2006-12-28 15:07:06 · 7 answers · asked by bacamacaamaca 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
It has happened before, there are a lot of meteors flying by the Earth all the time, so the chances are that eventually we will be hit again. The thing is it could be tomorrow or a million years from now.
2006-12-28 15:09:49 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
There are more meteors out there than there are stars and grains of sand on a beach. The odds of an impact with Earth by a meteor are great. As we speak, we are being bombarded by meteors. There are microscopic meteors also. There are millions and billions of those burning up in Earths atmosphere every second. Hope this helps.
2006-12-28 23:38:58 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
There is funding for a program to look for NEO (Near Earth Objects) These are objects that may come close to the Earth's orbital plane. Once an object is located, it is observed and the orbit is calculated. Then a computer model comes up with the orbit and compares it to the earth's orbit and calculates when it comes closest to the earth. The idea is that if you have enough advance notice, then maybe you can do something to reduce the destruction. If you knew where it could hit, then you could evacuate the area, store food supplies, etc. So you would be better prepared for the results of an impact.
http://szyzyg.arm.ac.uk/~spm/
It is a bit more crowded in the universe than your science teacher lead you to believe.
2006-12-28 23:24:11 · answer #3 · answered by Mr Cellophane 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Because earth and other plantes have been impacted by meteors in the past. Since it has happened before and meteors are still around, it is likely to happen again.
2006-12-28 23:09:59 · answer #4 · answered by cero143_326 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
the simple fact is that the earth is being hit by stuff all the time, most of it is very small and burns up upon entry, some debris is large enough to not fully burn up and those are the meteorites that are in museums and private collections, there are many much larget objects in the universe and the probablity of one hitting the earth is large when compared to the infinate size of the universe. Plus the gravity of the sun is pulling objects toward it, and since the earth is already int he way that will only up the probability
2006-12-28 23:11:08 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
The earth has been impacted may times in the past. there is no reason to believe it will not happen in the future.
2006-12-28 23:10:36 · answer #6 · answered by October 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Because it's happened before and we got a moon out of it. But the moon is slowly moving away. Back when there where dinosaurs the moon took up most of the sky.
2006-12-28 23:21:28 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋