Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome back to The Border!
Quick Links Announcements
| Home | Member's Blogs |

| Enter Chat Room |

| Today's active topics |


You can also see and join us at:

TPB's YouTube Channel ~ Click to Register
The Vampire Lair on Facebook
and
MonsterVisionTV on Facebook

TPB's Quote of the Day!

We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Asteroid Could Threaten the Earth in 2182
Topic Started: Jul 28 2010, 10:48 AM (241 Views)
XNavyGunner
Member Avatar
Gunner

A large asteroid in space that has a remote chance of slamming into the Earth would be most likely hit in 2182, if it crashed into our planet at all, a new study suggests.

The asteroid, called 1999 RQ36, has about a 1-in-1,000 chance of actually hitting the Earth, but half of that risk corresponds to potential impacts in the year 2182, said study co-author María Eugenia Sansaturio of the Universidad de Valladolid in Spain.

Sansaturio and her colleagues used mathematical models to determine the risk of asteroid 1999 RQ36 impacting the Earth through the year 2200. They found two potential opportunities for the asteroid to hit Earth in 2182.

The research is detailed in the science journal Icarus.

The asteroid was discovered in 1999 and is about 1,837 feet (560 meters) across. A space rock this size could cause widespread devastation at an impact site in the remote chance that it hit Earth, according to a recent report by the National Academy of Sciences.

Scientists have tracked asteroid 1999 RQ36's orbit through 290 optical observations and 13 radar surveys, but there is still some uncertainty because of the gentle push it receives from the so-called Yarkovsky effect, researchers said.

The Yarkovsky effect, named after the Russian engineer I.O. Yarkovsky who proposed it around 1900, describes how an asteroid gains momentum from thermal radiation that it emits from its night side. Over hundreds of years, the effect's influence on an asteroid's orbit could be substantial.

Sansaturio and her colleagues found that through 2060, the chances of Earth impacts from 1999 RQ36 are remote, but the odds increase by a magnitude of four by 2080 as the asteroid's orbit brings it closer to the Earth.

The odds of impact then dip as the asteroid would move away, and rise in 2162 and 2182, when it swings back near Earth, the researchers found. It's a tricky orbital dance that makes it difficult to pin down the odds of impact, they said.

"The consequence of this complex dynamic is not just the likelihood of a comparatively large impact, but also that a realistic deflection procedure (path deviation) could only be made before the impact in 2080, and more easily, before 2060," Sansaturio said in a statement.

After 2080, she added, it would be more difficult to deflect the asteroid.

"If this object had been discovered after 2080, the deflection would require a technology that is not currently available," Sansaturio said. "Therefore, this example suggests that impact monitoring, which up to date does not cover more than 80 or 100 years, may need to encompass more than one century."

By expanding the timeframe for potential impacts, researchers would potentially identify the most threatening space rocks with enough time to mount deflection campaigns that are both technologically and financially feasible, Sansaturio said.

Source

2182? Wow! I better duck and cover then!
Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
LarryOldtimer
Member Avatar
The Man!!!
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Oh, well.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
hunter207
Member Avatar
Boss
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
Scuse me picard, I just need to borrow the Enterprises tractor beam for a quick sec, asteroid of death and all! xD
You can take your heaven, when I die I sooner go to Middle Earth..

- George R.R. Martin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgcoBKWTW14
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Isis
Member Avatar
The Goddess of Darkness & Desire

Damn and we are going to miss it!!!...... :lmao:
Posted Image
Posted ImagePosted Image
Posted ImagePosted Image
Isis, The Goddess of Desire & Darkness. In The Darkness, We Find The Light.

This is a Drama Free Zone..!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
LarryOldtimer
Member Avatar
The Man!!!
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Good one, Isis :yahoo:
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
DealsFor.me - The best sales, coupons, and discounts for you
« Previous Topic · Space and Technology · Next Topic »
Add Reply

Web Hosting Reviews
Web Hosting Reviews
Skin Created by Xarina of Rapture & Zathyus Networks Resources.
This theme is best viewed in firefox.