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Doomsday Determined? Asteroid Apophis Could Strike Earth in 2036
foxnews.com ^ | Feb. 10, 2011 | Michelle Bryner

Posted on 02/10/2011 7:30:31 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY

The date for Armageddon has been set, and it's not going to happen in 2012.

In 2004, NASA scientists announced that there was a chance that Apophis, an asteroid larger than two football fields, could smash into Earth in 2029. A few additional observations and some number-crunching later, astronomers noted that the chance of the planet-killer hitting Earth in 2029 was nearly zilch.

Now Russian scientists estimate Apophis will collide with Earth on April 13, 2036. These reports conflict on the probability of such a doomsday event, but the question remains: How scared should we be?

“Technically, they’re correct, there is a chance in 2036 [that Apophis will hit Earth]," said Donald Yeomans, head of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office. However, that chance is just 1-in-250,000, Yeomans said.

NASA was quick to discount Russia's fears, however. “The situation is that in 2029, April 13, [Apophis] flies very close to the Earth, within five Earth radii, so that will be quite an event, but we’ve already ruled out the possibility of it hitting at that time,” Yeomans told Life’s Little Mysteries, Space.com's sister site.

An artist's concept of a catastrophic asteroid impact with the early Earth. NASA and other space agencies are discussing how would we prevent such asteroids collisions ... and they have some far-out ideas. slideshow

Russia is considering sending a spacecraft to a large asteroid to knock it off its path and prevent a possible collision with Earth. Just how would we prevent asteroids from colliding with Earth?

"No one should worry. Between Mars and Jupiter, we have an asteroid belt. There's all the asteroids going near the sun, and these objects are coming near the earth all the time," Tim Hill, space manager at the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, told MyFoxTampaBay.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: 2036; apophis; asteroid; catastrophism
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1 posted on 02/10/2011 7:30:37 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
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To: Free ThinkerNY

The Obamaroid will kill us long before Apophis gets here.


2 posted on 02/10/2011 7:35:05 PM PST by windsorknot
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Rev 8:8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;


3 posted on 02/10/2011 7:35:52 PM PST by Yet_Again
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Well I’ll be in my 70s and will have had a pretty decent run by then.


4 posted on 02/10/2011 7:38:02 PM PST by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Remind me to start thinking about in in 3034.5.


5 posted on 02/10/2011 7:43:12 PM PST by riverrunner
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To: Free ThinkerNY
Wow. 2036. That is a pretty optimistic view of how long the country will last. When Obummer is done with us we will be praying for this rock to hit us from out grass huts.


6 posted on 02/10/2011 7:46:21 PM PST by Lazlo in PA (Now living in a newly minted Red State.)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Darn, just before my 75th birthday.


7 posted on 02/10/2011 7:46:53 PM PST by Blood of Tyrants (Islam is the religion of Satan and Mohammed was his minion.)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Would this still be Bush’s fault?


8 posted on 02/10/2011 7:48:09 PM PST by USFRIENDINVICTORIA
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To: Free ThinkerNY
"No one should worry. Between Mars and Jupiter, we have an asteroid belt. There's all the asteroids going near the sun, and these objects are coming near the earth all the time," Tim Hill, space manager at the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, told MyFoxTampaBay.

Mr. Hill seems to be a little unclear on the concept of "words of reassurance". First he tells us not to worry - then he tells us why we should?
9 posted on 02/10/2011 7:49:24 PM PST by beezdotcom
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To: windsorknot

The way things are going, by then it will just be a matter of a little rock hitting a big rock, no big deal.


10 posted on 02/10/2011 7:52:27 PM PST by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day.")
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To: Free ThinkerNY

I’ll probably be out of the ability to work by then and goodness knows I won’t have enough money to survive after obastard gets through with us.

Any chance we can move the date up?


11 posted on 02/10/2011 7:57:45 PM PST by Sequoyah101 (Half the people are below average.)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

When does Sociality Security run out?


12 posted on 02/10/2011 7:58:50 PM PST by WellyP
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To: WellyP

I hit the wrong button! Social Security!


13 posted on 02/10/2011 7:59:52 PM PST by WellyP
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To: Free ThinkerNY

I thought that the consensus was that they have to see what Apophis does in an upcoming close call (2013, I think). If it threads a needle in the distance between the Earth and the Moon at the time (a 600 mile ‘eye’), then it will certainly strike the Earth and hit in the Pacific in the 2030s.

If it doesn’t, then there is no danger.

And by any standard, as I understand it, there is no danger of Apophis being a planet killer or anything like that. But it would probably be unwise to be vacationing on the West Coast that week.


14 posted on 02/10/2011 8:01:00 PM PST by Ted Grant
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To: Free ThinkerNY

The price of green bananas should start falling a day or two before this thing hits.


15 posted on 02/10/2011 8:01:22 PM PST by 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Algore has already promised us that 2016 is the end since humankind failed to follow up on his global warming advice. Who cares about 2036, right Alg?


16 posted on 02/10/2011 8:03:43 PM PST by Rembrandt (.. AND the donkey you rode in on.)
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To: Free ThinkerNY
April 13, 2036.

Cool!

Won't have to file an income tax return that year!

17 posted on 02/10/2011 8:10:41 PM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: The Comedian

Ping.


18 posted on 02/10/2011 8:11:13 PM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

It will just be before I turn 70.


19 posted on 02/10/2011 8:13:53 PM PST by Nowhere Man (General James Mattoon Scott, where are you when we need you? We need a regime change.)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

I wonder if I should worry about it? I’ll be 100 years old then!


20 posted on 02/10/2011 8:16:27 PM PST by Sen Jack S. Fogbound
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