Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Technology!!


Although a meeting with the asteroid Apophis is likely to happen, we should not worry about anything. Technology is advancing each day and by the year of 2036 we will likely have a deflector missile that can knock the asteroid out of its orbit JUST to the side!

According to Chris Impey, who is the deputy head of one of the largest astronomy departments in the country and also my teacher for the class I'm doing this project on, in case we run out of luck and an asteroid gets in our path: "Astronomers will crunch the numbers to calculate the orbit(of the asteroid). Even if a collision is likely, we'll have a couple of years' notice. Time enough to dust off the nuclear arsenals and send out missiles to do our bidding. Not a direct hit. A gentle kiss shot, glancing it off to the side. Nice."

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