From Discover Magazine online
In 2004, a dozen or so scientists quietly confronted an impending disaster. They had inside intelligence that a chunk of rock and metal, roughly 1,300 feet wide, was hurtling toward a possible collision with the most populated swath of Earth—Europe, India, and Southeast Asia. Furiously crunching numbers on their computers, the researchers put the odds of impact in the year 2029 at exactly those of hitting the number in a game of roulette: 1 in 37. Researching back data proved that conclusion wrong, however in 2029 the asteroid, dubbed Apophis—derived from the Egyptian god Apep, the destroyer who dwells in eternal darkness—will zoom closer to Earth than the world’s communications satellites do. And April 13, 2036, it will return—this time with a 1-in-45,000 chance of hitting somewhere on a line stretching from the Pacific Ocean near California to Central America. What causes even more concern is that this is far from an unusual situation. There are literally hundreds of thousands of small to medium object that are now being tracked that are no where near the size to end civilization like the one that killed off the dinosaurs, but still could pack a vicious wallop in the arena of a good sized nuclear or multiple nuclear weapon! Slamming into the ocean, Apophis could create a tsunami dwarfing the one that killed more than 200,000 people around Indonesia. NASA is trying to pinpoint 90% of the NEOs that could be extremely dangerous to life on Earth and ESA is in the experimentation phase of plans to deflect smaller objects before they hit Earth. Click here to read more about their concerns and first serious attempt at developing a planetary defense.
Thanks to Shaun A. Saunders for the post
In 2004, a dozen or so scientists quietly confronted an impending disaster. They had inside intelligence that a chunk of rock and metal, roughly 1,300 feet wide, was hurtling toward a possible collision with the most populated swath of Earth—Europe, India, and Southeast Asia. Furiously crunching numbers on their computers, the researchers put the odds of impact in the year 2029 at exactly those of hitting the number in a game of roulette: 1 in 37. Researching back data proved that conclusion wrong, however in 2029 the asteroid, dubbed Apophis—derived from the Egyptian god Apep, the destroyer who dwells in eternal darkness—will zoom closer to Earth than the world’s communications satellites do. And April 13, 2036, it will return—this time with a 1-in-45,000 chance of hitting somewhere on a line stretching from the Pacific Ocean near California to Central America. What causes even more concern is that this is far from an unusual situation. There are literally hundreds of thousands of small to medium object that are now being tracked that are no where near the size to end civilization like the one that killed off the dinosaurs, but still could pack a vicious wallop in the arena of a good sized nuclear or multiple nuclear weapon! Slamming into the ocean, Apophis could create a tsunami dwarfing the one that killed more than 200,000 people around Indonesia. NASA is trying to pinpoint 90% of the NEOs that could be extremely dangerous to life on Earth and ESA is in the experimentation phase of plans to deflect smaller objects before they hit Earth. Click here to read more about their concerns and first serious attempt at developing a planetary defense.
Thanks to Shaun A. Saunders for the post
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