Space experts offer anti-asteroid plan (Update)

November 26, 2008 By DANICA KIRKA , Associated Press Writer

(AP) -- It is disaster planning on a galactic scale: Space experts want to come up with a contingency plan on what to do in case a killer asteroid collides with Earth.

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Content from The Associated Press expires 15 days after original publication date. For more information about The Associated Press, please visit www.ap.org .

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• zevkirsh - Nov 25, 2008
  • Rank: 2.8 / 5 (11)
  has physorg been hacked? or is this just a mistake?
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• Star_Gazer - Nov 25, 2008
  • Rank: 2.2 / 5 (10)
  not mistake! Santa will save the day!!
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• NeptuneAD - Nov 25, 2008
  • Rank: 2.3 / 5 (8)
  Nah, it was such a controversial story, it had to be written in gobblety gook.
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• NeilFarbstein - Nov 25, 2008
  • Rank: 1.9 / 5 (12)
  asteroids... bah humbug
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• Walfy - Nov 25, 2008
  • Rank: 2 / 5 (8)
  WTF?
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• gopher65 - Nov 25, 2008
  • Rank: 2.3 / 5 (3)
  I believe this is the real, unhacked version of the story, if anyone is interested:
  
  http://cnews.cano...-ap.html
  
  It is a pretty useless story that doesn't say anything new. Just what we've come to expect from the dolts in the science reporting department of the Associated Press. If you don't read it, you aren't missing anything.
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• tkjtkj - Nov 26, 2008
  • Rank: 2.1 / 5 (8)
  Here's something new! Just how
  weird is the English cullinary
  world! i swear this is true!...
  My ex wife , a nutritionist
  researcher at Harvard, born in
  England , testifies to this
  "pudding recipe" :
  One bowl, one chunk of aluminum,
  one metal-worker's 'mill file'. !!
  Ya, use the file to create a pile
  of aluminum metal 'gravel' in the
  bottom of the bowl" ...
  I begged her to stop the
  description at this point . .my
  stomach and mind couldnt take it!
  She swore its a REAL english
  recipe!!
  
  
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• morpheus2012 - Nov 26, 2008
  • Rank: 1.2 / 5 (13)
  physorg news did for fake news
  
  waht fox news did for fake news:)
  
  anyway most of u are sleeping sheep waht dose it matter anyway:)
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• Wicked - Nov 26, 2008
  • Rank: 3.9 / 5 (9)
  So... the anti-asteroid plan is to have the U.N. make an anti-asteroid plan. Also have a world-wide PA system droning "Warning! Asteroids! Take Cover!"
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• lengould100 - Nov 26, 2008
  • Rank: 2.6 / 5 (10)
  You UN haters need to figure out that EVENTUALLY a UN-like organization must hold ultimate authority on earth. Its an equality thing, just like black men going from slave to president.
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• Smellyhat - Nov 26, 2008
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (5)
  It is NOT disaster planning on a 'galactic scale'. Danica Kirka, you FAIL science journalism 101. Go to the back of the class.
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• Modernmystic - Nov 26, 2008
  • Rank: 4 / 5 (4)

  You UN haters need to figure out that EVENTUALLY a UN-like organization must hold ultimate authority on earth. Its an equality thing, just like black men going from slave to president.

  
  
  Whaaaaa....?
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• Velanarris - Nov 26, 2008
  • Rank: 3.4 / 5 (5)

  You UN haters need to figure out that EVENTUALLY a UN-like organization must hold ultimate authority on earth. Its an equality thing, just like black men going from slave to president.

  
  
  No, a UN-like organization shall never hold sway over the planet. Grouping that many effete, socialist, mini-dictators in one governing body will cause anarchy and revolt or complete apathy.
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• Smellyhat - Nov 27, 2008
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (1)

  No, a UN-like organization shall never hold sway over the planet. Grouping that many effete, socialist, mini-dictators in one governing body will cause anarchy and revolt or complete apathy.

  
  
  Well, I'm completely apathetic about the Olympics, so you might be on to something.
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• jimmie - Nov 29, 2008
  • Rank: 1 / 5 (4)
  .
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• NeilFarbstein - Nov 29, 2008
  • Rank: 3 / 5 (2)
  Establish an asteroid buster force and build nuclear powered rockets that can get to an asteroid much quicker than chemical rockets. The VASIMIR ionic engine is closest to being operational. In tests it developed 1/100 the the thrust of a regular rocket engine, beating other ionic engines by a longshot. NASA recently sold the patent license on VASIMIR to a private space company. This would cause a quantum leap in interplanetary space travel with rockets that can get to the asteroid belt in 6 weeks and to the asteroid belt in double that time. Besides protecting earth from an asteroid hit, asteroid mining might be economical decades ahead of schedule.
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• zevkirsh - Nov 30, 2008
  • Rank: 3 / 5 (2)
  blow it up with nukes. if the asteroid arrives in many small parts , most of it will just burn up in the atmosphere.
  contrary to popular belief, surface area of an asteroid(s) relative to its total mass, is highly relevant to the amount of destruction the asteroid will cause.
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• tigger - Dec 01, 2008
  • Rank: 1 / 5 (2)
  You UN haters need to figure out that EVENTUALLY a UN-like organization must hold ultimate authority on earth. Its an equality thing, just like black men going from slave to president.
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