Does anybody know about the asteroid due to near miss or hit earth in 2028, and what is being done about it?

Question

According to CNN (I searched using the terms "asteroid", "impact", Earth", "2028") an asteroid has been seen approaching earth. It will pass on October 26th. 2028: the best estimate is that it will miss by 30,000 miles, but as the error term in the estimate is up to 180,000 miles it could hit. The explosion would be equivalent to 2 million Hiroshima bombs.

Does anybody know anything about this? E.g what time would it hit,which side of Earth is in line, whether it would hit sea (with the implications of huge waves) or land, and what the effects would be?

Also, what are the politicians and scientists doing to divert this object if necessary? It obviously ranks at least alongside problems such as global warming and terrorism.

Answer 1

Are you thinking of Asteroid 99942 Apophis? It is not expected to hit, but there is a very small chance that it could pass Earth in 2029 at juuuust the right distance to cause its orbit to be slightly altered by Earth's gravity so that it would return in 2036 and hit. Recent observations have refined our knowledge of its orbit so that it looks like it will not pass Earth at the right distance in 2029 and so not return in 2036 to hit. But it is being watched and if it were found to definitely be on a collision course you can bet your bottom dollar that all sorts of people will be doing things about it.

Answer 2

All of your questions can be answered at this website: http://impact.arc.nasa.gov/ which is the Asteroid and Comet Impact Hazards website run by NASA.

The short answer is that we're not in any imminent danger, there are scientists who are researching the best ways to deal with an asteroid or comet that is headed for Earth once we find one, and there isn't enough money from our government going into this research to successfully defend ourselves should we find an object that will hit us soon. The sad fact of it is, if the same amount of money was given to researchers as is spent on a movie such as Armageddon, we would have been able to identify all potential threats by now.

Answer 3

I've read about it and seen a Discovery TV program about it.

The ugly answer is that with an impact of that size it will not matter which side of the Earth it hits. Everything - you, me, our pets, Wal-mart, et al., will be gone.

There is a plan to launch a satellite equipped with solar collectors - like solar panels to generate electricity - and, via hardware and computers, collect, concentrate, focus, and redirect the power onto this rock. The hope is that this power will cause the rock to become out of balance and it's own rotating will cause it to go off course and miss us. Science has been wrong in the past and, unfortunately, historical outcomes equate to future money invested. Sorry, but you asked.

Answer 4

Asteroid 1997XF11 will pass 930,000 miles away not 30,000 miles. You have old information. That's farther than the moon. it was concluded that the chances of it hitting earth in 2028 was 1 in 100,000 while the chance of an unknown asteroid hitting us is 1 in 10,000 so i wouldn't worry. It is also much smaller than the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs although it would cause huge amounts of damange it would not kill off life on earth.

Answer 5

the search for asteroids had been accelerated in the last few years, astronomers find new asteroids every day. the path of these finds is computed and each asteroid that has any probability of hitting earth is monitored to define it's exact path, but these paths vary slightly as they pass near planets or the sun.
The asteroid you mentioned has a marginal but not negligible probability of hitting earth. some methods to divert such asteroids are being discussed but no specific technology has been selected yet for development

Answer 6

Probably it will be the apocalypse, or what the christians have been talking about, so which means that the world will be destroyed in 2028, and we could actually know to have a good time, before then, go party drink and have fun
it will all end in 2028.

Answer 7

not really sure. but there is this book called star warrior papers. its basically about the Roswell incident, that leads to other findings and such. Suppossedly that's the same asteroid that caused the extinction of dinosaur and the creation of man. in the book it suggest that the asteriod was originally a planet, that alien well call them, came from and cloned animals and such things and created man, to be slaves to mine the gold to take back to there planet, that is why most geographical finds of man are based at the mines. a very interesting book. a must read.

Answer 8

As for the first part of your question .. with a +- of 180,000 miles as you stated it would be rather obvious that there would be know way to project a time and place of impact.

As for the second part, Bruce Willis movies aside there is little that we could do at this point. NASA fights for every dime it can get and many still oppose its funding.

Answer 9

THe chances of it actually hitting the earth are very slim. There are hundreds of Near earth Objects that come that close

Answer 10

You can find all the information you want or need by checking out the NASA site. They have extensive information on objects in space such as this. http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/1997xf11.html