I bet if this happened it would have quite an effect on the market and economy haha. The space rock, dubbed 2006 VV2, came within 2.1million miles of hitting us â which is a near miss in space terms, even though that's about nine times farther away than the moon. The asteroid was flying past Earth on Friday night, at 11 p.m. (PDT), and on Saturday 7 a.m. GMT for Europe. There was no danger of collision. And that's a really good thing. This space rock, named 2006 VV2, is more than a mile wide (about 2 kilometers), according to the Web site. If one that big did hit Earth, it would blow a crater the size of London â and wipe out a whole country. It would derail global commerce and create a climate change unlike anything seen in modern history. Jay Tate, who runs Spaceguard UK, said: âAsteroids are a very real danger. We need to find and track them. âDinosaurs are extinct because they couldnât do anything about the asteroid hazard. We face precisely the same risk.â The best viewing locations were in the Americas, as the rock passed directly over Southern California, and though it has been far too dim to see with the naked eye, amateur backyard astronomers were able to spot it with good-sized telescopes and CCD cameras. But one asteroid called Apophis will pass very close to Earth in the year 2029 and has a minor chance of hitting the planet in 2036, though it will most likely come close to the earth. In fact, this asteroid will be the first in human history to be clearly visible to the naked eye. The asteroid is said to have the power of 65,000 Hiroshima bombs. Also, it has the power to wipe out a small country, and churn up a tidal wave that could become 800 ft (244 m) high. These are things that could happen if Apophis would hit the earth. As for now, with the little risk that the asteroid has to hit the Earth, NASA has decided to hold off on devising any plans until they can get a more accurate idea of what is in store for Apophis the asteroid.
I don't mind a nice little crisis now and again to produce volatility in the markets. Let's just say an asteroid hit would produce "untradable volatility."
Theres a big rock out there right now that will pass by us in 10 years ago, swing around, and then pass by so close that it will be within about 17% of the distance to the moon (sometime like in the year 2025...forget when). After that pass, they can't honestly say if it will be on a trajectory where it can hit us. When it makes its first pass in about a decade or so, they will be putting a transponder on it. SM
"After that pass, they can't honestly say if it will be on a trajectory where it can hit us." No matter, they'll blame Bush. And secondly I hope the city council has the foresight to enact a law that everyone wear helmets.
In 10 years I'll be at about the same age as my dad was when he found out he had fatal prostate cancer. Bring on the asteroid baby! I'll take a quick explosive end any day.
haha, I don't think that a helmet will help at all. Isn't it amazing the technology that we have to be able to track things like this. It makes you wonder, what type of technology do we have that isn't really known by the public yet? I recently saw a show on the great ol discovery channel about futuristic cars that are being designed now that will be able to drive themselves with computers and will stop accidents, if there aren't any glitches, and you can have the same frame with different covers. Each frame will be the same and you can put seating and different covers such as truck or car. That is just one prototype.
The estimate is that we know of and are tracking only 5-15% of the rocks that have the potential to hit the earth. In addition to that if it were to come from behind the sun or from the direction of the sun we would have literally a matter of days to possibly weeks notice. Live life to the fullest while you can, you only get one shot and there is nothing else once your dead unless you believe in fairies and the like.