What happened to that asteroid?

Question

In 2002 it was all over the news we'd be hit by an asteroid that would destroy the earth in 14yrs time, then it was all hushed up. Was it discredited? Untrue? A mere smudge on the asteroidometer? Or is it still hurtling full force to earth but they'd better not say coz everyone'll go crazy running up credit card debts, stealing, having orgies etc because "THE ENDOF THE WORLD IS NIGH"...in another 11years....???

Does anyone remember or know? I remember clearly coz I was arranging my wedding and wondered if there was any point continuing!

Answer 1

throughout the earths existence there have been many huge events that have wiped out all living things on one side of the earth atleast, such as super volcanoes that cause ice ages, and meteors, i imagine a meteor would have to be pretty huge to destroy earth, about half the size of earth would likely do it, in the very begining the earth was inhospitable an was plagued with meateor storms for the first half an hour of its existence, and volcanoes erupting were very common, and life on earth actually came from outerspace on an asteroid, the impact caused a reaction of the subatances carried on the rock, and forming the omeaba, from which all life evolved,

world changing events are imenent the end of the world really is nigh, more like in 1111 billion years though, but dont go crazy now will ya, stealing and running up credit cards and having orgies, unless your husband approves, dont worry humans will be living in space in 1111 billion years

Answer 2

I don't think any objective source claimed the chance of the asteroid actually hitting the Earth was better than several thousand to 1. It was the media tabloids who played that up with headlines like "ASTEROID WILL DESTROY EARTH!!" Hey, if it sells more cheese...

As for why you haven't seen much about the asteroid lately, give it time. The tabloids have enough material with Paris, Brittany, and Lindsay right now. They'll retread the killer asteroid story on a slow news week.

Answer 3

I wonder if you are referring to 2002 NT7, which at one stage in July 2002 was listed with a slight probability of impacting the Earth on February 1, 2019.

This object is now known as (89959) 2002 NT7. It is estimated to be about 2 km in diameter and its present orbit has a Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance with that of the Earth of about one half the distance to the Moon (around 190,000 km). In addition to the observations from July 2002 through to March 2003 this object has since been found in data from July 1954, July 1990, May 2001, was tracked again during June-July-August of 2004 and last observed in July of 2006. As a result of this we now know that 2002 NT7 will be some 68 million km from Earth on February 1, 2019 and it is not predicted to even come within 30 million km of the Earth from now through the year 2200.

Answer 4

Not asteroid was confirmed to be close but would not hit us although it could pass as close as to us as the moon, but there is another asteroid which will hit us in 2026 NASA and ESA are looking at different ways to nudge it off course.

Answer 5

I wouldnt say that anything was "hushed up". The newspapers just moved on to other news. There's one due on 26 Oct 2028. Hope I live long enough to see whether it hits or passes us by.

Answer 6

Did you get married? If yes, don't worry about it, look after your husband, if he gives you a hard time threaten to hit him with the asteroid.

Answer 7

If it's the one I'm thinking of they recalculated it's orbit and it should be a 'Near Miss'. Never mind though, I'm sure some sort of Armageddon event will happen sooner or later..

Answer 8

I remember, we were very soon conveniantly told it would come close by us a lot later than they thought.