World Blast it or paint it: Deadly asteroid bounds towards Earth out of the blue.

[tom_mai78101]

To avert a new apocalypse – this time set for February 2013 – scientists suggest confronting asteroid 2012 DA14 with either paint, or big guns. The tough part of either scheme is that time has long run out to build a spaceship for any operation.

NASA confirms the 60-meter (197-feet) asteroid, spotted by Spanish stargazers in February, has a good chance of colliding with Earth in eleven months.

The rock's closest approach to the planet is scheduled for February 15, 2013, when the distance between the planet and space wanderer will be under 27,000 km (16,700 miles). This is lower than the geosynchronous orbit kept by the Google Maps satellite.

With the asteroid zooming that low, it will be too late to do anything with it besides trying to predict its final destination and the consequences of impact.

A spaceship is needed, experts agree. It could shoot the rock down or just crash into it, either breaking the asteroid into debris or throwing it off course.

It's the end of the world as we know it ...

 

[DarkRevenant]

60 meter asteroid; the worst it could do is level an inner-urban area and cause billions in damages, but most likely it will just smash into the ocean.

 

[Jindo]

In contrast to the sensationalist approach of this article. (You can find this link in the comments of the article)

A quick search on what the Palermo and Torino scales are will show you that this asteroid has very little chance of impacting so soon or doing as much damage as the article describes.

 

[Varine]

I watched a movie about this once.

 

[13lade619]

I predict that the next headline on this will be: "Asteroid shifts course, ETA moved to December 2012".

 

[FireCat]

I predict that the next headline on this will be: "Asteroid shifts course, ETA moved to December 2012".

Or it Just disappeared without a Trace

 

[The Helper]

I say blast it as painting it might make it harder to detect in the future. That rock is definitely blastable it is not that big, but if it hit it would be like a nuke going off.

 

[Weegee]

Probably don't want to use RT as a source for anything you'd want to take seriously. Maybe not even anything you DON'T need to take seriously

I can concur with Jindo this is all BS. Million and one legitimate sites shooting the possibility down.

 

[Varine]

I say blast it as painting it might make it harder to detect in the future. That rock is definitely blastable it is not that big, but if it hit it would be like a nuke going off.

Yeah but it'd be pretty funny.