2102 (asteroid will be closest shave yet)

I know this only has a bit less than 1 in 1000 chance but for me thats too close for comfort.

If someone asked you to stand at 100 yards and let them take a shot at you and it was safe because they only had a bit less than 1 in 1000 chance of hitting you would you agree? I do not think so. But that is what this news releasel is claiming.

This one has just been upgraded this week from a bit less than 1 in 3000 chance of hitting earths surface to a bit less than 1 in 1000. I know this is 100 years away and more than probable we will not be around but our children could be. Lets all hope this over time will change direction or we will have a way to change its direction.

Take a look at this just released SPECIAL NEWS STORY.

A space rock capable of sub-continent scale devastation has about a one in 1,000 risk of colliding with Earth early next century, the highest of any known asteroid, watchers said on Thursday. The rock, 2004 VD17, is about 500 metres (yards) long and has a mass of nearly a billion tonnes, which -- if it were to impact -- would deliver 10,000 megatonnes of energy, equivalent to all the world's nuclear weapons. Spotted on November 27 2004, VD 17 was swiftly identified as rock that potentially crossed Earth's orbit, with a 1 in 3,000 risk of collision on May 4 2102. Further observations and calculations have prompted the risk on that day to be upgraded to "a bit less than 1 in 1,000," said NASA Near-Earth Object (NEO) expert David Morrison in an emailed circular. "The risk of an impact within the next century (is) higher than that of any other known asteroid

[edit on 4-3-2006 by Harry55]

I do not mean to bump this thread mods but this one is starting to wake up the scientific minded folks watching this one. Here is another news release I found about this asteroid.
BREAING NEWS

On 23 February, new observations allowed researchers to more accurately calculate the orbit of the asteroid, named 2004 VD17, which was originally detected by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's LINEAR project. Since the improvement did not rule out a potential collision with the Earth on 4 May 2102, they increased the asteroid's rating to level 2 on the Torino Scale, a relatively rare event.

[edit on 4-3-2006 by Harry55]

Try the ATS Search Function.

There are a lot of threads on this already, since it was discovered about two years ago. Sorry your news isn't as breaking as you thought.