Asteroid on the Way
11-Apr-2005
An asteroid the size of three football fields is scheduled to zoom past Earth on Friday, April 13, 2029, coming closer to us than many telecommunications satellites in orbit. It will be visible to the naked eye in several countries, but it's not likely that a large space rock like this one will actually hit the Earth, acccording to astronomer Perry Gerakines, who says, "The odds that an asteroid of this magnitude would impact the Earth are in the millions to one. Some NASA scientists say a particular person's odds of being affected by an asteroid collision is comparable to those of being in a major airline accident" so the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs was a major piece of bad luck.
Astronomer David Tholen was the first scientist to spot the asteroid, using the University of Arizona's Bok telescope. Six months later, the asteroid was spotted again in Australia, and named "2004 MN4." Astronomers then began using their computers to calculate how close the asteroid will come to Earth, and whether it will impact the Earth or fly by. At that time, they thought the likelihood of the 1,000-foot-wide stone hitting Earth was one chance in 38, which is very high in astrological terms. Ominously enough, the impact is due on Friday the 13th of 2029.
New calculations show the asteroid will miss us, but only by about 15,000 to 25,000 miles, which is one-tenth the distance from the Earth to the moon. What 2004 MN4 shows us is that a catastrophic asteroid impact of the kind that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago is not only possible—it's probably inevitable that it will happen again eventually.
11-Apr-2005
An asteroid the size of three football fields is scheduled to zoom past Earth on Friday, April 13, 2029, coming closer to us than many telecommunications satellites in orbit. It will be visible to the naked eye in several countries, but it's not likely that a large space rock like this one will actually hit the Earth, acccording to astronomer Perry Gerakines, who says, "The odds that an asteroid of this magnitude would impact the Earth are in the millions to one. Some NASA scientists say a particular person's odds of being affected by an asteroid collision is comparable to those of being in a major airline accident" so the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs was a major piece of bad luck.
Astronomer David Tholen was the first scientist to spot the asteroid, using the University of Arizona's Bok telescope. Six months later, the asteroid was spotted again in Australia, and named "2004 MN4." Astronomers then began using their computers to calculate how close the asteroid will come to Earth, and whether it will impact the Earth or fly by. At that time, they thought the likelihood of the 1,000-foot-wide stone hitting Earth was one chance in 38, which is very high in astrological terms. Ominously enough, the impact is due on Friday the 13th of 2029.
New calculations show the asteroid will miss us, but only by about 15,000 to 25,000 miles, which is one-tenth the distance from the Earth to the moon. What 2004 MN4 shows us is that a catastrophic asteroid impact of the kind that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago is not only possible—it's probably inevitable that it will happen again eventually.
