Comments on: Canada to build World's First Asteroid-hunting Satellite

By: Brian H

Brian H — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:51:31 +0000

Not bad, but written with lotsa stupid obvious explanations, like it was written by and for 10-yr olds, maybe as a mandatory classroom presentation.

By: Nicholos Wethington

Nicholos Wethington — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:01:20 +0000

Tyler Durden:

Thanks for the nit-pick, actually. You are totally right that there was no crater created (which is why the event remains so intriguing) and that there is still debate about the nearby lake being created by the blast. I corrected the mistake. Thanks for keeping me honest.

~Nicholos Wethington

By: alphonso richardson

alphonso richardson — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:23:40 +0000

well, at least, if they help to monito space junk, it'll be put to good use. If they also use it to study asteriods as well as detecting NEOs, it'd be an effective use of a cut-price launch.

By: kongaman

kongaman — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:18:44 +0000

I heard the Canadians if they find a asteroid that will hit earth, they'll put a big touk on it and throw some back bacon at it, ay?

By: ntoskrnl

ntoskrnl — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:18:57 +0000

Hmm, I just wonder what NSA and friends think about Candada finding out about the orbit of their top-secret uncatalogued spy-satellites… well I guess most of them are known already through amateur astronomy anyway.

By: Tyler Durden

Tyler Durden — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:03:45 +0000

Small nit-pick, but the Tunguska explosion did not create a crater. It was an airburst and it is thought that the blast disintegrated the comet or asteroid entirely.

There are however some who thing that a nearby lake is actually the crater, but it's just speculation so far.

Good article though, glad to see the the threat of asteroid impacts being taken seriously.

By: Van

Van — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:56:26 +0000

While this small bird would not save us from an extinction event, learning more about the number and behavior of small objects will add to our knowledge and could led to a meanful defense against these much more numerous and smaller objects. Maybe it could save a city someday.

I have a feeling that cataloging the human artifacts in this area and getting a closer look is a nice side effect that the defense agencies of the Echelon states will all enjoy.

By: Yael Dragwyla

Yael Dragwyla — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:55:50 +0000

Anent the Tunguska Event of 1908: I got cornered at a party by a fundamentalist who said, "Don't such things as the way the tunguska body did not hit a heavily populated area prove that God loves us and wants us to prosper?" My answer: "Yes — but it also proves God wants us to survive. Armageddon would total *everything*, and the Rapture would finish it off — nobody surviving on Earth." For some strange reason he didn't like that . . .

By: HolyAvengerOne

HolyAvengerOne — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:54:08 +0000

Hmm is it just me or monitoring "asteroids, comets and space junk in near-Earth orbit â€“ within 100 – 1240 miles (160 – 2000 km)" is not going to really help in avoiding any sort of collision with Earth ?

Maybe the launching vehicles can benefit from this but… Asteroids and COMETS within 2000km of Earth ?! I don't know, it sounds funky…

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:26:34 +0000

Very useful