The sky is falling
March 10, 2009 11:10 AM   Subscribe

In the wake of a rather large meteor narrowly missing earth, loud booms have been heard from coast to coast. Here's hoping that's the end of it and there isn't something, larger on the way...
posted by zeoslap (63 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
loud booms have been heard from coast to coast

Yes, someone please tell Art Bell and George Noory to keep it down please.
posted by GuyZero at 11:13 AM on March 10, 2009


Put down the tinfoil. Now.
posted by kldickson at 11:18 AM on March 10, 2009


The earth has two coasts?
posted by rocket88 at 11:19 AM on March 10, 2009 [30 favorites]


Mock if you like, but who will be laughing when the mote in Gods eye comes crashing into the planet?

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. That's who.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:21 AM on March 10, 2009 [5 favorites]


There was a possibly-related AskMetafilter post last week.
posted by MrMoonPie at 11:22 AM on March 10, 2009


I'm pretty sure the loud booms were meth labs exploding.
posted by Sailormom at 11:23 AM on March 10, 2009


The earth has two coasts?

It will, shortly. Just hide underneath the desk and be patient.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:24 AM on March 10, 2009 [5 favorites]


Viral marketing campaign for that upcoming Thor movie.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 11:28 AM on March 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


Yeah, this one at a distance of 45,000 miles... yeah, that's a little dicy. Then again it's only the size of a McMansion, and as much as the science writers like to fantasize about what would happen if it landed in Brooklyn, Singapore, or Helsinki, the odds are really damn slim it would land anywhere near a major populated area, much less still be the size of a McMansion.

And a small nuclear bomb? That's a really, really ambiguous unit of measure. A fraction of the Little Boy bomb, minus the radiation.. that's kind of pitiful.
posted by crapmatic at 11:28 AM on March 10, 2009


Here's hoping that's the end of it and there isn't something, larger on the way...

INDEED!
posted by Parasite Unseen at 11:28 AM on March 10, 2009 [3 favorites]


The repetition of booms in the same area at a later time kind of rules out the space junk idea. For that matter, so does a morning boom, I think. If you visualize the geometry, a morning asteroid would have to be headed at right angles, or directly in opposition, to the Earth's orbit. Or maybe I mean the evening.
posted by DU at 11:35 AM on March 10, 2009


The stars will soon be right.
posted by FatherDagon at 11:35 AM on March 10, 2009


Boom-tubes.

DARKSEID IS!
posted by Artw at 11:41 AM on March 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


Mock if you like, but who will be laughing when the mote in Gods eye comes crashing into the planet?

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. That's who.


I think it's Lucifer's Hammer that you're looking for.
posted by malocchio at 11:43 AM on March 10, 2009 [7 favorites]


>Mock if you like, but who will be laughing when the mote in Gods eye comes crashing into the planet?

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. That's who.


Actually, I think that particular Niven/Pournelle novel was Lucifer's Hammer.
posted by mosk at 11:43 AM on March 10, 2009


when the mote in Gods eye comes crashing into the planet

That's not the... the title for the other book... you've got it backwa...

nevermind.
posted by GuyZero at 11:44 AM on March 10, 2009


HA

At least I knew I was being trolled!
posted by GuyZero at 11:45 AM on March 10, 2009


Next you'll be telling me Ringworld isn't about a policeman with one arm who can grab things psychically.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:48 AM on March 10, 2009


Please don't make me think about the things that got grabbed with one arm in Ringworld. I love Niven's books, but Ringworld reads too much like a bad Penthouse letter:

"Dear Forum, I never thought this could happen to me. So, I'm exploring this alien world, shaped like a ring and then I meet this freaky alien woman... well, I didn't know what 'rishathra' was but it sounded good to me!"
posted by GuyZero at 11:52 AM on March 10, 2009


Footfall?
/nivenfilter
posted by drinkcoffee at 11:52 AM on March 10, 2009


Someday you will die. If you're very lucky, your death will result from circumstances as rad as rocks from space exploding the surface of the earth.
posted by carsonb at 11:57 AM on March 10, 2009 [19 favorites]


Boom goes the dynamite.
posted by kcds at 12:01 PM on March 10, 2009


Loud booms from coast to coast? Maybe Iceland isn't the only place people are blowing up Range Rovers.
posted by wendell at 12:03 PM on March 10, 2009


Maybe the meteor will kill the alien baby elephants, destroy the arcology, wipe out the protectors, and defeat the organ-leggers once and for all!
posted by malocchio at 12:04 PM on March 10, 2009


And a voice boomed out from above
"GOD DAMMIT I MISSED!"
posted by eriko at 12:22 PM on March 10, 2009 [2 favorites]


We have met the meteor, and it is us.
posted by swift at 12:26 PM on March 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


In my small town there is a crosswalk on main St. in front of the Post Office. Drivers from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York never stop at the crosswalk. I've come close to being hit several times. Should I live in fear?
posted by Xurando at 12:32 PM on March 10, 2009


And a small nuclear bomb? That's a really, really ambiguous unit of measure. A fraction of the Little Boy bomb, minus the radiation.. that's kind of pitiful.

Not if it lands couple of blocks away from your house, it isn't. It's all about perspective.
posted by barc0001 at 12:38 PM on March 10, 2009


Here's another article about the near miss. This closer than about twice the distance from the Earth as geosynchronous satellites.

Although only about 100 feet long, it would have leveled about 800 square miles if it hit.

This isn't tin foil paranoia. This was a near-miss and there have been others in the last decade. Eventually one will hit, and if we are lucky it will be this small.
posted by eye of newt at 12:43 PM on March 10, 2009


Eventually one will hit, and if we are lucky it will be this small.

On the positive side, if one that small does hit, there's a better than 2/3 chance that it will hit somewhere in the middle of the ocean or some other completely unpopulated area.
posted by burnmp3s at 12:48 PM on March 10, 2009


Do you feel lucky, punk? Well do you?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:50 PM on March 10, 2009


I'd imagine if it was big enough to level 800 sq/miles that if it hit the ocean it'd make quite a splash and folks on the coasts might get a tad wet.
posted by zeoslap at 12:58 PM on March 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


Thanks a lot, Parasite Unseen, now I have new nightmares.
posted by subaruwrx at 1:01 PM on March 10, 2009


With my luck, it will be an ocean strike resulting in huge tsunami, and I'll be distracted by a speeding Woodie loaded with surfpunks headed for the beach, and fall right into an open manhole.
posted by steef at 1:02 PM on March 10, 2009 [3 favorites]


In my small town there is a crosswalk on main St. in front of the Post Office. Drivers from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York never stop at the crosswalk. I've come close to being hit several times. Should I live in fear?

Just have the town council put up a sign at the city limit that says for Mass., Conn., and N.Y. drivers to take the Bypass Loop 101. All others take Business 101. That'll get them the hell away from your crosswalk.
posted by netbros at 1:03 PM on March 10, 2009


This isn't tin foil paranoia. This was a near-miss and there have been others in the last decade.

If I were to print out the complete list of things that could have but didn't kill me in the last decade, the stack of paper would be big enough to kill me. Fuck - there's another one!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 1:07 PM on March 10, 2009 [9 favorites]


In my small town there is a crosswalk on main St. in front of the Post Office. Drivers from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York never stop at the crosswalk. I've come close to being hit several times. Should I live in fear?

No, but you should probably look both ways before crossing the street.
posted by !Jim at 1:07 PM on March 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


if we are lucky it will be this small

I'm not an astrophysicist, but I bet the chances of a large thing hitting are less than the chances of a small thing hitting.
posted by swift at 1:11 PM on March 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


Can I vote on who gets crushed if the next one does hit a major metropolitan area?
posted by serazin at 1:13 PM on March 10, 2009


I'd imagine if it was big enough to level 800 sq/miles that if it hit the ocean it'd make quite a splash and folks on the coasts might get a tad wet.

That's a good point, I don't know how big of a meteor it would have to be to create a tsunami big enough to do major damage. I'm not 100% sure, but if the explosion is on par with a small nuclear bomb, it might have the same effect as some of the atmospheric nuclear tests that were done in the ocean, such as the Operation Castle tests. As far as I know none of those tests caused much actual damage other than exposing everyone to massive amounts of radiation.
posted by burnmp3s at 1:14 PM on March 10, 2009


I love the tsunami hazard zone sign
posted by kirkaracha at 1:23 PM on March 10, 2009


Someday you will die. If you're very lucky, your death will result from circumstances as rad as rocks from space exploding the surface of the earth.

How'd I die? In the FUCKING APOCALYPSE!
posted by GeekAnimator at 1:36 PM on March 10, 2009


If only there were some kind of technology allowing us to look up into the sky and the space beyond it and magnify what we see there.
posted by turgid dahlia at 1:49 PM on March 10, 2009 [5 favorites]


Let's burn down the observatory so this can never happen again!
posted by never used baby shoes at 2:03 PM on March 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


For more on the lucky-to-die-in-the-apocalypse scenario, refer to the Doomsday Argument.
posted by swift at 2:16 PM on March 10, 2009


I hope it's a gigantic squid so those fanboys will finally shut the fuck up.
posted by turaho at 2:28 PM on March 10, 2009 [6 favorites]


Air Ball!
posted by sourwookie at 3:10 PM on March 10, 2009 [2 favorites]


Does seem like something we should spend some time and money on. We know it will happen sooner or later. Perhaps much later, but still - why wait? Just go easy, spend a given amount of money every year (should be easy to figure out about how much correlated with the odds of an asteroid strike), put it in a trust fund, over time the amount of money starts to build up in proportion to the probability we'll get hit and the project likely goes into effect before an asteroid actually hits us. Given we plug enough dough into it early enough.
Right now we're not doing anything. Which doesn't seem like much of a plan for an inevitable event. I'll grant some stuff is more important and more likely, but more deferrable as well. We might have a nuclear war. But it's not absolutely certain we will. We can stop people, reason with them. Big hunk of iron-rock moving at high speed on a ballistic trajectory, not so much.
posted by Smedleyman at 3:15 PM on March 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


serazin : Can I vote on who gets crushed if the next one does hit a major metropolitan area?

Let me know what you are interested in and I'll see what I can do. No promises or anything, but I figure it can't hurt to pass on the suggestion, right?
posted by quin at 3:45 PM on March 10, 2009


Sorry, but I'm still more disturbed and threatened by the GODZILLA BUKKAKE post.
posted by Muddler at 3:58 PM on March 10, 2009


Some say a comet will fall from the sky.
Followed by meteor showers and tidal waves.
Followed by fault lines that cannot sit still.
Followed by millions of dumbfounded dipshits.
posted by waxboy at 4:19 PM on March 10, 2009


Boom Boom, out go the lights!
posted by bwg at 5:05 PM on March 10, 2009


Yeah, this one at a distance of 45,000 miles... yeah, that's a little dicy.

The average distance from the center of the Earth to the center of the Moon is 238,857 miles. So it whizzed by inside the moon's orbit, in fact, 80% closer than the moon. I'd call that fairly close on an astronomical scale.
posted by StickyCarpet at 5:17 PM on March 10, 2009


I forsee putting up a giant space-net around us, and it'll be space-dolphin safe, and it'll catch all the meteors, and space-combers will go get them, and we'll use the materials in them to create cool shiny robots and whatever doesn't get used in robots we'll crush and turn into an alternative to that ugly lava rock people insist on putting in their gardens when they don't want to grow anything (in which case why buy a place with a garden) and the shiny robots can do the weeding until they become sentient in some sort of sky-net (only it'll be rock-net I guess) and they'll clank around attacking us with weed-pullers. THAT is how those little space-rocks will get us in the end.

Or maybe it'll be a gamma ray burst that gets us. One of the two, anyways.
posted by Salmonberry at 5:20 PM on March 10, 2009 [3 favorites]


The earth has two coasts?

Pangaea only had one!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:32 PM on March 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


Let's look at the bright side.

There are 6 billion people on this planet, at least 3 billion of whom are assholes. So the odds of the giant space rock killing some random asshole is 3 billion times larger than the space rock killing me. In fact, the odds of the space rock killing more than one asshole are quite good, whereas the odds of killing more than one of me are zero.

I'm kind of rooting for the space rock, now that I think about it.
posted by swell at 7:07 PM on March 10, 2009


So you are an asshole times infinity?
posted by swift at 7:32 PM on March 10, 2009


BRIGHTSEID?
posted by ifthe21stcentury at 8:57 PM on March 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


Not a whole lot we can reasonably do about this sort of thing, and much more pressing things to spend money on down here at the surface. I'm saving my worrying for accidentally leaving the iron on.
posted by Jilder at 10:45 PM on March 10, 2009


DARKSEID IS!

Anti-life justifies my metafilter membership hate.
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 2:30 AM on March 11, 2009 [1 favorite]


In 1995, the UK was rocked by a succession of three booms, which caused great consternation at the time. The noise spread across continental Europe and Australasia before petering out in the US.

Eventually the source of the issue was tracked down to a network of young men with wispy facial hair, plastic bodykits stuck on their Ford Escorts and BMW 3 Series, and an overenthusiastic love for the Outhere Brothers.
posted by MuffinMan at 5:24 AM on March 11, 2009


Man, if that big effen space rock pummels earth, I wanna be right under it!
posted by Drasher at 8:17 AM on March 11, 2009


Boom goes the dynamite.

Damn you. Every time I hear/read that phrase, I have to go watch the video. "Oh no."

posted by mrgrimm at 10:25 AM on March 11, 2009


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