Asteroid 'Apophis' (2004 MN4) eliminated as Earth-collision risk

NASA has 2 days ago finally been able to eliminate Asteroid 'Apophis' (2004 MN4) as a risk for an Earth-collision in 2036 - see the NASA website here to read more about this re-assuring news.

Earlier orbit calculations some years ago had eliminated the risk of an Earth-collision in 2029; at one point in December 2004 the risk of this particular collision had been set as high 2.7 percent - it briefly reached a classification of 4 on the Torino Scale at the time. I wrote an article here on 25th December 2004 ('Christmas Day') about the seeming threat then, with updates over the next few days. With the Indonesian Tsunami which happened early on the morning of 26th December ('Boxing Day') that year and which I wrote about here a few days later it seemed then that life on Earth was becoming pretty precarious - unfortunately the estimates of 125,000+ deaths in the immediate aftermath were dwarfed in later updates, it now being believed that upwards of 230,000 (possibly upto 280,000) people perished in the hours that followed the underwater earthquake off the north-west coast of Sumatra and the subsequent tsunamis which affected countries all around the Indian Ocean.

In any case, NASA's latest update on Asteroid 'Apophis' (2004 MN4) at least means that major regional destruction, at the very least, from this 270 metre object is no longer a danger. Which certainly merits a modest 'Cheer!' in my view.

Meteorite over south-Sulawesi early-October causes 50 kiloton blast

I've just come across this report on the NEO website, indicating that a small meteorite (estimated at about 10 metres diameter) exploded in the atmosphere over south-Sulawesi in Indonesia a couple of weeks ago, equivalent to about 50 kilotons of TNT. Local news reports from Indonesia in English are here and here. A local televised news report is here:



- although this happened in the early hours of 8th October it was reported on the NEO website only on Friday 23rd October - I suppose we must be grateful that on this occasion the object which collided with our atmosphere was relatively small. It is salutary to realise that still relatively-small objects only ten or so times larger than this recent object could cause at the very least regional devastation on Earth. Over the coming weekend I may well write about the recent appearance of Mr Nick Griffin, leader of the 'British National Party' (BNP) on BBC1 'Question Time' on Thursday evening, a topic which has hogged the limelight on the news (broadcast and print media) and the 'blogosphere' in the UK over the past several days, but I think it is useful to remember that there are other relevant news stories from other parts of the world which if they were only a little more serious would push the tawdry doings of a minority racist organisation in the UK into a well-deserved obscurity.