Estimated reading time: 2 minute(s)
A friend forwarded me a link to an article he was reading this weekend. The article is from NASA, in 2004. It was determined that a rather sizeable asteroid has an orbit that intersects with Earth’s orbit, and there was a 1 in 60 chance (One article I found claimed a 1 in 40 chance!) of a collision in the year 2029!
Thankfully, thanks to further study and extrapolation of data, the odds have gone down, and what we will likely get is a spectacular show as a giant asteroid passes closer to us than many satelites in synchronous orbit above the earth.
We just don’t know where it will go after that. 🙂 Earth’s gravity may change the orbit of the asteroid slightly… and we may be seeing it again!
So… why doesn’t this happen more often? All that stuff spinning in circles out there… why don’t they crash more often? How does everything work together so well?
It’s crazy, I know.
If that asteroid, or one like it did hit the Earth… it would make a big mess. That show I watched (The Monster of The Milky Way, a NOVA episode) showed galaxies colliding… now THERE’s a collision! 🙂 That would probably make a mess too…
So, thanks Heent for the link… for now, we have averted catastrophe… but who knows what the future holds? With all this spinning and circling… we’re bound to hit something eventually, aren’t we?? 🙂
photo credit: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/
We hit stuff all the time … or maybe stuff hits us? Depends on your perspective, I suppose, but it’s mostly small stuff (though I’ve heard of larger stuff every so often). Reminds me of a joke I heard once:
“When Chuck Norris jumps into a lake, he doesn’t get wet; water gets Chuck Norris.”
Ha! Awesome. I like it.
And yeah, I’m talking giant asteroids hitting Earth. Pluto smashing into Neptune. Something like that. That would be cool!
(Except for the death, mayhem and destruction…)
Good usage!
I sure do like pie!