The Odds of an Asteroid Impact
An asteroid 2.9 miles long and 1.5 miles wide zoomed past Earth Sept. 29 and came within 962,951 miles of the planet. While this might not seem like a near miss, technically it is relatively close – merely four times the distance between Earth and the moon.
But, it’s not likely that a large space rock like this one would actually hit Earth in our lifetime, says physics professor Perry Gerakines, Ph.D. “The odds that an asteroid of this magnitude would impact the Earth are in the millions to one.
Some NASA scientists say a particular person’s odds of being affected by an asteroid collision is comparable to those of being in a major airline accident.”
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