Is it true that some sort of fatal asteroid is headed toward Earth in the next 30 or so years?

Question

I heard this somewhere and the person said that they had heard it on the news. They mentioned that the asteroid is pretty big and would significantly affect life.

Answer 1

Many asteroids are on a course towards the Earth, but the fiery entry into our atmosphere usually saves us from any significant damage.

The " Big Bang " asteroid theory has been an active topic for many years, and while some have come way too close for comfort ( K93 passed within 90,000 miles of the Earth's surface ) the chances of anything large enough to significantly alter life is fairly slim.

We can't rule it out, though, and a few of the more recent asteroids sitings have shown that one or two of them have a mass of 6,000 tons!

That's the equivalent of detonating 3,000 Atomic Bombs. Life as we know it would be over, if the Earth, itself survived such a collision. It the Asteroid fell into one of the seas, we'd see massive devastation, but if it hit an area of crust instability, like the San Andreas fault line, we can pretty much say goodbye. :)

Answer 2

There are a number of sky survey programmes established to track large asteroids and space objects that could potentially hit the Earth. Because of limited resources and the sheer scope of finding every potentially dangerous object, we can only make predictions for the asteroids we have located and established orbital paths for. That being said, it is believed we have located the vast majority of rocks above a certain size that would be potentially civilisation-ending events. Yes, large asteroids do pass close by more often than many people think, occasionally within the moon's orbit, but remember that space is a very big place. Even when there are a lot of potentially dangerous rocks flying about, Earth is a very very small target.

What you probably heard about was a particular asteroid, Apophis if I remember correctly, that is predicted to be a near-miss in the 30 or so years.

Answer 3

No. I think you might be thinking of asteroid 99942 Apophis, which at one time was thought to have a small possibility of hitting the earth in 2029. What happens is when the orbits of asteroids are first calculated, there is a lot of wiggle in their trajectory and the remote possibility existed, which was certainly an eye catching. As time goes on the orbit was refined by further observation to the point where the impact probability becomes negligible. On the other hand, in my opinion, when you talk about the end of the earth, no matter remote the possibility, I think we might eventually want to consider doing something to get ready, if we can.

Answer 4

I didnt take it sluggish to look on the internet website reference which you published yet i understand for a actuality that there is a incredibly great asteroid heading in the direction of the earth. This asteroid is suppossed to the two make touch with, or purely slightly omit the earth in, i think it incredibly is 2029. some years later the asteroid is asserted to comb back around and take a 2d shot and planet earth, possibly making direct touch in 2037, i think replaced into the expected 3 hundred and sixty 5 days. it is per scientific learn i assume, and sure it incredibly is real. it incredibly is asserted that they might have the capacity to misdirect the asteroid via pushing it aside and off aim. i think this asteroid is someway in charge for the components variations that the earth has considered those days.

Answer 5

Yes, there is an asteroid that is ~300 meters in diameter that will come within ~20,000 miles of hitting the earth on Friday the 13th of April 2029. This is close enough to pass within the orbits of our geosynchronous communications satellites. We are absolutely sure that it will not hit the Earth during that go-round, but the Earth's gravity will deflect it just enough that it might hit the Earth exactly seven years later in 2036. The uncertainty is high enough that it could very well hit the Earth at that time. So don't file your taxes early that year, unless you expect a refund. Me, I hope to be living on Mars by that time, so it won't be an issue for me.

Answer 6

No, at least I think so. People can't foresee asteroids heading towards earth, we just dont have the technology. Also the asteroids are so faint that even if we do see one heading for us we'd have about a year to prepare. Chances are that if one's going to come it would be unexpected. It wouldn't matter if we did see one coming, because we couldn't do anything about it. No, you can't blow it up or do other science fiction ideas. And as an unrelated note, remember Nostrodomus' (probably not true) prophecy that the world will end in 2012. Just a note.

Answer 7

Asteroid 1997 XF11 is supposed to pass as close as twice the orbit of the moon, but the cances of it hitting are much more remote than getting getting heart diesease or being killed in a traffic accident.

Answer 8

Hi. An asteroid will come close then but that happens all the time. Luck of the draw when they hit this planet. Look up NEO .

Answer 9

supposedly one is heading "near" us, but most astronomers think it will just miss us. actually a couple of years ago, astronomers saw an asteroid pass that came closer to the earth than most of our communication sattellites orbit. the scarry thing was that they didnt see it until it was passing, they never saw it coming. lets just hope one never hits in our lifetime!!!!!

Answer 10

People get carried away for the sake of attention

Atronomers know of some near misses coming but they don't expect anything to strike.