Yes, but the audience score is at 80%.
Science Memes
Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
- Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
- Keep it rooted (on topic).
- No spam.
- Infographics welcome, get schooled.
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
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Memes
Miscellaneous
I’m going all in on the potential straight.
Risk is probability times consequence. Focusing on the odds without considering the second half of the equation is stupid.
Don't give me hope
Some examples of very enjoyable related media that are not Don't Look Up include The Last Policeman book trilogy and the Netflix animated series Carol & the End of the World.
(There's nothing wrong with Don't Look Up, but it's the only recommendation I ever see.)
Odds are low, but not zero. Still a bit of a nothingburger now that we've been able to successfully land probes on asteroids to sample their contents (and even send back video similar to images taken by Mars rovers). Strap a small thermonuclear warhead to an unmanned probe and redirect its trajectory - not a simple matter but entirely feasible.
Make a probe with a giant fuel tank and engine land on the asteroid then just fire away to push it slightly off target so it misses the planet. Don't need to destroy just alter the trajectory a tiny bit.
Wtf, no, the way to deflect an asteroid is to send something near it while it's far away. Blowing it up just risks another smaller asteroid hitting us. Small changes in direction while incredibly fast away will change its path enough to be safe.
Don't even need a warhead. The Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) just threw the probe itself at an asteroid hard enough to affect its orbit.
Unmanned? Nah, lets just assemble a team of oil drillers and send them up there like space cowboys.
Wouldn't it be easier to train astronauts to drill?
Nah, you see this mission needs someone real smart. And when someone talks about smart people in smart professions, do you think about astronauts? No of course not. (Unless they are really really old astronauts, like geriatric, then yes.) instead you think about rough necks. That's right, you think of guys who drill holes in the ground.
It'll be easier to teach drillers to fly shuttles than it would be to teach astronauts how to dig a hole.
It was nice knowing yall
Well it would still have an impact energy less than that of tsar bomba, and probably just hit an ocean.
Alabamans are still marrying their cousins.
What are you talking about Shelbyville, why would we want to marry our cousins?
Yes! Eat all of our shorts!
I can't blame them, their cousins are hot.
Is it wrong to hope it hits us?
yeah, yeah it is
Why is that? The planet will be fine without us. It will probably be better off without us.
Its not nearly big enough to wipe out the planet. Not even close.
It would just cause suffering for thousands/hundreds of thousands of people. Are you OK with that?
Yeah, because at best it just splashes in the ocean, worst it hits a city and causes mass suffering as thousands die from the impact and fallout. It's not going to end any suffering
Yes, because it's not going to be nearly as catastrophic as it sounds. What we need is a real world ender.
Is it wrong to hope it hits the specific city I live in? 😅
Sometimes hope is all we've got.
With more data collected over time, the chance has already been reduced to 0.28% https://blogs.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/2025/02/20/additional-observations-continue-to-reduce-chance-of-asteroid-impact-in-2032/
I begin to worry when I see this asteroid still in the sky and how it becomes gradually bigger
I won't believe it's gonna miss us until it gets to 95% likely it will hit
I see another one branded by XCOM.
I find the XCOM comparisons funny because the game actually tilts the RNG in the player's favor and people still think it's unfair
https://www.giantbomb.com/xcom-2/3030-49817/forums/xcom-2-is-un-fair-1792143/
Jup! I think in the highest difficulty they actually have the correct percentages implemented.
I don't think it's unfair, it's just that being one square away with 99% accuracy missing always feels like bullshit, regardless of whatever explanation you give.