Posted on 03/01/2022 7:44:41 AM PST by BenLurkin
For a few tense days in January of this year, astronomers were tracking a Near-Earth Object cruising towards Earth with its trajectory showing it hitting the planet in 2023, when it mysteriously changed course. The asteroid dubbed 2022 AE1 was on course to hit Earth on July 4, 2023, with astronomers predicting real damage to a local area.
The asteroid was moving so fast that there was not enough time to attempt deflection and the European Space Agency (ESA) said that, worryingly, the chance of impact appeared to increase based on the first seven days of observations. The first observations were followed by a dramatic week 'in the dark' as the full Moon outshone the potential impactor.
When the Moon moved away, the telescope looked again, only to find the chance of impact was dramatically falling. Since then, it has been confirmed that 2022 AE1 will not impact Earth and has been removed from ESA's risk list.
Astronomers said that several asteroids often appear risky during initial observations, get riskier, and then suddenly become entirely safe. "As is often the case, the overlap with Earth remains even while the risk corridor gets smaller due to further observations and so the risk appears to increase. More often than not, as the hazard zone narrows, the small potential corridor moves off Earth and the risk suddenly drops," ESA said in a statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Sneak attack and it may change directions back again. Reprogramming its GPS.
This is one of the few things government SHOULD be spending money on.
A very low risk event but a catastrophic one.
And we should have technology now that could help.
Can we blame it?
It annoys me when people claim "science" is only a few hundred years old. No, we have been using this process for a very long time. It was just we did not call it science. It was just trying different things to figure out which worked best.
And mostly they did not write it down.
Much easier to just cuff the kid you were teaching and go "Not THAT way you chowderhead! THIS way."
Nah. Probably was something like the thing saying “Oh damn, I have to go to the bathroom. Gotta make a pit stop somewhere’’.
It was either “Q” that moved it or the Stargate crew that did so.
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