Posted on 01/09/2013 9:29:27 PM PST by BenLurkin
ping
Memo to self: do not file tax return in 2036.
Asteroid risk is why I always file in Rocktober.
Plenty of time for something to hit it causing course change.
Makes you wonder why it hasn’t happened yet.
So many opportunities .
Still, why not go skiing in April and do your taxes later?
I’d be ok with 2050. No offense to the younglings.
Melancholia
Dayng it! We are gonna be kilt by a Martian Assault Asteroid!!” We really need to have a meaningful discussion about these violent invaders from outer space!!!
/johnny
You raise an interesting point. Right now its orbit intersects, very nearly, the orbit of earth, and the question is one of timing ... being at the same place at the same time along two linear tracks. If this situation were to persist indefinitely, it would have to hit after, say, a few hundred "opportunities", amounting to tens or hundreds of thousands of years, as I guess.
However, the orbit of the earth precesses, as does that of Apophis, presumably, and as their aphelions move, the orbital intersection is eliminated for some much lengthier period of time, so you have this layering effect, with periodic recurrences of eras of periodic close approaches.
Beyond that I assume there are other variations, or "accidents" which create or alter this scenario. Anyway, it seems like we would be doing our distant posterity, if such is fated, a big favor if we would take care of this sucker.
“They have calculated that in 2036 there is a very small chance it could collide with our planet.”
If it’s the “Wormwood” from Revelation 8:10-11, then the Tribulation will be around 2036, too. That’s actually more time than I was expecting, the way the country is going.
“The Vigil”
In a purple vision
Many thousand years ago
I saw the silent stranger
Walk the earth alone
Twenty-seven faces
With their eyes turned to the sky
I’ve got a camera
And an airtight alibi
I know they’re out there
We see them coming
Faster than the speed of light
They greet us in the dead of the night
Somewhere, someday, someone
They’ll be light and sound
They’ll alight on the ground
On which we stand
Somewhere, someday, someone
Will help us to survive
They’re gonna show us hell
And bring us back alive
Well, I’m no poet, but I can’t be fooled
The lies don’t count, the whispers do
I hear the whispers on the wind
They say the earth has fallen due
We run in circles
Our days are numbered
Every night I look away
To the heavens and I pray
Come to us
Come to us
Our lights are dim
Our roads are crumbling
And we don’t know what to do
We’re sick and tired
And dying to meet you
‘Cause we bit off more than
We can chew
I wish it could hit Washington DC now
Amen.
Thanks Army Air Corps for the ping, thanks BenLurkin for the topic. Each time Apophis encounters Earth, it gets a slight trajectory adjustment, and also gives astronomers better data (such as more accurate estimates of its mass) that help refine the ephemeris, iow, whether it is more or less likely to "come on down".
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Thanks Army Air Corps for the ping, thanks BenLurkin for the topic. Each time Apophis encounters Earth, it gets a slight trajectory adjustment, and also gives astronomers better data (such as more accurate estimates of its mass) that help refine the ephemeris, iow, whether it is more or less likely to "come on down".
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nice name for a harmless piece of rock (sarc)
why don’t they name them after politicians, like “Harry”?
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