Quote:
Originally Posted by Varangian
Okay, I'll ask the question in order to answer all the questions I get about it from all the laypeople I tell. Is there any chance this thing can hit us? 20,000 km is blooming close. Regards, John.
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Hi John,
Imagine for a moment that in the future, conflicting news reports came out about
whether a new object was going to hit Earth or not. Suddenly, a whole lot of "experts"
with seemingly credible credentials would come out of the woodwork, some
unequivocally stating that it would hit and others just as forcefully arguing it would
not.
Who would you believe?
In such a hypothetical scenario, go here to the IAU Minor Planet Center at Harvard.
http://www.minorplanetcenter.org/iau/mpc.html
If those people say it will miss, then it will miss. If they say it will hit, then
it will be time to put the head between the legs.
This time with regards minor planet 2012 DA14, they have computed it will miss.
