Great, if not somewhat alarmist headline from the folks at New Scientist!

AN ASTEROID that had initially been deemed harmless has turned out to have a slim chance of hitting Earth in 160 years. While that might seem a distant threat, there’s far less time available to deflect it off course.

Asteroid 1999 RQ36 was discovered a decade ago, but it was not considered particularly worrisome since it has no chance of striking Earth in the next 100 years – the time frame astronomers routinely use to assess potential threats.

Article also mentions that it may be time to reassess the 100-year impact time frame currently used identify asteroids that present a collision hazard.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 12:36 pm and is filed under Comets/Asteroids impacts. You can trackback from your own site.