Posted on 10/13/2017 10:58:04 AM PDT by Red Badger
Asteroid 2012 TC4 doesn't have a very memorable name, but it might leave quite an impression years from now.
The house-sized asteroid that just passed by Earth, almost as close as many satellites in orbit, will be back -- and a future visit might lead to it taking up permanent residency here.
On Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, Asteroid 2012 TC4 safely passed by our planet at an altitude of 27,300 miles (44,000 kilometers), just a few thousand miles above the level of satellites in geosychronous orbit. That's nearly twice as close as when it passed us almost exactly five years ago, about a week after it was first discovered in October 2012.
The most recent models of the space rock's future path, which can be altered by Earth's gravity each time it makes a close pass, have ruled out the possibility that it will impact Earth when it makes another close call in 2050.
But the same can't be said for its visit in 2079.
"We know today that it will also not hit the Earth in the year 2050, but the close flyby in 2050 might deflect the asteroid such that it could hit the Earth in the year 2079," Rüdiger Jehn of the European Space Agency told AFP.
The odds of an impact 62 years from now are currently placed at about 1 in 750.
Fortunately, if 2012 TC4 does attempt to give us a violent cosmic body blow, it probably won't be the same kind of existential collision that did in the dinosaurs. In fact, it's likely smaller than the bolide that exploded when it hit the atmosphere over Russia in 2013, blowing out a bunch of windows in Chelyabinsk in the process.
It's actually space rocks like that one that probably pose the bigger risk, because it was never observed until it became a fireball in the sky that day. All the more reason to point more eyes and lenses toward the sky to find the 99 percent of asteroids in the solar system big enough to level a city that are believed to still be undiscovered.
I will be 95 then..................
I’ll be 103....I’m gone forgo the young lady joke!!!!
Wouldn’t it be nice if it would suck some of the liberals off of this planet during its 2050 and 2079 flybys.
I understand they have already contacted Bruce Willis to standby...
Ever wonder how many of these rocks have impacted the ocean in the past where they’d almost certainly create a tidal wave, but not much dust and debris that could cause a loss of a summer or two? After all, our planet is 70% water surface.
Was wondering the same. Or they’re lying to us again/still.
Five years, I might worry. Fifty, blah, don’t care. Besides, who wants to live in a world without polar bears?
Any chance it could make a “special appearance” during the State of the Union Address?
I’ll be 80 in 2050, and 109 in 2079 (if I make it that long). I’m hoping that Jesus comes back before either of those dates and this whole thing is moot.
Thanks Red Badger. The Chelyabinsk meteor was much bigger, and *only* damaged circa 7,200 buildings -- when it detonated more than EIGHTEEN MILES above the surface. The Barringer Crater / Meteor Crater in Arizona is hundreds of feet deep, and over 3/4 of a mile wide, and was produced by a ground impact of an object about four-five times the diameter of the Chelyabinsk object.
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...but so much for the Democrats platform for the 2018 midterms...............
Lol...most definitely.
It’s the same every election..................
And those elections start the second after the previous one ends. :(
All they have to offer is, FEAR ITSELF!........................
That would be the basis for a great novel. Secret mission to the asteroid to steer it to Mecca with a little nudge from some well placed thrusters.
2050 ? I’ll mark my calendar.
Actually I don’t even buy green bananas anymore.
The next gazillion dollar global challenge will be to destroy Asteroid 2012 TC4.
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