Simulation of Close Asteroid Fly-By

Posted by Soulskill on Monday December 21, 2009 @03:46AM from the close-enough-to-feel-the-vacuum-breeze dept.

c0mpliant writes "NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have released a simulation of the path of an asteroid, named Apophis, that will come very close to Earth in 2029 — the closest predicted approach since humans have monitored for such heavenly bodies. The asteroid caused a bit of a scare when astronomers first announced that it would enter Earth's neighborhood some time in the future. However, since that announcement in 2004, more recent calculations have put the odds of collision at 1 in 250,000."

1 of 148 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Re:Looks like our force field will save us by starglider29a · 2009-12-21 04:45 · Score: 3, Informative

Ride a motorcycle at 60 MPH and careen in front of a car doing 50 MPH from right to left, with a free beer sitting just above the right headlight. Keep your eye on the front of the car as you approach and after you pass. Grab the free beer as you slide by, just miss getting hit by the car.

That is the same as the relative positions of this simulation.