agree, just live I guess, there's nothing we can do about it.

That is the attitude we should try to avoid. We arent talking about catching a cold we are talking about extintion level threats. IMO that should be a high priority as far as research goes. I dont believe in lying down and dying. Granted if Yellowstone blew tomorrow we would be screwed; same as if an asteroid was found to be about to hit wihtout advanced warning. But I think we should asume that they are about to happen. Its kind of like handling a gun, always asume it is loaded. If we start now perhaps when these events are about to happen we will then have a means of defence.

 

[Julie K]

Quote:

And how then should we live our lives if we assume everything is about to happen? Everywhere anyone lives there are immediate and not-so-immediate threats. I am not going to cower in fear over a "late" eruption cycle in Yellowstone (a number like 60000 yr repeat cycle is meaningless without accompanying statistics). In any case, there is simply nothing we can do about it at this time. You might as well say we need to do something about the San Andreas. Scott, didn't you express an opinion in another thread about how small our understanding is (more or less)? Well, here's the perfect example. We can't control many potentially disasterous natural phenomenon. Sucks, huh?
And yes, if I ever see a raging pyroclastic flow coming towards me, I will be very glad of the time I already had and enjoyed.
(Oh, but if people really want to have "something done" - call your elected officials. Repeatedly. The only way "something" can be done (such as more time spent watching for asteroids) is if the budget exists for it. Convince the people controlling the money that we the people want it, and I guarantee that there will be plenty of happy scientists to take on the job.)

 

[Bruce Hedtke]

Scott,

I admire your admiration for mankind. But, to think that all we have to do is make up our minds and we can find a solution to anything, any situation...well, it's noble but not realistic. Mankind is so small when compared to nature and the universe. We can't defense against tornados, hurricanes, fires, floods, famine...and we sure as hell can't defense against wayward asteroids. We can't defeat nature. We can't best it. Remember about a year ago when the sun flares where really active? Well, our communication satellites are normally protected from the constant stream of radiation particles emitted by outlaying high altitude "blanket" of atmosphere that the satellites orbit in. Well, the subsequent sun flares caused that blanket to shrink and left the sats exposed, thus shutting them down and causing communication black-outs. We knew about this well in advance and there was nothing we could do about it. Now, this was just a micro-cosm of the plethora of scenerios nature throws at us constantly. Simply put, we are at the mercy of nature...not the other way around.

Bruce

 

[Bruce Hedtke]

Oh, and btw...why isn't anyone working on refueling the sun? We really need to look into that
Bruce