Did you ever see the movie Armageddon? Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, and a team of oil drillers have a month to save Earth from destruction by an asteroid.
I love action/adventure stories. I love science fiction. Even more, I love science fiction adventure. However, I do like my adventures to be plausible. In the movie, why do they have only a month from the time an asteroid heading for Earth is noticed? The head of NASA (Billy Bob Thornton) says the reason it wasn't noticed is "it's a big-ass sky." Okay, I agree with that, but sheesh. Professionals and amateurs are watching that sky. And nobody noticed?
Come. On.
Guess what's going on this week? No, NASA didn't call Bruce and company to save Earth. The International Academy of Astronautics' 2019 Planetary Defense Conference is meeting to discuss how to prepare for an asteroid collision and how to protect Earth and its people.
Are they going to detonate a nuclear bomb (that will split the asteroid in half) before it reaches a critical point where it will do no good? That was the concept in the movie. Or will they slam a spacecraft (unmanned, I hope) into the asteroid to nudge it off course?
https://www.space.com/42853-dart-asteroid-impact-defense-mission-2022.html
I just hope an asteroid doesn't come sooner. If so, Bruce and his boys had better gear up.
