Today, it is expected that an asteroid bigger than an aircraft carrier will pass between earth and the moon, closer than any other asteroid in the last 35 years. Fortunately, it will not be hitting our planet.
Supposedly the last time it came this close to Earth was approximately 200 years ago. At 6:28 PM EST, it will be within 202,000 miles of earth – 38,000 miles closer than the moon.
In the event the asteroid were not planning to pass by Earth, the predicted crater it would create on the surface of our planet would be 1,700 feet deep, resulting in magnitude 7 earthquake-like shaking, and the possibility of 70 foot tsunami waves.
This particular asteroid is considered to contain carbon-based materials, which in theory, are of the same type that could have brought the necessary components for life to exist to earth. It was possible that asteroids of this type could contain frozen water, and thus might be considered a viable source for the liquid and possible fueling stations for future space explorers.
To that point, the asteroid may be considered a future destination by NASA in the coming decades, hence why the shuttle program was shut down over the summer, so as to save up money in hopes of an eventual trip to Mars.
Fortunately, this has been a good chance for scientists to gain information that may be useful in the event of an asteroid that might actually strike the Earth. The next large asteroid to come close to Earth, Apophis, will be 885 feet across, and appear on April, 13 2029, but not strike, though in theory there is a remote chance it might upon it’s return April 13, 2036. Hopefully, by then, scientists will be able to use the data they’ve gathered from events like this to come up with a proper plan.
In my opinion, this particular event plays to the Complexity paradigm best, since it has elements of the Engineering paradigm and just a dab of the Behavioral paradigm, in the essence that it would help with predictions of what potential consequences could be for such an event, and also because it would help to come up with a short term warning system, an even possibly to develop a plan of what to do after an event.
I think the better that the basic actions of something like an asteroid are understood in advance, the better prepared people will be in the future. In theory, knowing things like how an asteroid is projected to move, what its rotation might be, what it’s made of, and similar factors all play into what might be predicted to happen if an asteroid were to strike. These factors and things like them might in fact allow people to judge each individual event more accurately.
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| This is an image of the Asteroid passing by today, designated 2005 YU55. |
((Article from http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/quater-mile-wide-asteroid-coming-close-to-earth_2011-11-05))
