Will asteroids hit Earth?

Answer 1

They have, that's a fact. That's what killed off the dinosaurs. If that hadn’t happened, then we might never have existed. The dinosaurs would have replaced us and eaten all our ancestors. Asteroids have pocked our landscape with many holes, but our weather destroys or covers them up.

Look at the moon, all the craters that fill its face. In terms of space the moon is rubbing elbows to the earth. Whatever hits the moon could easily hit the Earth. Every year we have the Leonid meteor shower, meteors are just small asteroids. Meteorites are meteors that have impacted.

Asteroids and comets are left over pieces that didn’t join to form the 9 planets or any of their moons. Comets are loose clumps of rocks, ice, and other matter, including organic matter. It is thought that the seeds for life may have reached the earth from comet impacts. Asteroids are clumps of rock made up mostly of iron and other hard minerals. Some are loose like comets, but most of them are hard single lumps of rock. Scientists have found many of them. Since they are rocks it is hard to tell if they come from space or not, but if they land on the snow or a frozen lake then we can tell they are meteorites. A lot of meteorites have been found in the Artic and Antarctic.

We are lucky though we have Jupiter. Jupiter is a huge planet with a very strong gravitational field. It tends to drag any passing rocks into it. That’s where it got its smaller moons. They are just stray asteroids that got too close to Jupiter. A few years ago a huge comet called Shoemaker Levy 9 hit Jupiter. It broke up before it hit, but each impact was like a few thousand atomic bombs. If Shoemaker Levy 9 had hit the Earth then ALL life would have been killed. The last time a major asteroid hit the Earth it killed off the dinosaurs.

The Asteroid Belt is a band of rocks floating in an orbit around the sun between Jupiter and Mars, but these aren’t the major source of our problems. Most of these asteroids are in a pretty stable orbit, again thanks to Jupiter. Occasionally a few bump each other and knock themselves out of orbit. Then we have a problem. But, the bigger problem is the Kyper Belt. This is an unknown region of space, just beyond Pluto that is filled with rocks and comets. Occasionally Jupiter, or a passing star changes the orbit of one of these objects. When that happens they start to fall toward the sun. If Jupiter or Saturn don’t suck them in then they go into a long orbit around the sun. Occasionally this orbit will cross our own, and if we are really unlucky they will hit us. Astronomers used to think that our atmosphere protected us and that any incoming meteor or comet would burn up as it entered our atmosphere. However, the bigger ones could survive, and collide. We have found many cases where they did. The Moon sits in silent witness to those that almost hit the Earth.

Doctor Shoemaker is a famous discoverer of comets and asteroids. He first proposed the idea that MANY meteors have hit earth. This lead to the discovery of the dinosaur killer and all the meteorites we find in the snow or on the ice. He has started an asteroid watch program to find the next dinosaur killer, before it hits us. He is searching for NEOs; Near Earth Objects—comets and asteroids. Most of these NEOs don’t get too close to us, but a few have gone inside the earth’s orbit, and lot of them run across our orbit as we travel around the sun.

Oh, the next asteroid impact might be soon:

http://www.scienceagogo.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=000257;p=0
Last year Dec: 23. Scientists announced that a newly discovered space rock named 2004 MN4 had about a 1-in-300 chance of striking Earth on April.13, 2029.
Earth Impact by an Asteroid: Prospects and Effects: http://www.permanent.com/a-impact.htm
http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=3187
“The now-famous asteroid 2004 MN4 will pass near a 600-yard patch of space that could deflect the rock enough for a 2036 Earth impact. Asteroid 2004 MN4 is back in the news again. Rusty Schweickart, lunar module pilot of Apollo 9, last week called on Congress to send a spacecraft to the asteroid and tag it with a transponder. Data transmitted by such a device would enable astronomers to determine whether or not 2004 MN4 will hit its target in 2029.”…”This target is not Earth, however, but a 600-yard (549 meter) patch of space located approximately 18,700 miles above our planet. The asteroid's passage through this region, known to space scientists as a resonance keyhole, could set it up for a collision with Earth in 2036.” . . .”The transponder will enable us to determine, with certainty, if MN4 will miss, which is the most likely scenario by far. For this troublesome asteroid — which has a striking power of nearly 1,000 megatons of TNT — the cost of tagging it may be peace of mind's price.”

http://www.perceptions.couk.com/uef/thump.txt
“Asteroid Collisions: Estimating the Danger
By Robert Roy Britt, Senior Science Writer

“An asteroid capable of global disaster would have to be more than a quarter-mile wide. It would rock the planet with earthquakes and volcanoes and raise a cloud of dust that would darken the skies for months, destroying agriculture and, possibly, many species of plants and animals. Asteroids that large strike Earth only once every 1,000 centuries on average (0.1 million years), NASA officials say. Smaller asteroids that are believed to strike Earth every 1,000 to 10,000 years could destroy a city or cause devastating tsunamis.”

The last major asteroid impact was about 4 millions years ago, we are overdue. Humanity has not recorded a tsunami causing asteroid strike since before the Egyptians built the pyramids; about 6,000 years ago, again we are over due.

Our nuclear tipped missiles do not have the range or power to destroy large asteroids. Scientists figured that a 20 million megaton warhead would be required to destroy a dinosaur killer. Anything less and it would just break up and hit the earth in pieces. The largest nuclear weapons made are around 100 megatons. Currently we have no technology that could stop a major or large asteroid impact.

For what we would need to do to stop a large asteroid impact ask another question and e-mail me a link to it.

Answer 2

Well, yeah. They already have, and they continue to do so. Evidence of asteroid impacts go back billions of years, and they are even monitored today.

However, if you're talking about larger asteroids (like extinction level events), the probability is also great that another asteroid will collide with the earth. When this will happen is a matter of speculation.

Certainly, we are NOT immune to random chance collisions.

Answer 3

Yes, it will definitely hit the ocean or country! Dinosaur became extinct because of it, and there is scientific proof that asteroids did hit earth once.

Answer 4

That's what we have the Atmosphere for. Gigantic asteroids try to hit us all the time, but if their small enough, friction from the atmosphere will cause it to burn out. But if there is a big enough asteroid, then it can burn through and still be large enough to wipe us out.

Answer 5

They have in the past and its likely they will again. We're probably living on borrowed time in that department. Think of all the bodies there are in space - the law of averages says that sooner, rather than later, one will hit the earth.

Answer 6

Yes, I hope so!!! Someone or something needs to put this planet out of its misery before we slowly kill each other off. An asteroid or alien invasion would be a blessing in disguise!!!

Answer 7

yes. most definatley. little tiny ones hit all the time. but one big one will hit the earth and all will be lost.

but that wont happen in our lifetime.

Answer 8

They have in the past so it would be safe to assume they will at some time in the future

Answer 9

Yes! Sooner or later!

Answer 10

most definitely. it happens often enough, though most everything burns up upon entry into the atmosphere.