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."

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I could've sworn... by cwiegmann24 · 2009-12-21 03:57 · Score: 3, Insightful

...that the odds were 4 in a million...
Re:Danger... or opportunity? by yincrash · 2009-12-21 03:58 · Score: 3, Insightful

looking at the simulation, the amount of energy required to bring this into any orbit at all seems really really really high
Re:You Pose An Excellent Question, "How Much?" by prgrmr · 2009-12-21 05:25 · Score: 4, Insightful

The laws of thermodynamics are against you.

And art deco was in the 20's and 30's.