Asteroid could hit Earth on Friday 13th in 2029

A lucky break on Friday the 13th, 2029: giant asteroid will narrowly
miss earth

A giant asteroid the size of three football pitches will make the
closest flyby of Earth in recorded history for an object of its size,
scientists said yesterday.

It will pass between the Earth and the Moon and will even come closer
than the orbit of many telecommunications satellites, although
astronomers insisted that there was little chance of a collision with
the massive rock.

Anxious Earthlings need not worry too much for another 24 years,
however, because asteroid 2004 MN4 is not due to make its closest
approach to Earth until about 10pm London time on Friday 13 April 2029.

The latest calculations of the rock's orbit suggest that it will come
so close that it will probably be visible to the naked eye from
Britain. It will shine in the sky as a dim, fast-moving star - the
first asteroid in modern times to be clearly visible from Earth without
the aid of a telescope or binoculars.

The asteroid was first discovered in June 2004 and calculations of its
orbit made by astronomers last Christmas Eve suggested that there was a
one in 60 chance of it colliding with the Earth. However, within a week
this was revised down to virtually zero probability of a collision.

If it did collide it would cause an explosion equivalent to about 20
hydrogen bombs being detonated simultaneously, turning vast areas of
land into desert or generating a giant tsunami if it landed in the
ocean.

The latest revisions of the calculations have refined the asteroid's
orbital path to suggest that it will pass our planet by the relative
whisper of 36,000km (22,600 miles) - well within the orbit of
geostationary satellites and about a tenth of the distance to the Moon.
This is by far the largest of the top 10 closest asteroids recorded by
astronomers. Only two others have come closer and both were much
smaller objects - tens of yards wide instead of the 350 yards of
asteroid 2004 MN4.

Professor Mark Bailey, director of the Armagh Observatory, said that
there was little danger from the asteroid even though it would come
close enough for its orbit to be directly affected by the Earth's
gravity - causing the path of the space rock to swing away.

"I think everyone is saying that it's going to miss. It'll pass so
close though that you'll be able to see it with a small telescope and
even with the naked eye," Professor Bailey said.

"It's like being on a train station platform and watching an express
train go by three feet away. You're close, but it's not dangerous," he
said.

Large asteroids have frequently collided with the Earth in the past and
some of the larger ones have caused massive devastation on a global
scale. They can send huge plumes of dust and debris into the
atmosphere, blocking out sunlight for several years and causing the
environmental equivalent of a "nuclear winter".


Source: The Independent, UK.


Please read the full report:-
http://www.theinsider.org/mailing/article.asp?id=0927