You won't have to worry about the Asteroid Apophis striking Earth in 2036 or 2029, say NASA news reports, since the Asteroid due on February 15, 2013 will fly even closer to Earth than Apophis will in 2029, let alone 2036, according to the February 10, 2013 news article, "NASA: Asteroid Apophis Will Not Strike Earth." For some people, anxiety or that disruption of calmness surrounding news of newly announced and forthcoming asteroids in the media each month disrupts the holistic nature of their feelings of serenity, health, and well-being.
That's because NASA scientist already have ruled out the possibility that the asteroid Apophis will strike Earth in a flyby in 2036. Formerly, scientists thought it might, but have now ruled out that million in one chance possibility. Discovered in 2004, Apophis has a diameter of about 325 miles. That's a lot bigger than the Asteroid 2012 DA14 that will fly around 2,000 miles closer to Earth at 17,200 miles out in space than the asteroid Apophis at 19,400 miles distant from Earth.
For the past few years, scientists were predicting that there was a possibility that Apophis had been approaching Earth close enough in 2029 and 2036 to justify closer investigations on the probability for impact. But now that chance has been ruled out. NASA reports it is now certain that Apophis will not hit Earth in 2036.
Instead Apophis will pass the Earth at a distance of no closer than 19,400 miles on April 13, 2029. The impact odds as they stand now are less than one in a million. Now scientists are predicting that Apophis will not strike the Earth in 2036, according to news reports from Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL, as reported in the article, "NASA: Asteroid Apophis Will Not Strike Earth."
NASA still is studying Apophis for its scientific aspects. If you're looking for an asteroid's close shave, the one to look for the day after Valentine's Day is the February 15 flyby and NASA's observation of the smaller asteroid, 2012 DA14, an relatively 'tiny' asteroid with a diameter of about 40 meters, at a distance of about 17,200 miles. But wait, there are more asteroid flybys in the future. An asteroid will approach Earth again in 2046 at a distance of about 50,000 miles. These are close shaves, but they do provide scientific study opportunities. What scientists need to do is find a way to deflect asteroids if and when any future ones are on their way.
You can check out the news online of the February 15, 2013 asteroid flyby which will be a closer shave at 17,200 miles from Earth
An asteroid known as asteroid 2012 DA14 about 150 feet in diameter is about half the size of a football field and will give Earth the ultimate close shave this month, passing closer than many satellites when it whizzes by at about 17,200 miles from the Earth, but it won't hit the planet, NASA scientists say. The asteroid will approach much closer to Earth than the moon, and well inside the paths of navigation and communications satellites. NASA scientists will closely watch this asteroid from the Goldstone radar in California's Mojave Desert. NASA scientists plan to follow the asteroid from February 16 to February 20, 2013.
"This is a record-setting close approach," Don Yeomans, the head of NASA's asteroid-tracking program, said in a statement in the February 4, 2013 Space.com news article, "Asteroid to Give Earth Record-Setting Close Shave on Feb. 15." This is the first asteroid recorded coming this close to earth. Surveys on how far out in space asteroids will pass the Earth began being recorded in the 1990s. See the Space.com site for more information.
Amateur team of watchers spotted the asteroid
In 2012, an amateur team of watchers at the La Sagra Sky Survey observatory in Spain spotted Asteroid 2012 DA14. Scientists say that the asteroid's approach brings it closer to Earth at only 17,200 miles above us than the geosynchronous satellites orbiting 22,245 miles over the Earth, 2012. But researchers say that the asteroid poses no threat of a collision with the planet and only a remote chance of the asteroid crashing into any of the satellites.
See Don Yeomans Explain Asteroid 2012 DA14 (Video). The big issue is even though the chances are small it asteroid will shove a satellite out of its orbit, what type of preparation is being made if the asteroid causes the satellite to slam into the Earth, but not the bigger asteroid? Check out the site, JPL Near-Earth Object Program - NASA.
You can also check out the Near-Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Earth does get asteroids zipping by about every 40 years. And most of the asteroids are typical, such as the 2012 DA14 asteroid, measuring 150 feet (45 meters) across. The only issue is that an asteroid strikes the Earth about every 1,200 years.
A Ustream feed of the flyby from a telescope at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will be broadcast from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. PST (9 p.m. to midnight EST) on Feb. 15, 2013. To view the feed and ask researchers questions via Twitter about the flyby, visit the Ustream NASA site.
When an asteroid hit the Earth 1,200 years ago
When it did that long ago, there were no huge cities where it landed at that time or were there big cities 1,200 years before that time either. Nowadays, the impact of the type of asteroid that hits every 1,200 years would be very destructive to a city. The 1908 asteroid in Siberia exploded in the air and did not create a crater by hitting the ground as a rock. But it destroyed a large area's trees, plants, and wildlife in that relatively sparsely inhabited area.
The 1908 Tunguska event in Siberia where an asteroid may have exploded in the air
If you look at the asteroid that hit Siberia in 1908, it knocked out a wide swath of trees, but in an area that was not inhabited by very many people. The 1908 Siberian event featured an asteroid, it is theorized, about the same size as the current Asteroid 2012 DA14. In the case of Siberia in 1908, the asteroid exploded in the atmosphere above Siberia in 1908 instead of falling to Earth and creating a crater. But the explosion was violent and destroyed trees and wildlife for hundreds of square miles.
The 1908 explosion is called the "Tunguska Event," according to NASA. Another asteroid made of iron and the same size as the current one did slam into Arizona 50,000 years ago when it is assumed there were no people at that spot. The event back then created the Meteor Crater in Arizona.
NASA will be monitoring the latest asteroid as it zooms past the earth next week
NASA scientists will be watching the current asteroid 2012 DA14 on February 15, 2013 as it zooms by Earth, NASA scientists will be tracking the space rock closely. The asteroid will be watched closely by NASA from the Goldstone radar in California's Mojave Desert. NASA scientists plan to follow the asteroid from February 16 to February 20, 2013.
The scientists also will be building a 3-dimenensional map of asteroid 2012 DA14. Researchers also will refine estimates on the asteroid's shape, spin and reflectivity, according to NASA. The asteroid will be tracked. The question is whether it's made mostly of rock or the more destructive iron?
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