Asteroid heads towards Earth with one in 625 chance of hitting planet

Now don't be worried about the name, its not supose to impact earth until 2040, but it is still an interesting find.

the asteriod named 2011 AG5 is about 460 feet ball of rock and there is a chance that it could impact with earth.

While the object has the potential to wipe out millions of lives if it landed on a city, it is far smaller than the nine mile wide asteroid which is believed to have led to the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

now even though that makes it seem pretty ok, it would still be devestating anywhere it impacted espcially if it hit water, it would cause a large earthquake and tsunami.

www.stumbleupon.com... g-planet.html/

According to sky scans carried out by NASA, there are around 19,000 "mid-sized" asteroids of between 330 and 3,300 feet wide within 120 million miles of Earth. All have the potential to destroy an area the size of a city were they to strike.

Aphophis which is destined to pass earth in 2036 and come with 18,300 miles of earth is just a little bigger then this asteriod.

if this is infact destined to impact earth how would you stop it or how do you think nasa will stop it.



mods didn't realize already a thread on this, do as you see fit

I predict there will be hundreds of threads on ATS about this asteroid

by 2040

reply to post by BiggerPicture


probably well before 2040

2012 DA14 is bigger, and closer

well hopefully people will realize its just an asteriod and nothing else

Won't be anything left to destroy if Apophis hits.

reply to post by lonewolf19792000

Don't worry. By the time Apophis comes back for a close kiss, we'll surely have all the technology we need to deflect it. Then again...It might be Congress budgeting the funds..so, maybe we won't.

this needs to be spread so people can think of what to do if it does have earth in its cross hairs.

cool find im going to look in to it now

Will be waiting!
Callin' to the Hospitals to give me expanded life support untill 2040... lol.

But this is nice to know..
Time to prep now!

Gosh!!! 2040 is comin'!!!!

its kinda of scary, apophis 2036 and 4 years later this asteriod

in 28 years the earth could be a completely different place

There's an exact same thread opened just yesterday here

reply to post by elevenaugust


im glad you actually read the OP because then you would have noticed the edit i made that stated "didn't realize already thread on this subject mods do as you see fit"

then you wouldnt of needed to post that but thank you

reply to post by caf1550


You say hopefully it won't hit water because it would cause earthquakes and tsunami's??

If it hits land, don't you think that would cause earthquakes and or volcanic eruptions??

Just asking a question, not being a smart a$$

Originally posted by lonewolf19792000
Won't be anything left to destroy if Apophis hits.

Apophis is nowhere near large enough to be a planet killer. Don;t get me wrong it would really suck to be anywhere near the impact area as it could easily destroy a city, but not the planet.

Possible impact effects NASA initially estimated the energy that Apophis would have released if it struck Earth as the equivalent of 1480 megatons of TNT. A later, more refined NASA estimate was 880 megatons, then revised to 510 megatons.[3] The impacts which created the Barringer Crater or the Tunguska event are estimated to be in the 3–10 megaton range.[25] The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa was the equivalent of roughly 200 megatons and the biggest hydrogen bomb ever exploded, the Tsar Bomba, was around 50 megatons. In comparison, the Chicxulub impact, believed by many to be a significant factor in the extinction of the dinosaurs, has been estimated to have released about as much energy as 100,000,000 megatons (100 Teratons). Path of risk where 99942 Apophis may impact Earth in 2036. The exact effects of any impact would vary based on the asteroid's composition, and the location and angle of impact. Any impact would be extremely detrimental to an area of thousands of square kilometers, but would be unlikely to have long-lasting global effects, such as the initiation of an impact winter.[citation needed] The B612 Foundation made estimates of Apophis' path if a 2036 Earth impact were to occur, as part of an effort to develop viable deflection strategies.[26] The result is a narrow corridor a few kilometers wide, called the "path of risk", extending across southern Russia, across the north Pacific (relatively close to the coastlines of California and Mexico), then right between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, crossing northern Colombia and Venezuela, ending in the Atlantic, just before reaching Africa.[27][28] Using the computer simulation tool NEOSim, it was estimated that the hypothetical impact of Apophis in countries such as Colombia and Venezuela, which are in the path of risk, could have more than 10 million casualties.[29] An impact in the Atlantic or Pacific oceans would produce a devastating tsunami

Source

You understand an average nuclear weapon will vaporize everything in a much larger area than these asteroids take up. Think of typical armor piercing ordinances, scale this up to tip an upper stage Centurion on an Atlas or Delta heavy, and the nuclear bomb wouldn't take up any more space than a typical space probe, and with a nice depleted uranium tip the rocket should get a nice deep penetration before the bomb detonates, end of little asteroid, nothing but dust left. I'm sure a very nice impact speed can be calculated out to far surpass tank busters. Don't be alarmed about NASA launching radioactive rare earth's, Curiosity left with about 11 pounds of plutonium-238, so did New Horizons, and over 33 years ago the Voyagers left earth with radioisotopic power sources.

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein


im saying it wouldn't be nearly as terrible if it hit land instead of water, chances are it will likely impact water though