Killer Asteroid

Scott Manley writes "Astronomers have found a mile wide asteroid which has a non-zero possibility of hitting the earth i n the next century. Asteroid 1999 AN10 was found on 13th January '99 by the LINEAR system and scientists working in Italy have predicted a close approach in August 2027 and a potential collision in August 2039. This has been kept quiet after the panic last year over 1997 XF11 whic had a similar 'remote' possibility, if 1999 AN10 were to hit it would be a real civilisation killer. " I can't believe scientists are bothing with this stuff when we all know Y2k will kill us all in less than a year anyway.

Comments

Don't dismiss the article!

[Anonymous Shepherd]

It's pretty hard to worry about something we can't see =)

But this asteroid we can see...

And it passes close enough to our own planet that they perturb each other, and it passes nearby often enough in the next 600 years that we cannot predict if it will hit us or not, or when.

After each near miss, of course, we can observe the movement of the asteroid and get a better understanding of its motion, but until it misses we actually don't know if it's going to hit!

And I quote
"Among the possible orbital solutions
there are some that undergo a close approach in August 2027, but no impact is possible. However, the period of the asteroid may be perturbed in such a way that it returns to an approach to the Earth at either of the possible encounter points."

It goes on to note that their accuracy isn't good for more than a decade after each pass, and that each successive pass makes it worse...

Not something you want to ignore when there is a greater danger from it, than say, Y2k or something...

AS