Asteroid ""2003 QQ47 is not expected to collide with Earth. The calming message was delivered after astronomers from the center announced at the beginning of the week that there is a chance, even if slight, that the asteroid will collide with the Earth on March 21, 2014
Avi Blizovsky
Turin scale
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The warning about an asteroid hitting the Earth in 2014 has been cancelled
By Yuval Dror, Haaretz, Walla!, last update - 06/09/03
In a message published by the British Center for Monitoring Celestial Bodies, it was stated that the asteroid ""2003 QQ47 is not expected to collide with the Earth. The calming message was delivered after astronomers from the center announced at the beginning of the week that there is a chance, even if a slight one, that the asteroid will collide with the Earth on March 21, 2014.
""2003 QQ47 could have caused enormous damage if it had hit Earth. The asteroid was 1.2 km wide, weighed 2,600 million tons, and its collision with the Earth would have produced energy equivalent to 8 million atomic bombs of the type dropped on Hiroshima. It is therefore no wonder that when the new British center, NEOCI, which is tasked with tracking objects in space approaching the Earth, issued a press release warning about the asteroid, many people reacted with panic.
The center claims in its defense that already at the time of the release of the announcement it was determined that the chance of the asteroid hitting the Earth is one in 909,000 million, and that it is not to blame for the sensational headlines selected in several newspapers around the world. "Some will ask whether the center should have published the warning in the first place," reads a message published on the center's website. "We believe that by updating the public and the media regarding such stories, we will be able to promote the issue of finding asteroids, tracking them and analyzing the risks involved."
Astronomers claim that the number of cases in which false warnings are published by asteroid tracking centers around the world actually sabotages this goal. On December 6, 97, the asteroid "1997 XF11" was discovered and it was estimated that it would come dangerously close to Earth on October 26, 2028. This warning turned out to be a false warning. Also the asteroids "2000 SG344", "1999 AN10" and "2002 NT7" were supposed to hit the Earth (some of them were said to be the most threatening bodies on the Earth that were not discovered this time) but the warnings about them were cancelled.
The risk of an asteroid impact in 2014 is slight
3/9/2003
By Avi Blizovsky
Astronomers monitoring near-Earth objects have downplayed the odds that a newly discovered asteroid will hit Earth in 2014. They say there is a 1 in 909 thousand chance that asteroid 2003 QQ47 will hit our planet.
The chances of a catastrophe may only decrease after more data is received about the asteroid's orbit. The odds are now calculated based on 51 observations made since the giant rock was discovered by a US program to detect such objects in New Mexico on August 24. 2003 QQ47 was initially rated as 1 on the Torino scale. Rank 10, at the top of the scale, reserved for objects whose ability to hit the Earth and cause a global disaster is certain. Most likely 2003 QQ47 will eventually drop to zero on the Torino scale after more observations are colored.
The rating 1 on the Torino scale means that it is a substance that should be followed carefully.
BBC science correspondent Christine McGurty says 2003 QQ47 is important to keep track of because of its menacing size and speed.
It is estimated that this is a bone that is 1.2 kilometers wide, about a tenth of the size of the supposed asteroid or comet that destroyed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. It moves at a speed of about 30 kilometers per second. "In theory, an asteroid like this could devastate an entire continent," McGorty said. The mass of the asteroid is estimated at 2.6 billion tons and the energy stored in it is like 350 billion tons of TNT in the most unlikely case that it hits the Earth. According to the calculations of the scientists, the effect that will be created will be about 20 million nuclear bombs, of the type that the United States dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
Dr. Sarah Russell, a meteorite researcher at the Natural History Museum in London, said she was not concerned that 2003 QQ47 would be a danger: "The danger is very, very small ... we have to keep the proportions," she said.
And adds Alex Doron (Maariv):
Professor Zvi Piren, an astrophysicist from the Rakah Institute at the Hebrew University, says that on the Torino scale, which is used to assess the degree of risk of asteroids hitting the Earth, the new asteroid would have received a rating of 1, which means a very low risk.
According to Professor Piren, most scientists estimate that with the help of more accurate observations they will be able to determine with certainty that the Earth is not in the orbit of the asteroid. But if the asteroid does hit the Earth, its rating on the Turin scale will jump to 8 or 9, and it will cause damage on the order of 350,000 megaton bombs.
Professor Piren says that in case of danger to the Earth there are several ideas that have not yet been tried how to divert the asteroid from its orbit, such as sending a spacecraft that will give the asteroid a small "blow" that will cause it to change its orbit.
They knew cosmic collisions
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