There’s nothing like a good apocalyptic news story to get you intrigued, but thankfully we are not the bringers of doom today. Cleveland Leader reports that Scientists have discovered an asteroid on a potential collision path with the earth. The asteroid in question is the “1950 DA” which was spotted once on February 23rd 1950 and again on December 31st 2000. The asteroid apparently has a 0.3% chance of colliding with the earth on March 16th 2880 during a 20 minute window. Of course 0.3% is still a ridiculously low number but the scientists point out this makes it about 50% more likely to hit earth than the chance of impact from other asteroids known to have a potential collision course.
The cause for concern is however very minimal. Scientists claim dusting the surface of the asteroid with chalk, charcoal or white glass beads would be enough to allow sunlight reflectivity to divert its path away from the earth. While a potential collision with an asteroid is never good news, having 866.5 years notice is always useful!
Image courtesy of hub.jhu.edu
I think a dystopia future apocalypse film would be cool 🙂
But would this asteroid not be mined long before it’s possible date with Earth?
How the hell can they predict something like that 800 years in the future? Shouldn’t it be coming by every 50 years if it was scene in 1950 and again in 2000?
Because its gets X distance closer every 50 years…
That’s when it was spotted (aka visible from Earth) not when it was on a collision course.