If a comet hit the Earth...?

It is a scary thought. I just read about some recent research that makes it look like the Tunguska Blast was a comet impact. Since they have discovered that comets are rather loosely packed and not very dense there is little chance that one would impact with the ground. This is believed to be the case in Tunguska and it is in many ways much worse. The object, in this case a comet, breaks up and explodes upon impact with the Earth's atmosphere. Now depending on its size, it will determine how far it will penetrate into the atmosphere. If it explodes high enough up, we would not likely feel the effects. Lower down, and you have something like Tunguska. Check out this site: www.aerospaceweb.org. In it they discuss these matters and state that "The (U.S.) Air Force reported that 136 major explosions were detected in the upper atmosphere between 1975 and 1992." These explosions were from collisions with objects from space. They also state that a Tunguska like blast is probably a once every 1,000 years type thing.

As far as our technology and information goes... I read a while back and I have no recollection of the source so it might be somewhat dubious and warrents further looking into, but I think it is about right... Only 10% of our current world population has the skills and knowledge to create and maintain our current level of technology. That is pretty scary.

As far as safe-housing our information, I think networks and the internet do a pretty good job of that. Even a huge event such as Tunguska which destroyed 830 square miles was still localized in comparison to the information super-highway.

Such an event on one coast of the United States would be devestating, but would not directly effect the other coast (at least in terms of actual physical or infrastructure damage).

Now if we get into larger objects impacting Earth, or say the Yellowstone super-volcano erupting, I think we are going to be more concerned with low-tech stuff like finding enough farmable land to feed ourselves more important than the loss of high level technology.

I suppose that your question concerns a pretty big comet hitting the Earth. Were that to happen, many real problems might develop besides the immediate loss of life. If the comet were of sufficient size to cause a huge plume of dust that filled the sky for thousands of miles, a new ice age might result due to the inability of the Sun to warm the Earth. I think that situation would be the most disastrous situation immagineable.

To save the documents and knowledge as you suggest is not a bad idea but would require the combined effort of many people which at this time does not seem possible. We cannot, for example, get people to feed the hungry and starving in Sudan, or stop the genocide in Darfur. So how could we possibly convince them to build a time capsule with all of Earth's valuable data stored within? There would be arguments about who would posess it, maintain it, and pay taxes on it. Etc., etc., etc.

If a comet hit the Earth, there wouldn't be any people left after it was all over to read your hard drives or dig them up.

Any survivors would be tossed back to the Stone Age, since there would be NO technology left.

All knowledge would be in whatever books happened to survive the global fires, earthquakes, and tidal waves and in the people remaining (if there were any at all).

I am worried that your only concern is things - the Declaration of Independance, the pyramids, computers, etc.

Most mature people would be more concerned with the devastating loss of life (possibly the loss of the entire race).

But if it makes you feel better, then start collecting and storing information somewhere.

Who knows - if a comet hits you might be one of the .00000001% of the people that survives.

Why does everyone assume that an impact event is going to be an aramageddon. There was a strike in 1908 in Siberia. It was more devastating than a small atom bomb but happened in a remote region, knocking down millions of trees, killing a herd of carbou, but nobody died.

The greatest chance of a hit is from soemthing less than 100 meters across. That could destroy a city if it hit full on. But the rest of us would just have to pay the bill.

ELEs (extinction level event) are reckoned to happen every 10s of millions of years. There is not much point guarding against these, there is not much chance we will be here in 10s millions of years.

people should read NASAs NEO news. Most of the near-earth objects they track are in the 10 meter range. They are millions of more times likely to hit us than an ELE event.

Digital storage is a very poor archival approach. There is no digital or magnetic media which can be expected to last more than a few tens of years.... much less a few milenia. Permanent records have been made and are still being made physically, by engraving on very hard and durable materials...... I doubt if 50 years from now anyone will be able to read anything written on any hard drive of today...... any more than we can retrieve mag tapes of the 1950's. I Love Lucy, is one of the few TV shows you can see from the 1950's in all its' episodes because Desi Arnez decided to produce them in California and have them filmed in Black and White, which is a physical process... If they had been recorded on Mag Tape, they'd be lost like most of the other shows of that period.

i think information is one of the things we shouldnt be worrying about

if a comet was heading towards earth, first we'd calculate exactly where it'll land, how much time we have left, and a damage assessment

if it's just a comet that destroys a city, then the city will be evacuated....if it lands in the ocean, then they'll have helicopters over there to film it

if it's a huge comet and predicted to destroy the earth, everyone would start digging an underground bunker to preserve life....not information

After analyzing the situation and determining there was absolutely no evading the situation and catastrophic results, the Government would instruct all humans and things alike to calmly take a deep breath, bend over at a 90 degree angle and kiss their *ss good bye.

I have no idea but they don't have any info stored in satelites or anything? We might be able to stop the comet from hitting earth in the first place.

Information? What about the thousands+ people who would die?

anyone left would just have to start over, with whatever their own mind had absorbed during their life 'before'.... all the more reason for you to learn all you can about living WITHOUT technology... with the right things in your mind, you might be able to fend for yourself for more than one season..... believe me, all the knowledge of Einstein or anyone else like him won't help you then..............but what berries are poisonous will..................