Danger Asteroids

[jkellmd]

Twice in the last two weeks, the news media has reported asteroids which have a decent probability of hitting earth - one as early as July. Since the stories haven't been followed up, I assume these are false threats. Are they scaremongering?

http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...roid_risk.html

[orbsycli]

well,
I wouldn't worry.
If it happens, we'll see some crazy stuff.

[Drip Curl Magic]

=]

I'll have my camera ready.... just in case.

[orbsycli]

your pictures won't matter when we're obliterated.

[Jay-qu]

well maybe not.. depends how big they are!

There was a funny thing that happened a few years back now, an asteroid passed between us and the moon! now thats close, the funny part is that we didnt see it till it had already gone past us!

[orbsycli]

funny...i never head anything about that.

[Jay-qu]

most people didnt! we have people searching the sky for rocks that are going to hit us, do you think they would easily admit that they found one that was dangerously close to earth after it had alread passed.. they would be shotting themselves in the foot!

[Qfwfq]

Where's the one that's as early as July?

I wouldn't call it scaremongering, it's cold scientific fact that asteroids occasionally pass near Earth. We're constantly bombarded by meteors and there's no reason a larger rock can't hit us, it's only a matter of probability.

[InfiniteNow]

Probability is right... We can calculate pretty well how close they will come, but there are always extraneous factors tough to account for in the calculations... The last "big chance" I read about was somewhere around 2020... They are working on ideas to take action, ala that Bruce Willis/Ben Afleck movie...just over the long term. A slight deflection would be enough if done properly...

[TheFaithfulStone]

Originally Posted by Qfwfq

Where's the one that's as early as July?

Well, I'd say it's pretty close by, cosmically speaking.

Where it is that article, I couldn't find.

If we're slated for a hammering in 2020, now woud be the time to go get that asteroid. NOW we could probably go out and flick it with our finger and effect the orbit enough to miss us. In 15 or 20 years, it's gonna take a lot more juice to push it out of the way.

TFS