Huge Asteroid Could Slam Into Earth In 31 Years

[Simpson]

60%? It's more like 99.9%

But it is a very good job it is as well! especially with a wireless laptop if you know what i mean lol

[Simon]

It couldn't come sooner? b*****d thing, making me wait another 30 years, the rude thing, does it have no manners?

Shame it won't actually hit, like all the hundreds of asteroid's that was mean't to hit the earth over the past years.

[Has anyone seen my shoe?]

Vin Diesel will sort it out.

He'll be like 60

Vin Diesel Jr and whatever (how do you spell his first name) Claude Van Damme Jr will sort it out

[fruitbat]

Vin Diesel will sort it out.

Haha that made me chuckle. Vin Diesel cant sort himself out let alone a 390meter asteroid

anyway id much rather go out by being crushed to a pulp and blown apart by an asteroid rather than some dodgy chickens who need a flu jab

[Swize]

Its problie the same deal as the "millenium bug" people got propper worried about that they thort the world was going to be the end of the world.

They brought all the food out of the shops ect.

All i say is its the way the world goes round, i mean we can't live forever on this planet and we arnt going to.

Sam

[ManxTrialSpaz]

It couldn't come sooner? b*****d thing, making me wait another 30 years, the rude thing, does it have no manners?

Shame it won't actually hit, like all the hundreds of asteroid's that was mean't to hit the earth over the past years.

EMO!

]Jesus is also comming down in 2008 i think!

Are sure he won't come down as Brian?

[Brian Bleech]

Vin Diesel will sort it out.

f**k vin diesel - chuck norris is tha man....

[Hoot]

Bruce Willis saved the world before in armageddon, he can do it again!

[Tom Booth]

Napoleon dynamite! hell show that rck whoes boss! dont need no space ship either, hes so cool, he makes his own oxygen supply

[Krisboats]

In Egyptian myth, Apophis was the ancient spirit of evil and destruction, a demon that was determined to plunge the world into eternal darkness.

A fitting name, astronomers reasoned, for a menace now hurtling towards Earth from outer space. Scientists are monitoring the progress of a 390-metre wide asteroid discovered last year that is potentially on a collision course with the planet, and are imploring governments to decide on a strategy for dealing with it.

US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has estimated that an impact from Apophis, which has an outside chance of hitting the Earth in 2036, would release more than 100,000 times the energy released in the nuclear blast over Hiroshima.

Thousands of square kilometres would be directly affected by the blast but the whole of the Earth would see the effects of the dust released into the atmosphere.

And, scientists insist, there is actually very little time left to decide.

At a recent meeting of experts in near-Earth objects (NEOs) in London, scientists said it could take decades to design, test and build the required technology to deflect the asteroid.

Monica Grady, an expert in meteorites at the Open University, said: "It's a question of when, not if, a near Earth object collides with Earth. Many of the smaller objects break up when they reach the Earth's atmosphere and have no impact.

"However, a NEO larger than 1 kilometre (wide) will collide with Earth every few hundred thousand years and a NEO larger than 6 kilometres, which could cause mass extinction, will collide with Earth every hundred million years. We are overdue for a big one."

Tragedy in 2029?

Apophis had been intermittently tracked since its discovery in June last year but, in December, it started causing serious concern. Projecting the orbit of the asteroid into the future, astronomers had calculated that the odds of it hitting the Earth in 2029 were alarming. As more observations came in, the odds got higher.

Having more than 20 years warning of potential impact might seem plenty of time. But, at last week's meeting, Andrea Carusi, president of the Spaceguard Foundation, said that the time for governments to make decisions on what to do was now to give scientists time to prepare mitigation missions.

At the peak of concern, Apophis asteroid was placed at four out of 10 on the Torino scale a measure of the threat posed by an NEO where 10 is a certain collision which could cause a global catastrophe. This was the highest of any asteroid in recorded history and it had a 1 in 37 chance of hitting the Earth. The threat of a collision in 2029 was eventually ruled out at the end of last year.

Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer from Queen's University Belfast, said: "When it does pass close to us on April 13 2029, the Earth will deflect it and change its orbit. There's a small possibility that if it passes through a particular point in space, the so-called keyhole, ... the Earth's gravity will change things so that when it comes back around again in 2036, it will collide with us."

The chance of Apophis passing through the keyhole, a 600-metre patch of space, is one in 5,500 based on current information.

There are no shortage of ideas on how to deflect asteroids. The Advanced Concepts Team at the European Space Agency have led the effort in designing a range of satellites and rockets to nudge asteroids on a collision course for Earth into a different orbit.

No technology has been left unconsidered, even potentially dangerous ideas such as nuclear powered spacecraft. "The advantage of nuclear propulsion is a lot of power," said Professor Fitzsimmons.

"The negative thing is that ... we haven't done it yet. Whereas with solar electric propulsion, there are several spacecraft now that do use this technology so we're fairly confident it would work."

The favoured method is also potentially the easiest throwing a spacecraft at an asteroid to change its direction. Esa plans to test this idea with its Don Quixote mission, where two satellites will be sent to an asteroid.

One of them, Hidalgo, will collide with the asteroid at high speed while the other, Sancho, will measure the change in the object's orbit. Decisions on the actual design of these probes will be made in the coming months, with launch expected some time in the next decade. One idea that seems to have no support from astronomers is the use of explosives.

Professor Fitzsimmons. "If you explode too close to impact, perhaps you'll get hit by several fragments rather than one, so you spread out the area of damage."

In September, scientists at Strathclyde and Glasgow universities began computer simulations to work out the feasibility of changing the directions of asteroids on a collision course for Earth.

In spring next year, there will be another opportunity for radar observations of Apophis that will help astronomers work out possible future orbits of the asteroid more accurately.

If, at that stage, they cannot rule out an impact with Earth in 2036, the next chance to make better observations will not be until 2013. NASA has argued that a final decision on what to do about Apophis will have to be made at that stage.

"It may be a decision in 2013 whether or not to go ahead with a full-blown mitigation mission, but we need to start planning it before 2013," said Professor Fitzsimmons. In 2029, astronomers will know for sure if Apophis will pose a threat in 2036.

If the worst-case scenarios turn out to be true and the Earth is not prepared, it will be too late. "If we wait until 2029, it would seem unlikely that you'd be able to do anything about 2036," said Yates.

Do you think this will be the end, or will NASA work this one out??

Bruce Willis saved the world before in armageddon, he can do it again!

How can you expect people to take this seriously if you come out with useless things like that?

I think its a bunch of bullshit anyway...

a NEO larger than 6 kilometres, which could cause mass extinction, will collide with Earth every hundred million years. We are overdue for a big one."

They just come out with this crap, theres nobody sitting there waiting for a hundred million years to throw another asteroid at us, they talk like its a gauranteed thing like sunrise/sunset.

Plus with the amount of shit the u.s. is doing on other things like building spaceships and other means of propulsion, do you not think there is going to be a department somewhere that is already thinking of possible ways to stop asteroid collisions and invasions from hostile alien attacks?

we're all gonna die anyway so who cares if the asteroids gonna hit us, all the more reason to do everything you want to do whenever you get the chance to do it.

[Hoot]

How can you expect people to take this seriously if you come out with useless things like that?

It's a joke.....Chris

Edited December 24, 2005 by Hoot

[Krisboats]

Face it, it wasn't a joke. You were trying to be cool with all the other people that had said things like "vin diesel will save the day"...

[Hoot]

Face it, it wasn't a joke. You were trying to be cool with all the other people that had said things like "vin diesel will save the day"...

Yea... It's called socitalising and also, im fed up of you constantly picking fault with every post/thread i make, just leave me alone for gods sake, i don't do it too you, so there is no need to do it to me!

Edited December 26, 2005 by Hoot

[PaRtZ]

lol I love threads like this, even if its bollocks it makes me laugh

Be honest now when I say this (hypothetically now)

The asteroid has a 100% chance of hitting us. WE ARE GOING TO DIE. Do any of you care? I mean if anything this is FANTASTIC news, we have warning of our deaths! time to nail those birds you've been meaning to time to piss in the faces of those you hate Time to party

To be honest everyone should be living like this anyway, imagining today is your last. Obviously be responsible caring and considerate, but f*ck the consequences

Anyway my big cock will stop this be rock

Edited December 26, 2005 by PaRtZ

[Ducko]

blow the mother up and have done with it?

if not who cares my best days will be over with would be a reason to have abig ass party too

[anzo]

invasions from hostile alien attacks?

The chances of anything coming from mars, are a million to one he says (ohhhhhhhhhhhh-ohhhhhhhhh) but still, THEY COMEEEEE!!