Asteroid could hit Earth in 2029 - Russian astronomer
Pastor Dale Morgan
Asteroid could hit Earth in 2029 - Russian astronomer*
20:13 | 01/ 10/ 2007
MOSCOW, October 1 (RIA Novosti) - An asteroid, discovered in 2004, could
pose a threat to Earth in 2029, the director of the Institute of
Astronomy said Monday.
Boris Shustov said at an international space forum in Moscow that the
Apophis asteroid, which is due to cross earth's orbit in 2029 at a
height of 27,000 km (17,000 miles), could under certain conditions hit
Earth in 2029.
The explosion could surpass the famous Tunguska explosion of June 30,
1908, which affected a 2,150 square kilometer (830 sq miles) area of
Russia felling over 80 million trees in the Krasnoyarsk Territory in
Siberia.
The meteoroid's air blast was estimated to be between 10 and 20 megatons
in TNT equivalent or 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb
dropped on Hiroshima. The explosion caused a shockwave around 5.0 on the
Richter scale.
However, the asteroid is not likely to repeat the plot of Hollywood
blockbusters, as modern technology would allow the asteroid's orbit to
be corrected using small satellites, Shustov said.
"To blast an asteroid, as some hot shots suggest, is quite an
unpredictable step, and a more cautious approach is welcomed now," he said.
He said that a microsatellite with 10 liters of fuel could correct the
path of the space body.
Last month a mystery object, believed to be a meteorite, fell to earth
in a remote Peruvian region causing a crater 30 meters (98.5ft) wide and
6 meters (19.6ft) deep. Local residents, including policemen who
collected samples from the site, complained of vomiting and nausea.