• Question: Do you think we'll survive the 2029 Asteroid?

    Asked by alamin to James, Mike, Suze, Will on 22 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: William Eborall

      William Eborall answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      I don’t know a lot about the 2029 asteroid, but I doubt that it’s something we should be worried about. Bruce Willis should still be alive in 2029 anyway so he’ll be able to sort it out 🙂

    • Photo: James Marrow

      James Marrow answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Don’t worry – it’ll go close but it won’t have any effect. Might be fun to watch though. It’s good science that allows predictions to be made that help us know we’ll be safe.

      have a look at this NASA link

      http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2005/13may_2004mn4/

    • Photo: Mike Dodd

      Mike Dodd answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Hey Alamin, I read about this. NASA said that an asteroid might hit on Friday the 13th April, 2029. They know think that it will be a close call. They now think that it will pass 18,600 miles from earth, this is closer than satellites for GPS. I reckon we will be fine. They found the asteroid, 6 years ago and have performed many calculations on its path and are happy that we are safe. For more information there is a great article on the NASA website: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2005/13may_2004mn4/

    • Photo: Suze Kundu

      Suze Kundu answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      It’s not going to hit us Alamin, we’re cool! It’ll fly past us, but something interesting will then happen.

      There’s this weird area of space that’s about 600 meters squared, which is pretty small by spacey standards. It is a gravitational keyhole, and would alter the gravity of anything that passes through it. Anyway, it’s thought that Apophis, our friendly meteor, MAY POSSIBLY pass through this gravitational keyhole, which MAY POSSIBLY nudge it on course to hit Earth on 13th April 2036.

      I’ve been reading about this for Wonders of Life, so I’m all about meteors at the moment! Anyway, don’t worry about 2029, but watch this space (or, in fact, just watch space itself…) in 2029 when Apophis does its little fly-by, and we’ll hopefully know more about 2036 by then!

Comments