http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/09 ... e_mistake/

No, not that Apophis, sorry Stargate fans.

Apophis is much bigger and more dense than previously thought and it could hit Earth in 2036.

The odds are 1 in 250,000 - I'll sleep soundly.

Wasn't this on Stargazing last night? They said that they had more accurately mapped the path and determined that it now definitely won't hit in 2036 nor for many decades after.

IIRC they said it now wouldn't hit in 2036. However there is still a viable solution where the earth's gravity on that orbit will affect it in such a way it'll hit on the next pass which is in 2050-odd. They won't know if that's going to happen or not until after the 2036 pass. You'd have to hope by 2050 we'd be able to do something about it if it was. They're already talking about wanting to land people on it as it passes next time.

There's also D13 of course but I don't think that's actually due to hit us either.

The best bit of that show was the following interview snippet

Boffin : "We've actually found 90% of the asteroids that are big enough to possibly be a problem if they hit us"
Bonin : "what about the other 10%? where are they then?"
Boffin :

Jon

As it orbits it proximity to the earth will influence its future path which could make it a bigger threat or lesser threat in the future. We simply do not know right now.

Hmm so I will be ..... adding on fingers...... 88 yrs old - not a bad way to check out - the end of the Earth!

Hopefully by 2050-odd we will finally have a colony on Mars anyway - just in case!

I read somewhere the Russians have suggested doing a mission to the asteroid to put a homing-beacon device on it so they can keep an acurate track of where it is in the night sky.

I doubt that we will need it. While it might be large it is not a wipe all humanity size asteroid. It will destroy a large area where ever it lands so not good news for people in the target area.

Knowing my luck it'll hit and wipe us out in 2057, just before I'm due to retire.

Even worse it hits the computer which means all your pension details are lost.