The end of the world ?

[SteveSxx]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6178225.st m
Worries me somewhat
It states ""Apophis will come closer to Earth in 2029 than the orbits of many communications satellites - but it will not hit the planet, that is clear"....
My question is just how far is safe for an Asteroid to pass ?
Considering that satellites orbits vary between 248 to almost 24,000 miles - even this larger figure fills me with dread - and 23 years is not very far away either...

[lankeela]

Won't be able to sleep tonight now you've pointed this out.

[CT]

Least they know where that one is going. Thousands more out there that they haven't got a clue about.

[SteveSxx]

I put this question to the author of the piece at the BBC -

His reply

My understanding is the rock will pass within 36,000 km of Earth. Most geostationary comms sats are of that altitude. They tell me we're fine this time around. I have no intention of changing my holiday plans at
this stage. ;-)

With thanks for your mail, time and interest.

Jonathan Amos
Assistant Editor, Science and Nature
BBC News Interactive

[eyeshade]

PHEW! That's ok then!

[spudqueen]

Well according to the Mayans the world will end on December 23rd 2012 so if that's the case we won't be around for this asteroid! lol

[fairkatrina]

Hate to break it to you all, but the chances are that we won't see the asteroid that kills us until a few months before impact, when it is much too late to do anything about it. This is something to do with the way light is refracted in space, we know there are things out there big enough to destroy the earth, but because they're in shadows we can't see them. Scientists also reckon though that even if we spotted something within 10 years of it hitting us, we'd be unable to do anything about it because at present there are no rockets capable of carrying men (let alone weapons) that are ready to take off, and all those ideas we've got from films about putting nukes on asteriods and letting them do their thing are impractical - they would turn one dangerous object into thousands, and would make them radioactive to boot. And there's not even any point in hiding on the other side of the world because any catastrophic impact would result in a dust cloud encircling the earth for generations, blocking sunlight and leading to the death of any plants and animals that remained, lowering the earth's temperature by several degrees and probably throwing the planet into another ice age. The best you can hope for is that a) it never happens in your lifetime, or b) you're in the impact zone and die instantly. Hope that's reassured everyone :-)

[SteveSxx]

Will "they" tell us though - I guess not - because if we all knew that the end was nigh - there would be widespread panic, looting etc etc

[eyeshade]

Actually I used to know some people that belonged to a religeous sect and actually sold their home and belongings about 15 years ago as they thought the world was coming to end! I often wondered what happened to them, - they had kiddies as well, quite sad really.
ES