Possibility of an Asteroid striking earth???

Question

Excuse me if this sounds stupid, i'm complete airhead when it comes to the sciences, but i wondering what is the possiblity that an asteriod is likely to strike earth ? and is there any indictator when this would/might happen???

Also is it possible that an asteriod could destroy all of earth's ecosystem?? like in armageddon???

I read that if asteroid is coming in the direction of earth, there are many theories how alter its direction so it misses earth, i wondering how you could alter a comet from colliding with earth??

Answer 1

The probability is 100%. We know this because it has already happened. It will happen again, sooner or later.

There are no signs that an asteroid is approaching other than our calculating the orbits of asteroids and looking to see if they cross the Earth's orbit (most do not) and if they will do that sometime when the Earth is in the neighborhood.

And yes, an asteroid could destroy all of the Earth's ecosystem. The comet that hit Jupiter about a decade ago left a hole in the atmosphere bigger than the Earth's diameter. Had it hit the Earth, it would have destroyed it--fragmented it.

When the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs hit in the Gulf of Mexico, it came in at a steep angle from the south. It put so much heat to the north that it set all of what is now the continental United States on fire. The only things that survived were water-living things like crocodiles and turtles. Bits of the asteroid were found in soil samples taken from the seabed north of Hawaii about five years ago.

Answer 2

Apophis ( /əˈpɒfɪs/, previously known by its provisional designation 2004 MN4) is a near-Earth asteroid that caused a brief period of concern in December 2004 because initial observations indicated a small probability (up to 2.7%) that it would strike the Earth in 2029. Additional observations provided improved predictions that eliminated the possibility of an impact on Earth or the Moon in 2029. However, a possibility remained that during the 2029 close encounter with Earth, Apophis would pass through a gravitational keyhole, a precise region in space no more than about a half-mile wide,[6] that would set up a future impact on April 13, 2036. This possibility kept the asteroid at Level 1 on the Torino impact hazard scale until August 2006, when the probability that Apophis will pass through the keyhole was determined to be very small. Apophis broke the record for the highest level on the Torino Scale, being, for only a short time, a level 4, before it was lowered.[7] Its diameter is approximately 270 meters (885 ft).[2] As of October 7, 2009, the odds of an April 13, 2036 impact are considered to be 1 in 250,000.[3][8]

Answer 3

In the possibility that an asteroid or comet big enough could hit earth, this explosive impact with our world causing global destruction, a nuclear worldwide firestorm, and later cutting off the sunlight similar to a nuclear winter, but the odds are so small that it is not worth worrying about. There were some close calls though. On May 19,1996, a small Asteroid (between 100 and 300 meters wide) passed 280,000 miles from earth, which is a bit farther out than the moon. If it had hit the earth, it could have destroyed an entire state of the U.S., with an explosion larger than that of any hydogen bomb ever tested. And this asteroid was discovered only four days before it passed by earth. In March 2002, asteroid 2002 EM7 came within 300,000 miles of earth, a bit farther out than the moon, and it was about 200 feet wide. This one really gave the astronomers a scare because it was detected 4 days after it passed by earth, because it had come from the sun's direction, and therefore was coming from a direction where they cannot be seen because of the sun's brightness. And in July 2002, it was announced that asteroid 2002 NT7, detected on July 9 in New Mexico, could strike earth on Feb. 1, 2019. Although once there is more data on its orbit, it could turn out that it will not hit earth. This asteroid has an orbital period around the sun of 837 days and 1.2 miles wide, giving it enough kinetic energy to be a doomsday asteroid. This asteroid is large enough do wipe out most of mankind. But with all of the close calls, the earth's atmosphere coupled with the moon as a bodyguard, consider yourself pretty safe. :-)

Answer 4

"...what is the possiblity that an asteriod is likely to strike earth ?...
It's happened many times in the distant past and it *will* happen again, so there's a 100% possibility. The big question is when..!

"...and is there any indictator when this would/might happen???..."
As of right now, the most likely impact could happen on April 13, 2036 when an asteroid named Apophis approaches us. The impact probability is currently put at 1 in 45,000

"...Also is it possible that an asteriod could destroy all of earth's ecosystem?? like in armageddon???..."
Absolutely yes...!

You might want to check out this website where all known asteroids are listed along with their chances of impact and its date ==>http://newton.dm.unipi.it/cgi-bin/neodys/neoibo?riskpage:0;main

Answer 5

Actually, if you had of read your Bible it would have stated that that l literally WILL occur as 1 of the things will occur in the last days before Christ returns again to Earth.

I'm into astronomy as well, & have an 8-inch reflector type telescope. I've seen in the sky & literally KNOW that daily asteroids hit the Earth EVERY DAY, even in the span that I am just typing this, 1 has hit the Earth. Yet the Earth's skies contain air, thus the meteor (asteroid) is so small it is never seen and it literally gets burned up when hitting the air because of its speed moving thru the air.

BUT as I formerly said, God has set a time & a day for that to happen and asteroids WILL come down and honestly be Big enough not to burn up.

Take a peek in either say www.yahoo.com or www.google.com and do a search for Asteroids or Meteors and you will find that some HAVE come down and literally hit the Earth, even within our current lives.

Answer 6

Yes it can destroy all life on earth if it is big enough. Yes one can strike the earth they have before many times. There are millions of asteroids in our solar system any one of them could change direction or orbit and hit the earth at anytime. Telescopes and observatories keep track of the NEA (near earth asteroids) so we would have some warning but if we could do anything to stop it is an issue they are working on now.. Go here and read more on it..

http://neat.jpl.nasa.gov/neofaq.html

Answer 7

Some good answers here, but I have one problem with one small part of Tychabrahe's answer.

She said that the comet fragments that hit Jupiter a decade ago would fragment the Earth had they hit. That is not true. the largest fragments were only a kilometer or so across, far smaller than the "dinosaur" killer of 65 million years ago.

The comet shoemaker/Levy fragments left scars in Jupiter's gaseous envelope, some scars as big as the earth. But firstly they hit with more force than they would have done on Earth because of Jupiter's massive gravity. Secondly, that scarring was still only atmospheric stuff - the main body of Jupiter would have been very little affected.

On Earth, these fragments would have caused global mayhem for our atmosphere, but the body of the earth would have suffered very little - several craters of many tens of kilometers wide, and lots of ejecta and Earthquakes, but that is small stuff compared with the mass of the Earth. Most, if not all, of homo sapiens would have been wiped out, but in a million years, even the craters would be gone, erased by erosion and tectonic forces.

Answer 8

Ah, mixing words with math:

Is it possible that...?
Unless one can prove that something is impossible, then it is possible.
And, as TychaBrahe neatly puts it: since it has already happened (and there are still millions of asteroids out there), then it will very probably happen again -- but it could be a while.

Are there indicators that this will happen soon? Not really. There are a few asteroids that are being watched because they will come close, but none of the ones we have seen so far have a probability higher than 1 in 10,000.
Check this site:
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/orbits/

Answer 9

Asteroids hit the Earth every day, there have only been around a dozen big ones and of them only three or four have caused mass extinctions.
The chances are there will be another collision at some point, maybe today, maybe in 2143, maybe five hundred million years.
When it happens we probably will not be told by NASA or anyone as it would cause mass panic and lawlessness.

Answer 10

Asteroids strike the earth every day, but most are too small to do anything like you are thinking of. Billions upon billions of rocks burn up in our atmosphere every day.

A giant meteor the size that you are thinking of, one with sufficient size to destroy life on earth if it made it through the atmosphere, will be noticed on a collision course eventually. It may be a while, but there are so many floating rocks out there that it's going to happen sometime. Whether we'll find a way to prevent or deter it is another story.

Hope that helps.