Look out, incoming killer asteroid! Or is it..? Astronomers left red-faced after false alarm

 

By NIALL FIRTH - More by this author » Last updated at 16:28pm on 12th November 2007 Comments (1)

Astronomers were left red-faced after accidentally confusing the European space probe Rosetta with a killer asteroid heading for Earth.

After spotting an unidentified object hurtling through space and due to fly worryingly close to Earth, space experts at the Minor Planet Centre, the group that scans the skies for incoming asteroids, were on the verge of issuing a worldwide warning of impending doom.

Emergency emails were prepared and astronomers worldwide prepared to tell us all the worst: that a deadly asteroid was due to skim our planet by only 3,500 miles and there was a very real risk that it might collide with Earth.

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Killer from space: A large asteroid could spell the end of the human race

 

However, blushes were saved when Moscow-based scientist Denis Denisenko realised the mysterious mass was Rosetta, a European Space Agency probe launched in 2004 on a ten-year mission to chase a comet.

Rosetta, about the size of a Transit van and with a 32-metre wing span, is to due to pass close by Earth tomorrow to get a gravity boost using the 'sling-shot effect', so it can be hurled towards the comet Churyumov Gerasimenko where it will collect valuable data.

 

Bruce Willis in the blockbuster Armageddon had to defelct an asteroid that was heading straight for Earth

 

It is estimated that a one-kilometre asteroid hits the Earth on average every million years.

Scientists believe that an asteroid of around 2 miles in diameter hitting the Earth would result in enormous devastation on a massive scale and the end of the human race. A large asteroid hitting the Earth is widely believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs around 65 millions years ago.

 

In 1908 a small asteroid exploded in the air about six miles above the ground in Siberia with the force of a fifteen megaton atomic bomb (about the same force as a thousand Hiroshima bombs). It destroyed 800 square miles of Siberian wasteland.

In 2004, panicking scientists believed that there was a 1 in 37 chance (the same odds as winning in roulette) of a asteroid 400 metre wide hitting Europe.

"If it hit London, there would be no London,” says Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty, one of a group of astronauts which is urging Nasa to prepare for a possible impact.

Last week Nasa was slammed by both asteroid experts and members of Congress for not doing enough to prepare for such an emergency.

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An artist's impression of the Rosetta probe which sparked the scare

 

"We're living in a shooting gallery," said Schweickart. "We've evolved to the point where we can do something about this threat. We can either close our eyes as we cross the street and not know what we've dodged, or we can open our eyes and act accordingly.”

Extremely sensitive telescopes are currently scanning the skies looking for any signs of dangerous asteroids, which are known as Near-Earth objects (NEO).

Both Nasa and the European Space Agency are looking at ways of deflecting incoming asteroids with techniques ranging from nuclear bombs (as in the Hollywood blockbuster Armageddon) or using space probes to gently push the asteroid away to safety.

That looks like an "OMFG asteroid!" :shocked2: :stunned: :o

wow. What on earth...that's a really dumb mistake

A large asteroid hitting the Earth is widely believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs around 65 millions years ago.

 

It wasn't an asteroid, it was Baldrick's best and worst pair of underpants which wiped out the dinosaurs :P