Nasa and Russia disagreeing on an astroid? Not cool

Who says the world is only full of bad news? NASA has largely dismissed a Russian report that an asteroid larger than two football fields could hit Earth by 2036. In other words, you can relax.

Known as "99942 Apophis," the 900-foot-long asteroid has had the attention of scientists for some time. According to an article from SPACE.com, back in 2004, NASA scientists announced that Apophis could hit the planet in 2029. But, after further number crunching, that prediction was later retracted.

The asteroid hurtled back into the news when Russia recently predicted 99942 Apophis may hit Earth on April 13, 2036. NASA acknowledges that there is a chance this may happen, but it is far from likely. Donald Yeomans, who heads up NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office, estimates the odds at around 1 in 250,000. And, don't worry — NASA does have a backup plan. Should the need arise, the space agency will construct machinery to change the asteroid's orbit.

The Russian scientists are also hedging their bets. Professor Leonid Sokolov of St. Petersburg State University remarked that 99942 Apophis would most likely disintegrate before hitting Earth.

Still, a chance is a chance, and Web searchers immediately sought more information on the errant asteroid. Online lookups for "99942 Apophis" jumped sharply while "pictures of asteroids" and "apophis nasa report" also posted strong spikes in the Search box.

And while the odds of 99942 Apophis "hitting home" are blissfully slim, there are some in the scientific community who believe its high time for "Earth protection strategies" just in case. Discovery.com lists several theories as to how best tackle any objects that might be on a collision course with Earth.

Odds are we'll never need them. But it's better to be safe than to end up in a situation that resembles a Michael Bay movie.

Ok so the russians say this will hit us and nasa says there is a chance, but its unlikely and that's after they crunched the numbers. The fact that they had to 'crunch' the numbers tells me that they there is a very high chance of this hitting us in 2036, they even said so on the history channel. It's also amazing how they played down this international matter to a, ' nothing to see here folks', which is even more evident since they are indirectly saying that the Rusians are wrong on this one.

I would keep my eye on this because I don't know the russians to be incompetent in these matters. Please post your opinions.

I'll come back to this thread in 20 years when they have really crunched those numbers. lol

if it is the size of two football feilds then surely you could blow it to peices with even the tiniest of little nukes. we could probably have some type of manned spacecraft that would have the capabilities to fire it from there, although a unforseen disaster on take off would be catastrophic but russia or the usa could get around that issue affecting their nations by simply sendingmultiple crafts up from third world countries. this doesnt seem very ethical but does seem plausable.

i am more interested in this "machinery that will change the asteroids orbit" they sound confident on this one

You probably should throw in a link to your source: thakurproxy.appspot.com...

A well placed Bruce Willis from Armageddon should do the trick at clearing up this asteroid sitiuation. That is if the Russians dont beat us to it with their Brusky Willovsky from their Rollywood Blockbuster Armagedskeets. Ok im lame i get it

reply to post by shikori


i trust michio kaku more than i do nasa. we will let time tell. wasnt russia the first in space? huh...

HA!! Thats the greatest lie I think I heard this year from NASA...We'll build machinery to alter its course?? According to our technology we would barely be able to build something big enough to change the trajectory of something that big and moving that fast in that short amount of time...Let alone launch it and it have enough time to travel far enough a way from Earth to even be of help even if it if could slightly alter it's course...if it hits, it hits the day before my birthday hahahaha good one god