900ft Long Asteroid Comes Close to Earth

[Guest The Pom Queen]

A 900 foot-wide asteroid will make the latest in a series of close approaches to the Earth tomorrow.

Scientists have ruled out any possibility of a cataclysmic collision - yet - but there remains a non-negligible chance of the asteroid Apophis smashing into Earth in 2036.

 

This year Apophis, named after an Egyptian mythological demon, will not get closer than around nine million miles.

 

Scientists will use the encounter to improve their estimate of just how dangerous the space rock really is.

 

In 2029, Apophis is expected to come uncomfortably close, brushing past the Earth at a distance of just 30,000 kilometres. That will put the asteroid inside the orbit of communication satellites.

 

Current models predict a tiny but real likelihood of Apophis colliding with the Earth in 2036.

 

When the asteroid was discovered in 2004 scientists calculated a one-in-45 chance of an impact in 2029.

 

Improved predictions later lifted the threat.

 

The asteroid's latest near approach will occur at midnight UK time tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

[Harpodom]

Phew! That was close!

[BritChickx]

Exciting!

[Bobj]

Interesting reading in Wiki.

 

Cheers, Bobj.

[UpsideDownMan]

I really wouldn't worry about it.

 

Not because it won't happen, but because if it does the first and last thing we're likely to know about it is wondering what that big bang was before being reduced to our constituent atoms.

 

Apophis is only one of tens of thousands of asteroids we know about. Conservative estimates reckon there are perhaps a billion of the sneaky little beggars in the solar system, of which millions are large enough to send us back to a time when we were bacteria or do to us what the KT impact did to the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Of these perhaps hundreds of thousands are on 'near earth' orbits.

 

Fortunately, the solar system is a pretty big place and it's pretty easy to lose a billion or so objects in it, even ones the size of, say Sydney.

 

So I say worry about it when it happens. Even if you haven't long since already shuffled off this mortal coil you won't be worrying for very long.

 

That said, on average the Earth is hit by a seriously big lump of fast moving devastation every 600,000 years or so. The last one? Mmmmmmm... that would be 630,000 years ago.