# So THAT's where they're putting the West Side Stadium

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-thats-where-theyre-putting-the-west-side-stadium/310000>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [June 27, 2005, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-thats-where-theyre-putting-the-west-side-stadium/310000 "2005-06-27T05:06:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-thats-where-theyre-putting-the-west-side-stadium/310000/1 "2005-06-27T05:06:09Z")

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Per Yahoo:

> [@](#):
>
> Not all dazzling fireworks displays will be on Earth this Independence Day. NASA hopes to shoot off its own celestial sparks in an audacious mission that will blast a stadium-sized hole in a comet half the size of Manhattan.

It all makes sense now.

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**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-thats-where-theyre-putting-the-west-side-stadium/310000/2 "2005-06-27T05:07:58Z")

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Why does NASA want to do this?

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-thats-where-theyre-putting-the-west-side-stadium/310000/3 "2005-06-27T05:28:05Z")

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Wouldn’t you?

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**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-thats-where-theyre-putting-the-west-side-stadium/310000/4 "2005-06-27T07:28:56Z")

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> [@Cunctator](#):
>
> Why does NASA want to do this?

[To try and figure out what it’s made of.](http://www.space.com/spacewatch/050603_deep_impact.html)

> [@](#):
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> In early July, NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft will deploy a tiny impactor to smash into the nucleus of a small comet. The idea is to excavate a sizable crater and provide valuable insight into the true nature of comets.

[Of course, Queen member, Brian May’s **not** happy about the idea.](http://www.brianmay.com/brian/brianssb/brianssbjun05a.html)

> [@](#):
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> Thanks Noah … yes, I realize that it is HOPED that the whole comet will not be affected, but I am 99 per cent sure that there is no guarantee of this. Who could be that sure, when no-one even knows the interior morphology of the object. Suppose it were one giant crystalline structure ? What an irreversible mess the projectile would make in this situation.
> 
> Sorry, I am not convinced. I think it’s a rotten idea, and should be shelved at least until we have exhausted all NON-invasive techniques.
> 
> The very uncertainty of the crater size (“somewhere between a house and a football stadium”) indicates to me an indication that the experimenters have as much idea of what effect they’re going to have as a man with an ice-pick approaching an egg. My only question to the team behind this is … “Are you really sure you are behaving responsibly here ? Can’t you wait until we know more ? Until we can be a bit more clever and attempt a landing ?” I’m really personally outraged by this. There are those who think that even life on the Earth may have originated from micro-organisms on such a comet …