will humanity ever be able to stop cosmic events?

[breadisfunny]

that is to say stuff like coronal mass ejections,near earth supernova,earth ending asteroid,etc. by deploying technology to either redirect it,absorb all or some of the effects to lessen or negate the effects of it,or stop it completely or use of a whatever element or molecule or particle is a repellent to the threat at hand or combination thereof? (excluding black holes not sure anything can stop those.) what would be needed for that to happen? will it happen in our lifetimes? (the ability to counter these threats not the threats themselves.)
i know nasa has a working plan for asteroids but not aware of anything for the others and congress had a hearing on hardening the electronic systems.

[Spiel]

i higly doubt it. Not because we couldnt ever achieve such level of tech, but because we would kill between ourselves before that

[Ripster42]

CMEs happen all the time. There's no real reason to stop them currently.
Black holes could theoretically be diverted using a gravity tow. Ditto asteroid (although there are other ways to do this, there's literally a planned asteroid capture mission now, though for study, not to divert disaster).
The ability to stop a near earth supernova: probably not. Definitely not in our lifetimes.

[breadisfunny]

i higly doubt it. Not because we couldnt ever achieve such level of tech, but because we would kill between ourselves before that

the question assumes we outgrow our primitive need to war with each other over stupid shit.

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CMEs happen all the time. There's no real reason to stop them currently.
Black holes could theoretically be diverted using a gravity tow. Ditto asteroid (although there are other ways to do this, there's literally a planned asteroid capture mission now, though for study, not to divert disaster).
The ability to stop a near earth supernova: probably not. Definitely not in our lifetimes.

why not? what makes them different?

[Krawu]

We are technically able to stop at least asteroids now. It'd be crazy expensive and we'd have to know about it months or even years in advance but deflecting an asteroid may be as simple as hitting it with an impactor or painting one side of it. If we only see it a week before it hits, we'd still be fucked.

With near earth supernovae or CMEs the only thing we can do right now is to dig deep, but one is extremely unlikely to happen within the next million or so years and the other isn't really all that bad in terms of the damage it can do, it'll most likely just take down a couple of satellites and electronics.

[TrumpIsPresident]

Congress wouldn't want to fund something like that because sooner or later somebody would come along and say "why didn't we use that money for shovel read jobs" or some other bullshit.

Plus all things space are downplayed these days because its one of the last true areas where, try as they might, you just cant inject affirmative action.

[Ripster42]

the question assumes we outgrow our primitive need to war with each other over stupid shit.

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why not? what makes them different?

Issues with magnitude of the problem. We're not really able to affect a star the size of sol, let alone one big enough to go nova. Then there's the problem of getting there. The other option would be diverting the energy. That would require a similarly large amount of energy. We just don't have that ability, and it's not really in sight either.

[Shadowferal]

I think at any time 5% of the skies are only scanned by telescopes, amateur astronomers and the like.

If a world-destroying meteor reaches the Earth, we will likely not get much notification at all.
And even if it does get detected early, there isn't a whole lot that will likely be able to be done about it. Anyone that claims differently is living in a sci-fi movie. The reality is similar to what wishful thinking and whole lot of prayer can do.

[Maxilian]

I'm pretty sure we will be able to deal with Asteroids that could destroy earth (we got plans to redirect asteroids to be exploited)

[Deleted]

Global IQ has been dropping last 100 years and there's no real reason to think it will change esp. with the "Africanization" or "Arabization" of western world. I'd wager no, we will never probably overcome energy crisis either.

infracted - forbidden topics

[derpkitteh]

eventually science will be so advanced, that it'd seem like magic to us right now.

eventually, we'll be gods shaping the universe as we see fit. we might even be able to halt galactic collisions one day, if we live so long.

[Deleted]

I think at any time 5% of the skies are only scanned by telescopes, amateur astronomers and the like.

If a world-destroying meteor reaches the Earth, we will likely not get much notification at all.
And even if it does get detected early, there isn't a whole lot that will likely be able to be done about it. Anyone that claims differently is living in a sci-fi movie. The reality is similar to what wishful thinking and whole lot of prayer can do.

That's not correct. As it comes closer to earth the observation grid gets tighter and tighter. I don't know the numbers, but at least a few days or weeks before the impact it will be visible 100%.

[Medusa Cascade]

If we detect an asteroid early enough we can just paint it white

[telygroar]

omg wazaru - -

[Cæli]

Yes, in 14,000,000,000 years from now. We'll have more important matter to deal with than our planet being swallowed by a sun, maybe we'll have to deal with things like not being swallowed by black holes or being ripped from existence, but I think we could be smart enough in that time to avoid that.

[Deleted]

Theoretical a lot of those could be stopped, we can already do them on a small scale and the upscale would of course be demanding and a deep resource use, but it is certainly doable.

[Akka]

The ability to stop a near earth supernova: probably not. Definitely not in our lifetimes.

Nothing but blowing asteroids up could be done in our lifetime when it comes to cosmic events. People just don't realize the SCALE of the universe and the amount of forces required.

Theoretical a lot of those could be stopped, we can already do them on a small scale and the upscale would of course be demanding and a deep resource use, but it is certainly doable.

That's like seeing two cavemen hitting flints together and saying that if they can make sparks, they can also make a nuclear bomb.

[Shadowferal]

According to one source

According to Dr. Michael F. A'Hearn, a typical mission would take too long from approval to launch if there was an emergency:

“ REP. STEWART: ... are we technologically capable of launching something that could intercept [an asteroid]?

DR. A'HEARN: No. If we had spacecraft plans on the books already, that would take a year ... I mean a typical small mission ... takes four years from approval to start to launch ... ”

— Rep. Chris Stewart (R,UT) and Dr. Michael F. A'Hearn, 10 April 2013, United States Congress

Lack of a master plan and dangers of false alarms have been pointed out by Stefan Lovgren

The limitations of the Alarm System

The scare was the latest in a series of false alarms that highlights the apparent lack of procedure for dealing with a possible asteroid threat. Several astronomers complained they did not know whom to call in an emergency.

Last Tuesday, Lindley Johnson, a program scientist at NASA's Near-Earth Object Observation Program in Washington, D.C., sent a memo to a select group of asteroid experts. Should a potential impactor be detected, Johnson wrote, "You call me."

Very well. But what happens next? There is no government agency assigned to "protect the Earth." In theory, if Johnson's office is warned of an asteroid threat, the office would pass it along the chain of command to the NASA administrator, who would contact the President.

"What happens after that? Quite frankly, I don't think anybody knows," said Brian Marsden, director of the Minor Planet Center. "There is no master plan in place."

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*shrugs*

We're pretty much screwed.

[Grimbold21]

that is to say stuff like coronal mass ejections,near earth supernova,earth ending asteroid,etc. by deploying technology to either redirect it,absorb all or some of the effects to lessen or negate the effects of it,or stop it completely or use of a whatever element or molecule or particle is a repellent to the threat at hand or combination thereof? (excluding black holes not sure anything can stop those.) what would be needed for that to happen? will it happen in our lifetimes? (the ability to counter these threats not the threats themselves.)
i know nasa has a working plan for asteroids but not aware of anything for the others and congress had a hearing on hardening the electronic systems.

You will need Draenei technology for that

[Deleted]

That's like seeing two cavemen hitting flints together and saying that if they can make sparks, they can also make a nuclear bomb.

I literally used the word upscaling, which indicates that it wouldn't actually need changes, it would only require to be larger.