William Atkins
Wednesday, 18 February 2009 21:30
Science -
Space
Page 2 of 3
In fact, as indicated above, both facilities tracked the near-Earth
asteroid 101955 (1999 RQ
36) when it made two close approaches to Earth
in 1999 and 2005.
LINEAR is a cooperative U.S. project of the U.S. Air Force, the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and Lincoln
Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Using robotic telescopes to seek out near-Earth asteroids, the LINEAR
project has discovered the majority of asteroids since 1998. It has
detected over 226,000 newly discovered objects over the past eleven
years.
Originally, Asteroid 1999 RQ
36 was thought not to be at risk of hitting
the Earth over the next 100 years of so. However, that prediction has
been changed to a “slim” chance of hitting the Earth over the next 160
to 190 years.
According to the
Dr. Andrea Milani team, the chance that Asteroid 1999
RQ
36 will hit the Earth between 2169 and 2199 is
“not higher than
0.07%.” This percentage relates to a one in 1,400 chance of hitting the
Earth.
Dr. Milani is associated with the University of Pisa (Italy). The
Milani team wrote up the results of their study in the January 23, 2009
article “
Long term impact risk for (101955) 1999 RQ36.”
In the paper’s abstract, they state,
“The potentially hazardous
asteroid (101955) 1999 RQ36 has the possibility of collision with the
Earth in the latter half of the 22nd century, well beyond the
traditional 100-year time horizon for routine impact monitoring.”
Further statements from the Milani team follow on page three.
