I'm sorta worried. Will and asteroid hit Earth?

Question

I have been worried that an asteroid will hit Earth. I have heard from some places. I had a nightmare one night that all of a sudden an asteroid hit Earth and a guy was screaming "AHHH!!! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!" It scared me. I have been afraid of the world ending when I'm on it. I can't imagine dying. :( Can someone give me facts or something that in a course of about 90 years that the world will not end. Oh yeah and when I woke up from my dream I was sweating and my heart was beating fast.

Thanks! I feel much better. And by the way I don't watch War of the Worlds or Transformers. People talk about it at school and stuff. And we were talking about stuff happening in the future in science.

Just to let you know I am young. So it is normal for me. I am 11. I have faced other issues but the problem does eventually go away.

Answer 1

- First NASA is looking into that problem, as well as some talented amateurs, but not enough people are looking into the problem.
- Second an asteroid physically hits the earth about once ever 4 hours. These asteroids are the size of a football or less though and those are just the ones that reach the ground. We have a lot of astronomical trash (asteroids and comets) hitting our earth almost all the time.
- Third if one is on course to hit us you can’t stop it and right now no one else can either. The chances of one hitting us is pretty small though.

What you are worried about is if a BIG ASTERIOD hits the earth say one 1/2 mile or larger in size. This has happened, it will happen again and there is no way to predict it.

The program is called Sky Watch, it was first put forth by Arthur C. Clarke, the inventor of the communication satellite. It wasn't started though until the work of L. Shoemaker who proved that asteroids are hitting us and big ones are hitting us frequently. Then the theory of the death of the dinosaurs, thanks to the Iridium layer on the KT boundary, gained acceptance. Finally comet Shoemaker Levy 9 hit Jupiter, and after breaking up in to pieces it still impacted with the force of several mega tons of TNT. All of this raised public awareness and caused people, mostly amateur astronomers to start looking in the sky.

The problem is that only a very few people are doing this and the solar system has a whole lot of junk in it. Currently there is an asteroid on the way to hit the planet earth in the year 2029. There is only a 1:350,000 chance of Apophis actually passing through a small window of time space and swinging around in the year 2039 for an impact.

The problem is that we don’t see all this junk until often it is too late. Comets are not normally detected until they start glowing with a tail, usually after they pass the orbit of the earth. Asteroids have a low abode (reflected light) so they are hard to detect. If an asteroid came out of the direction of the sun on course for an earth impact then we wouldn’t detect it until it was too late.

Hollywood has got it wrong an atomic bomb in the billions of megatons would be required to destroy an asteroid. No nation has one or would allow one to be put into orbit. Other plans range from painting the asteroid, putting up a huge Mylar solar sail, to just putting a space craft near by. The MADMAN program (http://www.sei.aero/downloads/SEI_LOEM_30March2004.pdf) will use mass drivers to hurl rocks from the asteroids to propel it off a dangerous course. The problem is that all these programs are theoretical, need work before then can be used, and work only by pushing the asteroid a few degrees off course so it will be a close miss. We need a lot of time to do this. A few pounds of thrust over a few years could push a huge asteroid way out off an impact course. The problem is finding the asteroid and then getting something out there in time to make a difference.

Your concern is a real one, but one you can’t do anything about; unless you buy a telescope and join Sky Watch. Huge telescopes like the Hubble or the ones that reach deep into the Universe are useless for this kind of work. A small telescope that searches the night sky looking for tiny points of light that move over a few days are what does the work. Stars move slowly, but an asteroid or comet moves much faster, and the closer it gets to the sun the fast it will move. So we can detect these objects with minor telescopes.

Here is NASA’s take on it: http://impact.arc.nasa.gov/
The NEO (Near Earth Orbiting Catalog) lists the known dangerous asteroids and comets.
Here is a Sky Watch computer program to track your own asteroids: http://www.clearskyinstitute.com/psc/intro.html
Here you can figure out the size of an impact: http://janus.astro.umd.edu/astro/impact/

I just read your additional notes.
There are a lot of things to worry about and Global Warming, to Asteroid Impacts are only a few. The advice to worry about what you can change is a good one, but at 11 years old these kinds of worries can set a course for your life; for example if you get a telescope and start looking for yourself to find asteroids you will be joining a few hundred others and probably on your way to becoming an astronomer, at least an amateur one. Worry gives you ulcers and nightmares so don’t worry. Action gives you piece of mind and maybe even a career. If you are a night owl who doesn’t mind the cold of high altitudes you have the natural makings of an astronomer. If you specialize in math, science and physics then you are on the course to possibly become one.

Any way an interest in math, science and physics will let you understand and might even let you contribute to some solutions for a lot of similar problems. I encourage it we don’t have enough scientists. But right now I would calm down this issue at least is being worked on and is not a major one; pollution is more pressing. But, don’t ridicule yourself for your interest. You are were I was at your age and I turned out to be pretty smart (just read my other answers to see if you agree).

Answer 2

The sky around earth is vast. I am not sure whether our scientists could scan the whole sky sufficiently. But it looks like all in all they are doing a great job. They must be able to detect something coming in the direction of earth and probably hitting earth within the next 20 to 30 years. But I am not sure whether they could give 100 % guarantee. But once again it is because the sky is toooo vast to cover each cm or inch on it not because of their incompetence. They are doing a wonderful job. They are scanning the sky day and night continuosly.

I think you should try to relax. Do not look into future where you do not have any control. Look at things which are under your control. We do not have complete control on an asteroid hitting earth.

There are few potential asteroid collisions with the earth in the next few decades. But we cannot predict their exact path at this moment. May be by the time they are near to earth we might be able to destry them or deviate their path, but again no gurantee.

How old are you?? if you are an adult then your fear is abnormal. What is normal or abnormal is decided based on an average. Majority of human adults are not supposed to fear an asteroid issue as much as you do. The issue is scary I agree, but you are having an abnormal reaction.

If your fear persists you need to talk to an experienced counsellor or psychiatrist. They could try some kind of psychotherapy or try some medications to help you.

If you are a child then first talk to your parents and take it from there.

You are experiencing a type of Phobia. It is irrational fear or anxiety. You are also experiencing night mares.

Don't worry we are with you. You are not alone if something is going to happen to earth.

Most likely no asteroid will hit earth in the next 30 or 40 years and be assured.

Answer 3

yes, the earth can and will eventually get hit by an asteroid. I has before, and will happen again. The odds of it happening during your lifetime however, are pretty slim.

However, you should read up on the asteroid now called Apophis. There is a 1 in 45,000 chance or so of it hitting us in 2036.

Answer 4

Asteroids come very close to the earth all the time. However when they blast through our atmosphere, the pressuer turns the asteroids in dust.
I think you have watched Transformers and War of the Worlds too many times.

Answer 5

Dont worry now. Nasa can see WAY far out to space and using all the computers they can almost predict the astriods EXTACT path. If anything was heading for earth nasa would send out something to blow it up or send it the other way. I think what i last hear that there is no astriods even to consider looking at for another 20 years. it would be all over the news if something was comming

Answer 6

Like it has already been pointed out, that is an unlikely scenario in our lifetime.

It's best to not worry about things that you can't change anyway. It will only make you feel bad, and it doesn't solve anything. Just enjoy the greatest gift of all..........the gift of life!

Answer 7

Honestly if it was big enough it might but they are working on buliding something to hit it and change its course, instead of worrying about dying and being scared enjoy life...for now 0_o

Answer 8

watch this, it might scare you even more
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3956206295149490911&q=NASA%27s+EVIL+lucifer+project&total=5&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0