Man, a part of me is giddy due to the fact the asteroid scheduled to (possibly) collide with Earth in 2036 is named after the main villain of Stargate SG1 in earlier seasons: Apophis.
More info here:
http://www.gateworld.net/news/2008/09/apophis_may_yet_destroy_earth.shtml

I know, it's hard to take it seriously as that's based on a SciFi site dedicated to a fictional show, however this is a very serious and very true possibility.

2036... Armageddon.
An asteroid crashing into Earth is the stuff movies has hinted at for years now.
A dust cloud blocking out the sun and causing a second (?) ice age, hitting the ocean and flooding hundreds upon thousands of cities... etc.

I really don't know what to think... it's a lot to consider.
I'm sure the majority of you here will dismiss it... as would anyone else for the matter...
It's hard to fathom the extinction of the human race let alone our own individual demise (at least for those of us youngins with "our whole lives ahead of us.")

2036...
28 years from now...
I'll be... 50.
Eh... I guess that's not too bad. I actually wasn't expecting to live much longer than that anyways...
Though... a part of me hopes and prays to have found true love, a wife, and had a family by that point... though another part of me can't stand the thought of losing said wife and family (though it would be "sweet" to die at the same time as my loved ones; it is quite sad that the next generation may not have the luxury of their own family.)

It's bad enough I'm terrified of death as it is...
But what if, under other circumstances, I was to live to 60? 70? 80-100+?
I guess it'd all be "relative" as if I was "meant" to live longer then said asteroid wouldn't hit.
Then again, there's a chance I'll die sooner and miss this (possible) event entirely.

What is everyone else's take on this?
Do you dismiss this entirely?
Do you acknowledge a possible end?
Would/will this affect your life any differently today or (possibly) the closer to 2036 we get?

april 1986 we almost got smacked by an asteroid that would have destroyed the world. we missed it by 2 hours, that means if it was moving just 2 miles an hour faster we would not be here...

(note, I'm only 50% on the month and year but it sounds good enough for me to post to wikipedia)

Don't we have missiles, rockets and bombs? Blew the darn thing!

I'm a little blase about it. If it just so happens that it does hit the earth killing every living thing, well at least it will wipe out the worst species to walk the planet.

Blowing the thing up will actually make matters worse. By blowing it up, smaller pieces will descend to earth and cause more damage.

We could hit it with a smaller man-made asteroid (like in that Futurama episode) so it can turn its trajectory and go somewhere else

But then Max it could be like a pinball machine and hit something else and come right back towards Earth.

Or worse, it riccochets back towards us and then we have two objects...

Then we will need the help of Bruce Willis .

The only real and viable option is to send rockets to deflect the trajectory away from the earth.

I seriously doubt we have anything powerful enough let alone the means to launch it... let alone keep it at a fast enough velocity...

True, as of right now, we do not have anything powerful enough to deflect a large rock. Although, if I remember correctly, they would use multiple rockets going off at the same time.

Hmm... but would they have enough propulsion to make it out of the Earth's atmosphere and travel to the asteroid at a distance far enough away from Earth's gravitational pull?
Presently, I'm not so certain but with such advance notification you'd THINK they'd be working on correcting that?