The most dangerous asteroid ever found!

[Dennis]

The most dangerous asteroid ever found – very interesting and readable article on P32 of Nov/Dec 2006 Australian Sky & Telescope.

An excellent article on the asteroid Apophis, 320m in diameter which is due to make a close; very close; very, very, very close encounter with planet Earth in 2029, and perhaps even closer in 2036? :scared: :scared:

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy]

Yeah when I read the heading I thought first of Stargate!! Great article, well worth it to buy the mag just to read about our impending doom.

[[1ponders]]

Interesting read here. Last updated 15 Oct 2006 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis)

[jjjnettie]

I reckon the threat of Global catastrophe would be the only thing that could bring the nations of this planet together. Maybe.

[Ric]

A very interesting article indeed, it will be interesting to see how the governments of the world will react to this event. I hope I'm still around, it will make me either 69 or 76.

cheers

[67champ]

I had a thought today (WOW!!!), what if Apophis hit the moon? Has anyone heard the current chances of Apophis hitting the Earth, what about the moon; predicted miles away, etc. and what about in 2036??? Thanks.

dt

[Dennis]

Hi DT

I think the calculations do not indicate a scenario where Apophis would strike the Moon. The link to Wikipedia in Paul’s message above provided the following details regarding any potential impact:

Wikipedia: "NASA initially estimated the energy that Apophis would have released if it impacted Earth as the equivalent of 1480 megatons of TNT. A more refined later NASA estimate was 880 megatons. The impacts which created the Barringer Crater or caused the Tunguska event are estimated to be in the 10-20 megaton range. The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa was the equivalent of roughly 200 megatons.

The exact effects of any impact would have varied based on the asteroid's composition, and the location and angle of impact. Any impact would have been extremely detrimental to an area of thousands of square kilometres, but would have been unlikely to have long-lasting global effects, such as the initiation of an impact winter".

Cheers

Dennis

[Striker]

Scary,

I'm going to put my name down to become an astronaught and get slung around the moon at 12g's then drill some holes in the asteroid with my trusty cordless 9.6V makita for the nukes then parachute off to my awaiting save the world fan fest which happen to be many of the pit girls at this weekend Gold Coast indy.

OK I am awake now...lol

[circumpolar]

Those in the Northern hemishpere will be lucky enough to see this thing moving across the sky 1 degree/min. That would be cool to see!

[jase]

LOL, I'd like to propose Apophis as the November imaging challenge. :lol:

[JimmyH155]

Fascinating article and what about that fabulous method of nudging the asteriod off course, by driving a space ship up close and just switching the engine on and using gravity as a tow rope - THATS engineering:D :D

[67champ]

ok, I'm somewhat up to date on this now from a couple mags I read after I posted this question.

Dennis, I am of the thinking that this would have long-lasting global effects, should it impact Earth with a 880 megaton equivalent. I wonder how the moon would handle an impact?

dt

[h0ughy]

No no dont stop, was the drill low on charge?:whistle:

[Dennis]

With the Moon’s mass at approximately 1/82 of the Earth, and a density of about 3/5 of the Earth, the impact would certainly be more devastating. Wouldn’t like to be there!

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy]

How big was the lump of rock that exploded over tunguska?

[mattweather]

meh