What To Do About an Asteroid That Has a 1 In 625 Chance of Hitting Us In 2040?

The Bad Astronomer writes "The asteroid 2011 AG5 is 140 meters across: football-stadium-sized. Its orbit isn't nailed down well enough to say yet, but using what's currently known, there's a 1 in 625 chance it will impact the Earth in 2040. It's behind the Sun until September 2013, and more observations taken then will probably reduce the odds of impact to something close to 0. But does it make sense to wait until then to start investigating a mission to deflect it away our planet? Astronomers are debating this right now, and what they conclude may pave the way for how we deal with an asteroid threat in the future."

Comments

Slow it down or speed it up just slightly

[gblackwo]

I always liked the plans that involved speeding the asteroid up, or slowing it down just slightly.

I saw a recent idea that involved painting it white in order to decrease absorptivity.

Re:I don't see the problem.

[CrimsonAvenger]

It's too small to be a civilization-killer. We're only talking a gigaton-range boom when it impacts.

Yeah, it would suck to be under it, or even within a couple hundred miles of it, but beyond that, it's mostly just a lightshow and something to keep the bookies busy.