is there any "proof" of an asteroid or comet hitting planet earth in the next decade??

Question

What I'm curious about,is the scenerio of what would happen if we had a "near miss?"...a comet or asteriod skimming our gravitational field....would we spin out of control or just experience wild tidal patterns etc etc???

Thanks to all those so-far!!,keep going,so far the answers are at least not all "mono-syllabic"??,cosmoligists can jump in whenever they like.

Answer 1

No proof on anything that's currently being watched. The danger is always the things we're not watching. A near miss of anything under 10 miles in diameter would not be noticed. An object that size just doesn't have enough mass to affect the tides, wind patterns, etc. Our current tides are caused (in conjunction with the Sun) by the Moon, which is a big "rock" 2100 miles in diameter (over 4 billion cubic miles). A 10 mile wide asteroid with a volume of about 500 cubic miles isn't going to be noticed, even if it grazes the atmosphere.

A "surprise" hit by anything larger than 50 meters in diameter would be a very unpleasant surprise.

Answer 2

I was going to tell you that the earth passed through the tail of Haley's Comet in 1910. I read about this years ago, but I just Googled it to get the details, and it turns out it was an 'urban legend' at the time. Scientists announced that the earth would pass through the tail of the comet and many people believed it, even believed it would be the end of the earth, but it didn't happen. I learn something new every day!

Astronomers today track large comet and asteroids and can tell you how close they'll come to earth and exactly when. If there was any collisions impending in the next few years, I'm sure we'd all know about it. And we'd be working on a big weapon to destroy it pre-emptively, possibly collaborating with the North Koreans, the Pakistanis and the Iranians. 8^)

As for the effect of a hit or near miss, I guess any of the things you mention could happen, depending on the size and proximity. Apparently a meteor collision 30 million years ago killed the dinosaurs, there is good evidence for this. I have seen the big meteor crater outside Flagstaff, AZ, and I can just imagine what that must have been like for the surrounding neighborhood.

Answer 3

The only "proof" you can make of future events is if you base it on patterns in the past. There is evidence than Earth has encountered massive planet wide extinctions every 150million years ish, which could be accounted for periodic asteroid or comet activity.

There is a theory that the solar system wobbles up and down over the galactic plane (if the galaxy is a sombero hat, we imagine the Earth on the rim oscillating up and down past the brim) It is possible that when earth passes the "brim" there are a lot more debris and asteroids around which increases the chances Earth getting hit by them.

A "near miss" from an asteroid or comet large enough to effect the Earth would be pretty catastrophic if it could deflect the Earths orbit. It could either fling the Earth outwards from its current orbit so we all freeze to death, or fling us inwards so that we fry, there could even be the possibility we end up in the Sun. (although we'd be long dead by the time it hit)

Answer 4

There is plenty of sky that we cannot keep track of. So there is a small chance that a comet or asteroid will appear and collide with the Earth. I wouldn't worry about it too much however, simply support your local astronomers and they will keep an eye out for you.

If a near miss occurs, the chances that anything catastrophic happens like spinning out of control or falling into the sun is about 0%. Tidal patterns may fluxuate a little but nothing compared to the tidal patters of the moon, which is much much larger.

During a collision however, the scenario can get very bad. Tidal waved hundreds of feet tall, fire, concussion waves and all manner of catastrophic events will plague us. Let's hope it does not happen anytime soon. ;P

Answer 5

No one knows for sure. We get hit by small stuff all the time. As for the big stuff, the responsible answer is: "It's only a matter of time." Our biggest known worry is currently the asteroid known as Apophis.

Answer 6

Of all of the objects we are tracking that cross Earth orbit, none of them have a chance of hitting us in the forseeable future that is greater than the overall probability of us getting hit by something.

There's a chance there is something out there that we haven't seen that could hit us but we are pretty thourough. The biggest risk would be a comet. A long-period comet would not be visible until a couple weeks/months before it would hit us, and it would be moving much faster than an asteroid, so it could do much more damage on impact.

Answer 7

Hi. The Earth gets hit by tiny comets quite frequently. A massive object would cause a tsunami (it would probably hit the ocean) but there should not be any serious disruption to the spin.

Answer 8

in the next decade, i doubt it but its only a matter of time before a massive one hits, its happened before and it will happen again but not in our lifetime, i don't think with have anything to fear from near misses, there is a big one that could hit us and end life on earth, but that's not for another 800 years or so, 1950 DA is its name google it and have a look

Answer 9

They wouldn't tell us mere mortals, but you'd see the great and the good and all of their hangers on running for cover.

They would look after themselves and leave the rest of us to our fate.

Answer 10

it is suppose to happen in 2012. one of many talks of the end of the world in 2012 on december 21st (solstice something)