who believes an asteroid will collide with earth in the next 100 years?

Question

i'm really concerned about this reality or myth? you decide

Answer 1

A little history:

"AP) Researchers studying rocks from Antarctica have found chemical evidence that a huge meteorite smashed the Earth 251 million years ago and caused the greatest extinction event in the planet's history, killing about 90 percent of all life.

The extinction, which scientists call the Permian-Triassic event, came some 185 million years before a similar meteorite collision with the planet killed off the dinosaurs.

"It appears to us that the two largest mass extinctions in Earth history ... were both caused by catastrophic collisions" with meteoroids"

In 2004, NASA released the following statement:

"2004 MN4 is now being tracked very carefully by many astronomers around the world, and we continue to update our risk analysis for this object. Today's impact monitoring results indicate that the impact probability for April 13, 2029 has risen to about 1.6%"

Answer 2

I've answered this one before, it, or a similar question comes up every few days. This is neither a myth, nor a reality. It is a remote possibility, distorted into a sensationalist headline.

There is a 1 in 45000 chance of an asteroid hitting. That means there is a 99.995 chance of it missing. Those are the facts as they are known. The asteroid is called Apophis, Look it up on the Internet, or use the Wiki link below, and make up your own mind. The asteroid is about 300 metres in diameter and will cause a lot of damage if it hits, but will not be large enough to wipe out life on Earth etc. If it lands in the ocean, which is about 75% of the Earth's surface, it will cause Tsunamis, if it lands in the middle of the Atlantic, the Tsunamis will cause a lot of damage to coastal areas of Africa, North and South America, Portugal, Ireland, Parts of the UK etc etc.
It will orbit many times between now and then. (It's orbit is 323 days). It is during the 2029 orbit that it may become unpredictable, because it passes very close to Earth, but still it is not likely to impact, that is where the 1 in 45000 chance comes into it.

Answer 3

It is not a crazy question, as someone above suggested.

There are currently a couple thousand NEOs (near Earth asteroids) identified. One copped us in 1908, but hit in a wilderness region of Russia.

The point is "how big". Small asteroids are much more common than larger ones. So, the question should be "will there be a large asteroid in the next 100 years".

Well, anything above 1 km wide is considered a "civilization killer". That doesn't mean extinctions, but means the damage would be so bad, the world's economies could not recover. However, the chances of a 1 km or bigger asteroid hitting us is about one every 100,000 years. That does not mean it could not happen in the next year, but very unlikely.

Anything over 100 metres wide can destroy whole cities, but the reality is that most of the world is not urban - 70% is ocean for a start. So, although a 100m wide asteroid coult hit every 1000 years, the chances of hitting an urban area are minor, and we will get worse events from volcanoes and earthquakes in that timescale.

So, relax. It most likely will not happen, and in the next couple of decades we willd develop the means to avert the danger. Methods of doing so are already on the drawing board

Answer 4

That was a distinct possibility a couple years ago, when NASA scientists gave Asteroid 99942 Apophis a 1 in about 32 chance of hitting the Earth.

However, it has been sharply reduced to more than 1 in 4 million.

At this point, there's not really much worry, because we have the orbits of most meteors plotted out using supercomputers, and not many have very decent chances.

You can probably rest assured that if we did have a giant rock coming at us, we would have plenty of warning, and try to start finding ways to stop it.

And if we couldn't stop it, then we could get it's orbit down so precisely that we could predict the exact hour, minute, second, and location that it would collide with us.

Answer 5

Asteroids hit the Earth all the time. Most of them burn up in the atmosphere and few make it to the surface. Our Earth is in orbit around the Sun at about 30 km/s. An asteroid needs to achieve a proximity match to our vector to have a chance of making it to the surface. For an asteroid to be of significant harm, it needs to be about 2 km across. Jupiter shields our planet from inbound comets which is a greater threat. They shower our planet on a regular basis every 30 million years as a result of our passage though the Galactic belt. The threat posed by asteroids and comets is real but the probability is very small and there is no reason at the moment to be concerned. 100 years is a very small amount of time in terms of a solar system. You have more chance of cleaning out Las Vegas than living to see a ELE caused by an asteroid or comet.

Answer 6

An asteroid has not collided with earth in the time of any recorded history. i.e. thousands and thousands of years.
The last big hit appeared to be a comet which possibly hit the earth to kill of the dinosaurs, which was well before man evolved.
This means that the odds are it is probably unlikely to happen in the next hundred years.
Don't panic.

Answer 7

Asteroids are a bunch of rocks that orbit the sun between Mars & Jupiter, so I will assume that you mean meteor...

Meteors hit all the time, but I'm not talking disaster movie!
They usually either only 'collide' with the atmosphere & burn up, or do little damage when they land.

The chances of a 'big one'?
Sure, why not! Though why be bothered? If it's not that, it'll be the U.S. starting WW3, or global warming will catch us!

Answer 8

NASA video exhibit units thousands of NEOs (close to Earth products). maximum of them are too small, or do not bypass close sufficient, to be of subject. It additionally facilitates save the usually used public calm in the event that they don't understand, as an entire, what number products are incredibly on the edge human beings in the sky. the 1st link below is the NASA website committed to NEOs. that is exciting to look at each and all the stuff on there in case you like astronomy. the 2nd link is to a video exhibiting what number products, different than the planets, are in our usually used place. a lot of human beings do not understand what number there are. P.S. not something I published is a reason to be afflicted. it is purely on the subject of to those who don't comprehend the help and blow it out of share.

Answer 9

It's possible. The universe is a big place so the odds of us getting hit isn't that high. Then again there is alot of rocks floating around out there that can get bounced in our direction.
And it just takes the one.

Hopefully we'll have developed enough, technologically speaking, to deal with it when it happens. Which it will eventually.

Answer 10

As most people have stated its very unlikely, however I've always wondered if the moon would protect Earth from meteors by pulling the rock towards its self with its gravitational pull and steer it away from Earth.