Comments on: Apophis Asteroid still a risk for 2036

By: tiaraabbey

tiaraabbey — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 05:35:44 +0000

Astrophysicists in Russia sounded a forewarning that an asteroid named Apophis could hit the planet in the year 2036. If Apophis defies the odds and hits a “gravitational keyhole” during a 2029 pass, its trajectory might be tweaked into a collision course with Earth in 2036. The odds are so great of that occurring, that NASA isn't worried about Apophis, but the agency is aware of the urgent need to prevent an asteroid collision.

By: J Midgley

J Midgley — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 22:09:05 +0000

This is not so much a comment on the above post I'm just raising the question as to whether it is possible that the "big one" is actually in an Earth orbit already. I say "orbit" because my daughter and a few friends saw a large fireball over England on July the 9th and I have seen a similar object several years ago. In both sightings the head of the fireball was black and distending an angle at the eye of about 1 degree at closest approach. Both had orange flames around the head but there were differences. I shall not elaborate at this point but realise the orbit must be highly elliptical and that the upper atmosphere is being periodically grazed if we have indeed seen the same object. I am contacting you because I am concerned. I have a degree in physics/astrophysics. I can supply drawings and I *seem* to be getting help from the local press in asking any other viewers to come forward. If this produces results I can communicate them to you. I await any response.

By: Ondurag

Ondurag — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 05:04:00 +0000

Thanks for the corrections — I’ll see to it that I change the information.

By: Jim Stevenson

Jim Stevenson — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:11:06 +0000

Noted in the comment by B612 Foundation that the risk corridor is accurately plotted, however there seems to be some contention to this statement, please see;

http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg19926643.500-killer-…of%20miles’

That link is New Scientist and requires subscription to read all.Shame that some sites have gone “pay per view” like New Scientist has.Also a shame that there are so many hucksters trying to sell “Scientific Papers” online when they are obviously in the public domain, (sorry for the rant).

By: Michael Graham Richard

Michael Graham Richard — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:56:51 +0000

For those interested in improving NEOs/asteroid detection and tracking, the distributed computing project Orbit@home is now in the beta phase and sending out work units.

This is a software that you can run using idle CPU cycles to crunch scientific data.

The URL is here: http://orbit.psi.edu/

And here’s something I’ve written about distributed computing in general:

http://michaelgr.com/distributed-computing/

By: Brian Wang

Brian Wang — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:03:50 +0000

Thanks for the information. I have corrected the article.

By: B612 Foundation

B612 Foundation — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:21:01 +0000

Several comments:
1) For a variety of reasons we have renamed the earlier “path of risk” the “risk corridor”. We would appreciate the use of this in future comments.
2) You use 2036 twice and 2037 once for the potential 1/45,000 impact of Apophis. The date of the potential impact is 2036.. April 13.
3) The Apophis risk corridor is not an approximation; it is accurately plotted (in papers on our website) based on the work of Dr. Dan Scheeres.
4) Your statement about “10+ million casualties” is completely absurd. *If* Apophis is going to hit we’ll know it many years ahead. If it is going to hit in the ocean the adjoining coastlines can be evacuated as little as 1 km inland. If it’s going to hit on land (not likely) an evacuation with years to plan for it should save virtually all lives. Infrastructure and property is quite another matter.

B612 Foundation