Mountain-Sized Asteroid Poses No Threat To Earth

April Flowers for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Every three years, according to Russian astrophysicist Vladimir Lipunov, a huge, mountain-sized asteroid crosses orbit with Earth. Lipunov discovered 2014 UR116 in October of this year and announced the find with a documentary video posted on the Russian Space Agency’s (Roscosmos) website this week.

In “Asteroid Attack,” Lipunov says that the 1,100-foot diameter asteroid could hit Earth with an explosion 1,000 times greater than the surprise 2013 impact over Chelyabinsk that damaged buildings for miles around the impact site.

Lipunov calls for constant monitoring of 2014 UR116, “because even small mistakes in calculations could have serious consequences.” This is made more difficult, he says, because the orbit of such big objects is constantly being altered by the gravitational pull of nearby planets.

Fred Weir of the Christian Science Monitor reports that there is little indication, despite Lipunov’s warnings, that this asteroid will strike the Earth in the near future. Natan Esmant from the Space Research Institute in Moscow told Weir that a collision with this asteroid is possible, even likely, but only over the long run.

NASA’s Near Earth Object (NEO) Program website agrees, saying the asteroid doesn’t pose a threat for at least another 150 years.

NEO Program manager Donald Yeomans said that the closest 2014 UR116 will come to Earth is approximately 2.7 million miles in 2047, which doesn’t even put it on the running list of risky near-Earth objects, according to the Associated Press.

Esmant went on to tell Weir that the bigger threat is the estimated 100,000 NEOs, of which only 11,000 or so of these near-Earth objects have been cataloged to date.

“Every couple of days new ones are being discovered,” he said. “Scientists have increasingly powerful tools to do this work, but there’s a lot still to be done. Every object that crosses the Earth’s path can be a potential threat.”

The Chelyabinsk meteor was such a damaging surprise that scientists have been trying to pool their resources and knowledge since to create a clearer picture of the debris that is lurking in space.  Sarah Knapton of The Telegraph reports that more than 100 experts from around the world came together last week to call for better tracking of asteroids with the creation of an asteroid detection system.

“The ancients were correct in their belief that the heavens and the motion of astronomical bodies affect life on Earth – just not in the way they imagined,” Lord Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, told Knapton.

“Sometimes those heavenly bodies run into Earth. This is why we must make it our mission to find asteroids before they find us.”

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Source: http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1113296316/mountain-sized-asteroid-poses-no-threat-to-earth-121014/