Is it really true that an asteroid is heading for Earth?If so,can anyone give me any info about this?Thanks.?
825274
There are some 432,536 asteroids at the latest count. Less than 5,000 of these are Near Earth Objects i.e. come inside the orbit of Mars.\n\nThe two you may have heard about are 99942 Apophis (320 metres in diameter) and 29075 1950 DA (1.1 - 1.4 kilometres in diameter).\n\n1950 DA\n\n29075 1950 DA is the Near Earth Object with the highest known possible probability of impacting Earth, according to the Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale. For a few days in December 2004 it was temporarily surpassed by 99942 Apophis (which at the time was named only by its provisional designation 2004 MN4).\n\nIf 1950 DA continues on its present orbit, it will approach near to the Earth on March 16, 2880. Over the intervening time, the rotation of the asteroid will cause its orbit to change (by the Yarkovsky effect). (See second link.)\n\nA preliminary analysis shows two possible pole directions (Giorgini, et al., 2002 "Asteroid 1950 DA's 2880 Encounter with Earth"). One trajectory misses the Earth by tens of millions of kilometers, while the other has an impact probability of 1⁄300. The radar observations are currently being reanalyzed, in combination with the optical lightcurves.\n\nThe energy released by a collision with an object the size of 1950 DA would cause major effects on the climate and biosphere which would be devastating to human civilization.\n\nThe discovery of the potential impact has heightened interest in asteroid deflection strategies. (See third link.) \n\nDespite the fatalism of one contributor above, there is plenty that could be done about avoiding an impact, especially with over 800 years notice of one!\n\nAPOPHIS\n\nIn July 2005, former Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart formally asked NASA to investigate the possibility that the asteroid's post-2029 orbit could be in orbital resonance with the Earth, which would increase the probability of future impacts. Schweickart asked for an investigation of the necessity of placing a transponder on the asteroid for more accurate tracking of how its orbit is affected by the Yarkovsky effect.\n\nIf this project were undertaken, we would have a spy in the sky to tell us of any impending problems. This is just one example of how mankind can intervene in its own destiny.\n\nDISCOVERY AND NAMING \n\nApophis was discovered on June 19, 2004, by Roy A. Tucker, David J. Tholen, and Fabrizio Bernardi of the NASA-funded University of Hawaii Asteroid Survey from Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. This group observed for two nights. The new object received the provisional designation 2004 MN4.\n\nOn December 18, the object was rediscovered from Australia by Gordon Garradd of the Siding Spring Survey, another NASA-funded NEA survey. Further observations from around the globe over the next several days allowed the Minor Planet Center to confirm the connection to the June discovery.\n\nWhen first discovered, the object received the provisional designation 2004 MN4 and news and scientific articles about it referred to it by that name. When its orbit was sufficiently well calculated it received the permanent number 99942 (on June 24, 2005). Receiving a permanent number made it eligible for naming, and it promptly received the name "Apophis" as of July 19, 2005. Apophis is the Greek name of the Ancient Egyptian god Apep, "the Destroyer", who dwells in the eternal darkness of the Duat (underworld) and tries to destroy the Sun during its nightly passage.\n\nPOSSIBLE IMPACTS\n\nApophis has an orbital period of 323.6 earth days and crosses our orbit twice a year. Only a minority of its approaches will find us at a point of our orbit where an impact may occur.\n\nThe 2029 approach was thought at first to be potentially hazardous, but further observations ruled that out. Then an impact in 2035 was considered a possibility and further observations then ruled that out, too.\n\nOn August 5, 2006, Apophis was lowered to a Level 0 Torino impact hazard scale. As
504768
Yes (otherwise people wouldn't keep reporting them), but a vast majority of them are more likely to be a mix of either Asteroids entering the atmosphere, bits of space junk (e.g. old satelites, etc) doing the same thing....... just a plain old airliner with the lights on, and people not having focused their eyes on it properly. And then of course there's the highly classified prototype aircraft (Area51 Black Projects), etc.
159793
The answer is either “Yes” followed by “but”, or “No” followed by “however”.\n\nThe biggest problem is that meteorites aren’t all one thing. Many are objects from the asteroid belt. However many are comets or fragments of cometss. Some are fragments smashed off other planets like the famous Martian meteorite that was found 15 years back and supposed to contain signs of life. Some are probably fragments of the Earth itself torn lose when the moon formed.\n\nIf we limit ourselves to just meteorites form the Asteroid belt that have swung out of orbit and found us, well the asteroid belt itself is believed to be the result of a planet that was torn apart many billions of years ago. So to answer your question, no, the Earth isn’t formed from the same thing as meteorites. Meteorites are formed from the destruction of another planet entirely. \n\nHowever it is the same thing in the sense it is all solid planetary material. Asteroids aren’t primarily of frozen water and gas like comets are.\n\nIt really does depend entirely on what you mean by ‘thing’. Ultimately everything in the universe is made from the same thing. It depends on how far back you want to go.\n\n______________________________\nTheca said “they think earth is meteorites stuck together\n>>>> after the big boom, so basically yes\n\n\nThey don’t think that. ‘ They’ think Earth is the result of dust and gas condensed out of the cloud left by a supernova. The planet that the asteroids broke off from formed out of the same material, but neither were formed from ‘meteorites’ stuck together.
363001
Some people think its because of the moon. The theory is that a huge asteroid hit the earth and then bounced of into orbit around the earth. This supposedly caused the earth to have a tilt to its axis.
400469
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9907/28/asteroid.newser/
701683
My opinion is that we would have to change course of an asteroid headed for Earth.  That means that we would have to detect it years in advance.  With enough notice, we could build a Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) system.  Actually we would have to build several and attach them to the asteroid and start pushing.   They would need to be refueled, so we have to make several visits.   If successful, a project like this would be a real boon to the space program, the economy, and scientific knowlege.
655485
There will be no tsunamis, firestorms or mass extinctions to spoil your Memorial Day weekend. \n\nAlthough the Internet is rife with speculation that a fragment of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 will strike the Earth on May 25, neither the main comet nor any of its more than 40 fragments pose a danger to Earth. \n\n"We are very well acquainted with the trajectory of Comet 73P Schwassmann-Wachmann 3," said Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office. "There is absolutely no danger to people on the ground or the inhabitants of the International Space Station, as the main body of the object and any pieces from the breakup will pass many millions of miles beyond the Earth."\n\nImage above: Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys took images of the disintegration of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3's fragment B. Click to EnlargeCredit: NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (APL/JHU), M. Mutchler and Z. Levay (STScI)\nMovie: Zoom to Fragment B close-up: + 544 Kb QuickTime | + Windows Media \n\nHowever, you can see the comet falling apart right before our eyes, thanks to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. \n\nRecent Hubble images have uncovered many more fragments than have been reported by ground-based observers. These observations provide an unprecedented opportunity to study the demise of a comet nucleus. \n\nNone of the comet's fragments will come closer than 5.5 million miles to Earth during its closest approaches May 12 - 28. That's more than 20 times the distance from the Earth to the moon.\n\nThe main fragment, designated fragment C, will pass closest to Earth on May 12 at a distance of approximately 7.3 million miles. It will be visible to small telescopes during the morning hours in the constellation Vulpecula. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope will observe the comet in May. \n\nAstronomers have been observing the comet for more than 75 years. The trajectory of this comet has been monitored and refined over time, and its path around the sun is well understood. Amateur and professional astronomers around the world have been tracking its spectacular disintegration for years. \n\nThe comet is currently comprised of a chain of fragments, named alphabetically, stretching across several degrees on the sky. (The sun and moon each have an apparent diameter of about 1/2 of a degree.) Ground-based observers have noted dramatic brightening events associated with some of the fragments (as seen in the image below) indicating that they are continuing to break-up and that some may disappear altogether.\n\n Image above: Ground based view of fragments B and G, R, and N on April 8, 2006. Credit: M. Jäger and G. Rhemann \n\nHubble caught two of the fragments, B and G, shortly after large outbursts in activity. Hubble also photographed fragment C , which at the time was less active. The resulting images reveal that a hierarchical destruction process is taking place, in which fragments are continuing to break into smaller chunks. Several dozen "mini-fragments" are found trailing behind each main fragment, probably associated with the ejection of house-sized chunks of surface material that can only be detected in these very sensitive and high- resolution Hubble images.\n\nSequential Hubble images of the B fragment, taken a few days apart, suggest that the chunks are pushed down the tail by outgassing from the icy, sunward-facing surfaces of the chunks, much like space-walking astronauts are propelled by their jetpacks. The smaller chunks have the lowest mass, and so are accelerated away from the parent nucleus faster than the larger chunks. Some of the chunks seem to dissipate completely over the course of several days.\n\nDeep-freeze relics of the early solar system, cometary nuclei are porous and fragile mixes of dust and ices. They can be broken apart by gravitational tidal forces when they pass near large bodies. For example, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was torn to pieces when it skirted ne
810232
It is estimated that Earth is bombarded by a city-sized asteroid once every 65mil yrs.\ni) Assuming a Poisson distribution, find the probability that Earth will be hit by 2 or less of such asteroids in the next 10000yrs.\nEta Carinae is a suspected hypernova that is 7000 light-years away from Earth. Scientists have observed 200 of such star in many distant galaxies. It was found that the stars have an average life-span of 200mil years with variance 2500mil yrs^2.\nii) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the mean lifespan of Eta Carinae, giving your answer correct to 8 significant figures.\nIt was found later that Eta Carinae was formed 200.01mil yrs ago. \niii) Using the sample of 200 stars earlier, a scientist boldly claimed that Eta Carinae will explode today, causing devastation to Earth in 7000years’ time. By stating clearly the null and alternate hypothesis, test the scientist's claim at 5% level of significance.\nYou may assume the normality of the population of stars observed.
11646
The asteroid you are referring to is actually called "Apophis" which is the greek name for an Egyptian god, also known as the "Destroyer". Apophis is also called 2004 MN4. It is projected to come very close to the earth on April 13, 2029. So far, astronomers have calculated that it will miss the earth by a safe margin, however the gravitational pull of the earth could alter the orbit, putting the asteroid on a much more dangerous course in coming years. Currently, there are talks about launching a device to better monitor it's travels.
369372
We are currently observing 7 objects with a small possibility of hitting us in the near future, and keeping tabs on 14 others that we can't see right now (the sun is in the way).  We also know of 26 objects which we have "lost," but feel that it would be a good idea to find again, just in case.  We also know of another 33 objects that could potentially hit us, but are rather small and would only cause minimal surface damage.\n\nAll in all there are a quite a number of potential impactors right now, we're watching them closly to see if any really will hit us or not.  Obviously this does not count really small things that hit us all the time, just things that are large enough to see in moderate sized telescopes.\n\nJust noticed the source link below mine -- nice to see that Yeomans and Baalke got the JPL site working and up to date again!
382749
are they sure that it will hit earth in that year? Maybe it will hit earth much later, or maybe they'll find a way to stop it. I don't know, the size, but asteroids sure are large, but maybe it'll be just a small collision that the earth will not split up and humankind will not be...destroyed.
700963
Thank you very much for the link you gave. I read this news yesterday night on Yahoo. I have forgotten about this until you have remind me. Thank you again.  \nIs there any other way for us to view it other than using a telescope? I don't have a telescope.
1089745
To find an asteroid two consecutive images of the same region of the sky in which an asteroid was assumed to be located are photographed through a telescope. The images are then processed for clarity, and then stacked, which will allow them to be animated, or flipped back and forth between them, creating an illusion of movement, or animation. This process is what we call blinking, as the images are alternately blinked on the screen.\n\nWhen the images are properly registered, or lined up one on top of the other, the objects in them that have not moved appear in the same places on the computer screen, these are stars.  The object that have moved are asteroids.
871527
First off, as others have said, the physics of Apophis are well known now.  At the time, however, the asteriod was too far away to get the accurate measurements needed to determine it's trajectory.  But within a couple of days they DID get the measurements.  No, Apophis will not hit in 2029.  There is a miniscule chance (1:45000) it may hit in 2036, but we'll know decades before and there IS something we can do about it.  On the flip side, there will be a day when Apophis will hit us if we do nothing.  It's only a matter of time.\n\nIf, however, the Earth was going to go and there wasn't a thing that could be done about it, who would want to know?  Civilization would disintegrate - no one would go to work crime would be rampant, and things would be horrific long before the asteroid hit.  No government would tell us.  \n\nPersonally, I wouldn't want to know my family was going to die without any hope.
1068267
Relax!! On the NASA/JPL website where all such objects are tracked and listed, the asteroid you mention has such a vanishingly small chance of striking Earth that it's not even given a risk factor. The object (2004 XP14) has been tracked for two years and its orbit precisely plotted and absolutely no danger at this late date exists for it to strike Earth. To do so, its current orbit around the sun would have to be drastically altered and there's nothing that can do such a thing.
705282
There are rumours that earth will no longer exist after some time because the asteroid may hit the earth.So they are trying to find other planets that supports life incase earth should be distroyed.They find mars interesting and feel that it may support life.they are trying to syudy more about this planet.I think after mars they may be interested in one of jupeters moons-for life.so dont be surprised
1026139
It's Asteroid 2003 YN107, and it has been looping around the earth for seven years. :)\n\nEdit: Well, according to NASA as of June 9, 2006 anyway ^_^. Oops, I've just read that it's about to leave the earth; it was just corkscrewing around the planet.\n\nYeah, I think Sunil's right, its Cruithne.