Apophis!

[starrylizard]

The Stargate fan in me was tickled pink to learn that Apophis the Asteroid passed by close to Earth today! Ha! Cool!

This time, Apophis, named after an Egyptian god of destruction, was no closer than around 15 million kilometres.

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 small but real possibility that Apophis will strike the Earth in 2036 - but only if the space rock passes through a small "slingshot" region in space when it crosses our orbit in 2029.

Carry on, as you were.

Comments

[doubleholmes.livejournal.com]

first of all, I am going to pretend I didn't read any of that. :(

and secondly, hopefully by then, are technologies would be more advanced, and we would be fully prepared and have means of preventing that.

Besides, I think you're over-exaggerating. It is VERY unlikely that it would happen, and NASA wouldn't let allow that anyway.

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

I didn't meant to upset you, I was just quoting the article. I thought the asteroid had a cool name. They had it on the news as they were studying it to determine the best way to avert it in the future if it were necessary. :)

[lark_ascends]

2036 is now not an issue - the information they got this week on this orbit has cleared it as being any possibility. And we have enough info to predict for decades now. So not going to be a problem.

(Also, it wasn't over-exaggerating - we get more info, then we refine orbits and find that the tiny possibility of hitting Earth has reduced to zero. It's how that sort of science works)