Asteroid 1999 RQ36 Headed for Earth!!

You learn something new every day.

The report from thesun.co.uk had this tidbit:

A GIANT asteroid could be on course to hit Earth causing massive devastation, space boffins revealed today.

One thing I learned - after consulting Webster - a space boffin is very much different than a space buffoon.

I also learned that yesterday's press release regarding the one in a thousand chance that the asteroid known as 1999 RQ36 will impact with Earth in 2182 is actually old news. Discover magazine reports that the study was released last year.

The Sun quotes the study's co-author, Maria Eugenia Sansaturio, from Valladolid University;

"The total impact probability of asteroid 1999 RQ36 can be estimated at 0.00092 - approximately one-in-a-thousand chance - but what is most surprising is that over half of this chance corresponds to 2182."

Andrew Moseman, who wrote the article for Discover, says he emailed Ms.Sansaturio asking her if there was anything new to report on the asteroid;

"The answer to your question is that there is nothing new. I’m still trying to understand how this has made it to the international media. I was contacted by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology because they wanted to prepare a report on it and inform the Spanish Media, even though the article had been published in 2009…. and here I am overwhelmed with mails and phone calls from all over the world!"

I'm sure her website is getting an increase in the number of hits as well.

No word on what might happen if 1999 RQ36 were to hit Uranus.