Asteroid Tracking
from the kinda-scary dept
James Y. Wilson writes “It is a widely held belief that the Dinosaurs which once dominated the earth were taken out by an asteroid impact. Though the odds are low that such a cataclysmic event could happen again, there are many Near Earth Objects that could certainly cause regional devastation. According to Space.com, the odds of such an event occurring within a 50 year period are 1-in-160. This is high enough to get my attention, and thankfully JPL’s as well. They have recently established the Sentry system to aid in the collaboration of asteroid researchers. Check out the list of the asteroids currently being tracked.” Well, thanks James. I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight.
Comments on “Asteroid Tracking”
Statistics
IANAS (I Am Not A Statician), but doesn’t this mean a regionally destructive asteroid should occur sometime within the next 8000 years? This is one regionally destructive (not world-wide) event somewhere on the entire planet sometime in the next eight millenia. Granted, it could be tomorrow in your home town, but I wouldn’t lose too much sleep. 🙂
Meteor impact predictions and what to do.
Meteors and comets have struck the Earth in the past and they will in the future. In the last few years we have gotten a whole lot better at seeing them and projecting their trajectories. If you want to know what to do if one ever is spotted and is one its way to crash to Earth, look at:
http://personals.galaxyinternet.net/tunga/