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Jules
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Chairman & CEO, Dallas Oil Company
Jul 2001
time: 00:30
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quote:
Giant asteroid could hit Earth in 2014
Tuesday, September 2, 2003 Posted: 7:29 AM EDT (1129 GMT)
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- A giant asteroid is heading for Earth and could hit in 2014, U.S. astronomers have warned British space monitors.
But for those fearing Armageddon, don't be alarmed -- the chances of a catastrophic collision are just one in 909,000.
Asteroid "2003 QQ47" will be closely monitored over the next two months. Its potential strike date is March 21, 2014, but astronomers say that any risk of impact is likely to decrease as further data is gathered.
On impact, it could have the effect of 20 million Hiroshima atomic bombs, a spokesman for the British government's Near Earth Object Information Centre told BBC radio.
The Centre issued the warning about the asteroid after the giant rock was first observed in New Mexico by the Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research Program.
"The Near Earth Object will be observable from Earth for the next two months and astronomers will continue to track it over this period," said Dr Alan Fitzsimmons, one of the expert team advising the Centre.
Asteroids such as 2003 QQ47 are chunks of rock left over from the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. Most are kept at a safe distance from the Earth in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
But the gravitational influence of giant planets such as Jupiter can nudge asteroids out of these safe orbits and send them plunging towards Earth. |
Time enough I think to organize world government and reconfigure all our nukes so that they're aiming at outer space. 
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Soul Survivor
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UChicago
May 2003
time: 05:30
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quote:
Originally posted by Vlad Antlerkov
Sample size. We can have more confidence on the asteroid's path if we had (say) 300 data points, as opposed to (say) 30. |
and because its still quite far away from us, even slight differences (errors) could be hundreds of thousands of miles
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CerberusIV
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And if it turns out that this particular rock has our planet's name on it? What then? Nuke it and turn it into a shower of irradiated smaller rocks? 10 years isn't very long to figure out a reliable way of diverting an asteroid when the current state of progress is a bunch of whacky proposals on how it might be done by people who would like the money to indulge in further speculation.
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All times are GMT. The time now is 05:30.
Apolyton Time is 00:30. |
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02-09-2003 18:40
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