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Asteroid Will Make Close Pass To Earth

Posted by samzenpus on from the skin-of-your-teeth dept.

The Bad Astronomer writes "News is starting to spread about a small 45-meter-wide asteroid called 2012 DA14 that will make a close pass to Earth on February 15, 2013. However, some of these articles are claiming it has 'a good chance' of impacting the Earth. This is simply incorrect; the odds of an impact next year are essentially zero. Farther in the future the odds are unclear; another near pass may occur in 2020, but right now the uncertainties in the asteroid's orbit are too large to know much about that. More observations of DA14 are being made, and we should have better information about future encounters soon."

3 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. It's not "simply incorrect" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Whether the asteroid has a "good chance" of hitting the earth depends on how you define "good chance," which does not have an accepted standard definition.

  2. Re:45 meters? by KingofSpades · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What do you think of this ?
    It was made made by a 45 meter impactor.
    Yes, A 45 METER IMPACTOR.

  3. Re:Good riddance by rubycodez · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The last 6 mile diameter/civilization-destroying-sized thing was 65 million years ago. we won't be human in 65 million years, we could as well be animal or rodent by that time. Clearly we should spend $0 on the problem. As for city-destroying-sized things, odds are any will just land in uninhabited area. If a city does get hit, well, sucks to be them.