72 replies to this topic

[Animus01]

A friendly reminder: we have a Debate Forum for this kind of discussion. Also, we are getting off-topic here.

[BORAS]

I thoght it was 2028 or 2022 or somethin like that. See there this meteor circling the earth and in one of those years the meteor is suppose to fall in to the earth and destroy the earth. this is what my science teacher has told me, but he seems like a stoner so im not sure what he means when he has told us this story twice.

[RyanBlazeheart]

I don't believe in this kind of stuff. It ain't gonna happen. Everybody got this ridiculous thing from something on TV and my mom watched it too. It's just a ridiculous thing made up by some group of people along time ago. Don't believe in it please it's stupid. I don't want to hear no more. I'm 18 and after high school I'm going to college to be a graphic designer or something. I'm gonna get married and have kids and everything will be just fine.

Edited by Blackdrake1, 14 February 2008 - 11:13 PM.

[Russ]

Are you so sure about that? Kidding. I do find this belief somewhat silly, I will admit. But there is nothing to say it couldn't happen.

[ThunderSpeed]

I believe that there will be a massive change in the way people treat religions. Why do I say this?

Well, a heck of a lot of people believe in this 2012 stuff. They feel impending doom and want to escape it. I can see a mass suicide of most of the believers, in an attempt to "cheat the system". This'll be one hell of a shock to the world, as who really wants to see close to a billion people commit suicide over a belief? I feel that if this were to happen, people's opinions on cults (which this whole 2012 thing is in my opinion) would change drastically, and jihad / crusades would be launched against cultists in an attempt to either convert them or prevent another mass suicide.

I see a giant religious re-awakening coming out of this if my mass suicide theory does indeed happen. I myself could care less about all of this, as I live day to day, and think very little of the future. If I wake up some day with religious zealots pointing spears at my neck and demanding I believe in Xenu or whatever, so be it. There's always a way out of those situations.

In short: The world will not end. Normal society will be rocked by religious wars for a couple decades, and people will eventually get back on track and start inventing Star Wars stuff. *runs*

[Russ]

Hm, that sounds reasonable actually.

[RyanBlazeheart]

All this talk about this stupid cult belief is giving me headaches. I don't even want to see this thing on here anymore. What about you guys?

[Russ]

All this talk about this stupid cult belief is giving me headaches. I don't even want to see this thing on here anymore. What about you guys?

The discussion is getting a little old. I will admit I am getting tired of this discussion.

[Siguy]

I thoght it was 2028 or 2022 or somethin like that. See there this meteor circling the earth and in one of those years the meteor is suppose to fall in to the earth and destroy the earth. this is what my science teacher has told me, but he seems like a stoner so im not sure what he means when he has told us this story twice.

WTF??? Okay... If that was your science teacher, then you really need to go to a better school. Seriously. First of all, the only satellites of Earth are the moon, and thousands of pieces of space debris. There are no asteroids orbiting the earth. Second of all, if you want to destroy the earth, it is very hard to do. A tiny asteroid simply wouldn't cut it. It might cause a mass extinction, but it would be unlikely to wipe out all life. Nature can take some serious blows. (to tell you the truth, we are probably one of the biggest disasters to happen to the earth, but it's surviving somewhat well) Third, the word meteor is incorrectly used. "Meteor" refers to a meteoroid, or a piece of space dust or debris that burns up in the atmosphere. A meteorite is a chunk of debris that actually impacts the surface. An asteroid is a small body of rock or metal that orbits the sun, a minor planet. They are much larger than all of the objects I just mentioned, ranging from a few kilometers, to a few thousand. The largest asteroid is Ceres, and it has no chance whatsoever of impacting Earth. The majority of them don't.

On second thought, you may have misinterperated what he said. He may have been talking about Apophis. That was an asteroid that caused quite a scare a couple years back because it had a high probability of impacting Earth in the near future. It could have caused a huge tidal wave or large impact crater, but now the possibility of it hitting Earth is next to zero.

[Mr. Pimpy]

DarkNuts is talking about a comet that circles the galaxy, I believe. I remember there was a big fuss on the news last year saying that scientists claim Halley's comet will hit the earth next time it comes by or something, but I think they said that would be in the 60's.

[Siguy]

DarkNuts is talking about a comet that circles the galaxy, I believe. I remember there was a big fuss on the news last year saying that scientists claim Halley's comet will hit the earth next time it comes by or something, but I think they said that would be in the 60's.

Comets do not circle the galaxy. They orbit the sun in an elliptical orbit. (Technically they do circle the galaxy as the sun orbits around the galactic center.)

It's Comet Halley, not Halley's Comet. The word comet comes before the name when comets are properly named.

But anyway, once again, there is no chance whatsoever that Comet Halley will collide with Earth. It may be famous, but it definately does not have anywhere near the right orbital path.

[Russ]

But anyway, once again, there is no chance whatsoever that Comet Halley will collide with Earth. It may be famous, but it definately does not have anywhere near the right orbital path.

What if another chunk of space rock hit it, and knocked it out of orbit into Earth? You can never be certain about those things.

[Siguy]

What if another chunk of space rock hit it, and knocked it out of orbit into Earth? You can never be certain about those things.

That sounds suspiciously like the plot of a horrible space movie from 1997 or something.

Yes, we can be certain of those things. The actual probability of two objects as small as an asteroid or comet colliding is so little that I won't even bother to find quote for it. Then times the probability of the orbital change (which would be very little if at all*) sending it into collision course with Earth makes it basically nil.

*The deep impact probe sent by JPL and NASA was a mission to impact comet Tempel 1 with a 370 kg projectile and study the blast spectrographically. The approximately 5 ton (in other words, very large) explosion only changed the orbit of the comet about 10 centimeters. Nonetheless, a Russian astrologer attempted to sue NASA for 300 million because it "ruined the natural balance of forces of the universe". Shows you what lunatics astrologers are.