re: Asteroid size of Empire State Building coming close to earth....

That was Space X's real mission, to use our shuttle to help guide it here

Apophis is the one I'm watching. it's schedule to come very near Earth in 2029. NASA confirms it will come so close that it take out satellites. I sure hope they have the PI constant down...a little round off, and it hits.

Apophis Asteroid - Apophis is Coming in 2029

Let's Talk Asteroid Apophis, Planetary Defense and Elon Musk

quote:

---

Apophis is the one I'm watching. it's schedule to come very near Earth in 2029. 

---

I remember back when I was in middle school, an astronomer reported that an asteroid he was tracking had a really good chance of hitting the planet in 2029. I remember this well because we talked about it in class. Since that time (about 30 years ago) this same year of 2029 regarding a possible hit keeps coming up randomly in articles. I'm beginning to think there really may be something to it.

The scary thing about near misses of asteroids is that if they get close enough on a pass, they could enter what is called a gravitational keyhole. This makes them more likely to hit us on the next orbital pass.

quote:

---

If scientist knew an asteroid was going to hit, would they even tell us? No point in causing a panic when their isn't a damn thing we can do about it.

---

I agree. There's nothing really we can do, and I doubt they'd tell us. Unlike the movies, this thing is moving at a high very high speed, and we won't be able to "take it out" or send Bruce Willis to destroy it.