This is really cool. It's a video of the solar system that shows as we discovered new asteroids during the last 30 years. I highly recommend watching the 1080p version full screen, preferably with eerie music playing in the background. The x-com soundtrack works.

That's pretty freaky, and I never really thought about it until I saw it in the video that we can only (easily and with less effort) discover things one one side of our solar system at a time.

Was interesting to see the rocket in discoveries as time went on too. Imagine if all of those asteroids headed toward earth at once...

yea, it's kinda sobering to see how many freakin' asteroid there are out there in the solar system. By the time it gets to 2010, it's just a mess. The scary thing is, there are still ridiculous numbers that we're unaware of. Based on the video, it looks like we're lucky as hell we haven't been wiped out already.

I don't know if we're defenseless. Nuking an asteroid is actually well within out capabilities, and every year we get better at putting payloads into space and rendezvousing with high-velocity objects. I don't think we could nuke one into oblivion, but I think we could nuke it to alter its course. Also, with all our technology, I wouldn't be surprised if we could build some really big nuclear bombs... at 50 megatons? Hah! I'd like to see someone pop a gigaton nuke to see the results.

Hehehe, I'm sure you would.

And yeah, we're not ENTIRELY defenseless, but at this point no one really agrees on what we could do if such a thing were to happen. Nuking for example is a tricky business, since it may just split into smaller pieces. It'll save earth from doomsday, but it'd still kill a shitload of people if the original asteroid was big enough.

I think one of the chapters of a Michio Kaku book Physics of the Impossible focused on this stuff, but I'm not sure. It's a great book, I'm sure you'd love it.

yea, it's on my Amazon list of things I might buy if I ever get bored.

Do you have an amazon wishlist? Or what's your nickname on it?

I do have one, but it's private. I don't want you guys to see how many Star Wars toys are on there.

Haha, like we don't already know you are a huge dork.

I have an amazon account but none of my friends are prone to giving me shit, so I don't bother with the wish list. I guess having a girl and some family members who care (ie a sister) helps. Being single and having only brothers, I tend to be a litte light on people who are attentive.

Honestly, I keep the wish list more for myself, so I remember the stuff. I used to keep things in my shopping cart, but that's dangerous.