next near miss

mr lee

a mate of mine reckons there's goin to be a near miss in about 25 years,not sure if its a meteoroid or an asteroid,can anyone confirm or deny this,if its true how close will it come to us,how accurate are the predictions is there much of a margin of error,and the most important question is there anything we can do if theres likely to be a collision with earth.

Captain Chaos

Yes, there will be a close one in 2029 where it will pass between us and our Moon and it will swing by again in 2036. Depending on the 2029 encounter will determine the 2036 encounter.

It looks like it will miss in 2036 but it will be close. We can't be certain until after the effect the Earth's gravity will have on it in 2029, then will be the time to act if needs be. But the plan for that needs to start now to be ready for 2029 if we need it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis

Thats the only near encounter that we know of for the near future. There is a hit predicted a few 100 years out from now but that could well change.

namloc1980

You won't have to wait 25 years at all. There's an object going to pass inside the Moon's orbit in November LINK.

Close objects pass by relatively regularly. Only last week one passed only a few thousand miles above us.

As for what can we do about it? Not a whole lot.

mr lee

between earth and the moon is pretty damn close,its definetly a dodgy one,i hope the scientist have done their maths right,it will be an awesome sight,will it be visible to the naked eye.

namloc1980

mr lee wrote: »

between earth and the moon is pretty damn close,its definetly a dodgy one,i hope the scientist have done their maths right,it will be an awesome sight,will it be visible to the naked eye.

The object is 400m across so it will still be very dim and not visible with the naked eye. A pair of binoculars or a small telescope should show it though.

Captain Chaos

mr lee wrote: »

between earth and the moon is pretty damn close,its definetly a dodgy one,i hope the scientist have done their maths right,it will be an awesome sight,will it be visible to the naked eye.

Apophis will actually pass inside the orbits of alot of our satellites which is very close of an object of this size. The one in November is slightly bigger but will pass by a good bit further out but still inside the Moon's orbit but above the plane.

Aiel

I remember back in the 90s there was comet Hale Bopp i think it was called,an amazing spectacular sight.I remember reading then that another one was going to come very close in 2028 but obviously closer to the date they've got a more accurate time.I do wonder though with all those big Earthquakes in recent years that have apparently shifted the Earth's axis by a Foot or 2 would that affect how near the comet will pass.

Captain Chaos

Aiel wrote: »

.I do wonder though with all those big Earthquakes in recent years that have apparently shifted the Earth's axis by a Foot or 2 would that affect how near the comet will pass.

That's like dropping a brick in the ocean and wondering how it will effect the current. The Earth's axis is changing all the time and does so over a very long period, it does not really effect the orbit much only our seasons.

These two very large bodies on the other hand, the largest of their type in the solar system do effect our orbit enough to effect very long therm predictions.http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20704-probes-targets-cloud-crystal-ball-for-solar-system.html