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2004 MN4 Probably Won't Kill Us

Posted by timothy on from the this-wrecks-a-bunch-of-pick-up-lines dept.

Xshare writes "It's now official. NASA's Near Earth Objects page lists 2004 MN4, the asteroid that's been covered on slashdot recently, as having a 1 in 56,000 chance of hitting earth, and even then only in 2037. It seems that earth was near the edge of the cone of probability of when it could go. As the cone kept closing, the probability of hitting earth grew, but it kept getting closer to the edge. It's now outside the cone, and we can be safe."

6 of 389 comments (clear)

  1. Huh? by fredistheking · · Score: -1, Troll

    So how exactly did we go from a 1 in 37 chance to a 1 in 56000 chance in a few hours? My guess is that slashdot submitters was posting meaningless statistics and editors were letting them through in order to sensationalize the issue.

  2. Re:Too Bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Then join the Bush neo-con wing of the Republicans.

  3. I still want an explanation... by mtaff · · Score: 1, Troll
    for the missing data. This morning there were like 189 observations, and now there are only 118. Are they throwing out data they don't agree with? Was the data misinterpreted? Did they have problems with metric conversion?

    NEODyS says over 200 observations came in in the last five days alone. What's going on here? Anyone from NEO/JPL want to enlighten us?

  4. Re:Too Bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Now how will I justify my unwillingness to accomplish anything in life.

    Then join the Bush neo-con wing of the Republicans.

    Wait...how did you know he was a lazy, do-nothing liberal?

  5. Randy Pinkwood reports by Temporal · · Score: 0, Troll

    Also, NASA gives my wang a 99% impact probability. Ladies, I'm talking to you.

    This is Randy Pinkwood, signing off.

  6. Smells of Conspiracy... by franktank232 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Dick/Bush took care of everything. Why would any government want the masses to know that the apocalypse was coming @ such and such date? They wouldn't. This would cause mass panic, craziness, depress world markets, etc etc etc. Think about it. Mulder would find the truth.