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Old 27-June-2006, 09:32 PM
Gsquare Gsquare is offline
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Default Asteroid Apophis coming within 20 k miles of earth

I'd be far more concerned with Asteroid Apophis than with XP-14 scheduled to fly by this july 3rd.
I'm referring to the 2029 approach, not the return trip of 2036.

It is predicted to come over 10 times closer than XP-14, at a close encounter of only 20,000 miles! AT 1000 feet or so in diameter, that's close enough to hit with police radar! Well, OK,... at least you'll be able to see it with the naked eye, (yours, not mine; I wear coke bottles)

However, more seriously, that's close enough to take out a satellite (or two), and at such a high incoming velocity, possibly alter the asteroid's course ....or at least cause the asteroid, being subject to huge tidal forces of earth already, to break apart and change trajectory toward earth.
Just speculating;...What do you think?

More on the 2029 close encounter: http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...d_apophis.html

Gsquare
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