The NASA Mission Information Page by Jeffry J. Brickley
This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page

Last Updated: 11/16/99.
Since 01-22-98, this page has been accessed: times!

Near Earth Asteroids and Comets (The Facts)

You've heard the news, or you've heard from a friend that an Asteroid is going to come close enough to the Earth that it might hit it.... Well, don't panic yet.... The main story in the headlines right now is the Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) known as 1997 XF₁₁. The current closest projected pass of this asteroid will be 600,000 miles in the year 2028.

Why did someone say it was a close pass to the Earth if it is that far?? Well, the truth is, that IS close -- close in Astronomical terms. If you plot the orbits of Mars, Earth, and Venus and then plot the pass of the asteroid in 2028, it WILL look like the asteroid overlaps the position of the Earth. However these distances are rather great.....

To put these distances in a better framework here are some figures:

Astronomically speaking, this asteroid pass is VERY close (a bit too close for comfort), however, the danger of striking the Earth from this distance is non existant. There is an organization that tracks all the NEA's called NEAT (Near Earth Asteroid Tracking). NEAT is an autonomous celestial observatory located at the USAF/Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance (GEODSS) site on Haleakala, Maui, Hawaii. NEAT is a cooperative effort between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the United States Air Force. It is designed to complete a comprehensive search of the sky for near-Earth asteroids and comets.

So why so much "glitter" in the new movie "Impact" if the odds are low? Well, I don't mean to scare you but the odds aren't low.... This asteroid is "safe" at the moment, however a "near miss" with another asteroid and it will change it's course slightly as could all of the other hundreds of NEA's.... Just to make matters worse, we have not even come close to discovering all of the NEA's that could possibly hit us. Worse than that, scientists estimate that a comet or asteroid of "dangerous" size impacts the Earth approximately every 4000 years....

For even more information please check out the full press release article of the asteroid pass, and the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking Home Page. NASA also has a page dedicated to the impact hazards of Asteroids and Comets.