Anyone else worried about "Deep Impact" collision with comet?

[gauguin57]

NASA just launched the Delta rocket with the Deep Impact crafts. "Impactor" is to slam into a comet in July, while "Flyby" watches.

"The interesting part of this mission is that we don't really know what to expect," said Don Yeomans, a senior research scientist with the Deep Impact mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL. "But no matter what happens, we'll observe the phenomena."

I just heard on CNN that the Impactor will make a hole in the comet structure the size of the Roman Colisseum.

Uhhh ... if they really don't know what to expect, doesn't that mean they don't know whether impact with a comet won't cause something to go flooey, and send some component of the comet hurtling toward Earth or the Sun or some other planet? Can't help it ... this makes me nervous. I mean, the comet's just sittin' there, being dust and ice with a gassy tail, minding its own business ... and we go up there to blow a big hole in the works ...

Then again, the Earth probably won't survive four more years of Dubya, so what am I worrying about?

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. We love to strip mine. Don't matter if it's on this planet or not

--------------------------------------
Would Jesus love a liberal? You bet!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Knowing our luck we'll hit an alien ship and start a galactic war.

[nickinSTL]

7. ROFLMAO

n/t

[Wind Dancer]

9. Ditto on the ROFLMAO!

[frogfromthenorth2]

3. Good, fear is good... You learned you lesson well... Always expect

the worse, that's what they want from you... gee...

[DrWeird]

4. No, I'm worried about giant japanese robots.

You should see some of the things they do to japanese school girls.

[giant_robot]

11. Hey, don't look at me! That was Mogera with the schoolgirls. n/t

[The Traveler]

5. Relax

Orbital dynamics is a well understood field of study ... there is no risk introduced by this experiment. Dubya poses a far, far greater risk to planet Earth than this cometary impact mission.

The excitement derives from penetration into the interior of a cometary mass. A few questions will be answered. Many more will be raised.

[sam sarrha]

6. so to do any good it would have to hit real close to the White House...???

[Medium Baby Jesus]

8. Just watched the rocket launch

In answer to your question: No.

[shadowknows69]

10. I'm not too worried

NASA has f*cked up how many relatively simple missions to mars and other locales and they think they're good enough to hit a moving object? I think it's the probe that will be doing a closer "flyby" to the comet than the comet will get to us.

[unpossibles]

12. I am not worried about this one

they are practicing for the big one we don't know about yet

[gauguin57]

13. OK, laugh if you will ...

... but if a chunk of ice a half-mile wide falls on your Fourth of July picnic table, don't come crying to me.

When we landed on the moon, we didn't blow a hole in it. When we landed on Mars, we didn't blow a hole in it. This, we're gonna blow a hole in.

That NASA guy saying "we don't really know what to expect" when they DO blow a hole in the comet makes me a leeeetle bit nervous.

[RafterMan]

14. It's happening again...

[nashville_brook]

15. they *didn't have to* name it after that movie!

and remember in the movie, armageddon? it was OIL DRILLING Texas/Florida astronauts who save the world.

texas/florida? oil drilling? bushes? anyone?

me and my husband might be the only people who didn't sleep thru that movie :)