Asteroid to miss Earth in 2036, but could be on collision course in 2068.Byline: ANI Washington, October 8 (ANI): There is some good news and some bad news for doomsday pundits, in the sense that the chances of asteroid Apophis colliding with Earth in 2036 has been recuded, but a new impact possibility of the same asteroid has come up in the year 2068. University of Hawaii (body, education) University of Hawaii - A University spread over 10 campuses on 4 islands throughout the state. http://hawaii.edu/uhinfo.html. See also Aloha, Aloha Net. asteroid hunter Dr. David Tholen has made the prediction. The good news that Tholen came up with is that the estimated probability of asteroid Apophis colliding with Earth in 2036 has been reduced from 1 chance in about 45,000 to 1 chance in about 250,000. The bad news is that the improved orbit determination The process of describing the past, present, or predicted position of a satellite in terms of orbital parameters. for Apophis has revealed a new impact possibility in 2068. The new estimates are based on an extensive set of observations obtained at Mauna Kea Observatories Mauna Kea Observatories (mou`nə kā`ə), astronomical observatory complex located on Mauna Kea peak, the "white mountain" on the island of Hawaii, at an altitude of more than 13,600 ft (4,145 m). and analyzed by Tholen, former UH postdoctoral researcher Dr. Fabrizio Bernardi, and current UH graduate students Marco Micheli and Garrett Elliott. Dr. Steve Chesley of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory “JPL” redirects here. For other uses, see JPL (disambiguation). Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a NASA research center located in the cities of Pasadena and La Cañada Flintridge, near Los Angeles, California, USA. in California determined the positions of Apophis derived from those observations. "Our new orbit solution shows that Apophis will miss Earth's surface in 2036 by a scant 20,270 miles, give or take 125 miles," Tholen said. "That's slightly closer to Earth than most of our communications and weather satellites," he added. He credits the large telescopes and superb atmospheric conditions on Mauna Kea for being able to make these determinations. With the possibility of an impact in 2068, Apophis will become the target of even more observations as soon as it reappears from behind the Sun in 2010 and beyond. "The refined orbital determination further reinforces that Apophis is an asteroid we can look to as an opportunity for exciting science and not something that should be feared," said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL (language) JPL - JAM Programming Language. . "The public can follow along as we continue to study Apophis and other near-Earth objects by visiting us on our AsteroidWatch Web site and by following us on the @AsteroidWatch Twitter A Web site and service that lets users send short text messages from their cellphones to a group of friends. Launched in 2006, Twitter (www.twitter.com) was designed for people to broadcast their current activities and thoughts. feed," he added. Apophis was discovered in 2004 by Tholen, Bernardi, and Roy Tucker of the University of Arizona (body, education) University of Arizona - The University was founded in 1885 as a Land Grant institution with a three-fold mission of teaching, research and public service. . The asteroid became famous about six months later when additional observations indicated an impact probability as high as 1 chance in 37 on April 13, 2029. (ANI) Copyright 2009 Asian News International The Asian News International (ANI) agency provides multimedia news to China and 50 bureaus in India. It covers virtually all of South Asia since its foundation and presently claims, on its official website, to be the leading South Asia-wide news agency. (ANI) - All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion