10-20-2007, 10:44 AM
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Too lazy to set a custom title
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 40,377
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Quote:
New Delhi, Sept. 25: An asteroid three football fields wide might crash into Earth in 2036 seven years after whizzing past the planet closer than some satellites in orbit, a US space scientist said today.
If the asteroid named Apophis passes a specific, small region of space during its close fly-by in 2029, it will return to impact Earth in 2036, said William Ailor, director of the Centre for Orbital and Re-entry Studies with the Aerospace Corporation.
In this small region of space that scientists compare to a ?keyhole?, Earth?s gravity will perturb the asteroid?s trajectory such that the subsequent encounter in 2036 would lead to an impact.
The chance of such an impact is currently predicted to be 1 in 45,000, Ailor said in a talk on Earth-threatening asteroids at the International Astronautical Congress, 2007, in Hyderabad.
?It?s not a civilisation-ender, but if it does strike, it?ll cause significant damage. People alive today ? young people in schools and colleges ? are going to see it go by or will have to deal with it,? Ailor told The Telegraph in an interview.
Further observations of Apophis in 2012 and 2013 will allow scientists to recalculate the chance of an impact.
?The probability of impact could go up or come down,? Ailor said.
In 2029, Apophis will get closer than some geostationary satellites parked about 37,000km above Earth. A realisation at that time that it will impact in seven years would give scientists too little time to prepare, Ailor said
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full article
http://www.telegraphindia.com/107092...ry_8362339.asp
I also read recently in an offline magazine that an impact with a few kilometers big object could eventually totally eliminate not only our civilisation but whole life on earth... in worst case scenario.
Basically Earth would become a second Vernus. 
oh, I forgot this quote
Quote:
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Over the past eight years, a concerted search has helped find 90 per cent of the asteroids 1km and larger ? the civilisation-killers. ?But we have yet to find some 20,000 objects between 300 metres and 140 metres,? Ailor said
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I don't use ICQ anymore.
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