In The Year Of 12-12-2012: Asteroid 500 Million Equivalent Atomic Bomb Passing Near Earth

Asteroid 4179 Toutatis the giant across the Earth in the middle berembusnya issue doomsday Maya 2012,Source: Wikipedia

Grownnews: Houston - In December 2012, when a number of Earth's population gripped with worry because doomsday predictions Mayans who lived a few days, a large asteroid near the giant human planet. Asteroid 4179 Toutatis, the name suggests, has a length of 3 miles or 4.8 kilometers - the equivalent of a high mountain.

The spreader conspiracy theory called the space rock as a trigger doomsday December 21, 2012 - than the planet "rogue" Nibiru or a sudden change in the Earth's poles. If it gets knocked over, or even hit the Earth, the impact was not kidding. Toutatis could cause havoc because of the potential to create a huge explosion equivalent to 500 million Hiroshima atomic bombs.

Scientists had previously agreed, any heavenly body with a length of at least 1 kilometer would be bad globally, such as climate change human planet drastically. For comparison, the asteroid that allegedly destroyed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago has a width of 10 kilometers. "Anything that has the potential hit the Earth is always interesting," said Val Germann of the Central Missouri Astronomical Association, as quoted from SPACE.com.

Fortunately, Toutatis is not to present a danger. Closest point as it crosses Earth on December 12, 2012 was 7 million kilometers or 18 times farther than the distance of Earth to the Moon.

"There is no danger of a collision with Earth," said Lance Benner of the Near Earth Object Program, as quoted from the site of NASA. Asteroid Toutatis first seen in 1934, but was officially announced in 1989. He traveled around the sun once every four years. According to NASA, Toutatis is already well known by astronomers: he flashed around the sun. Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, NASA also put Toutatis in the list of potentially dangerous objects.

However, "we have learned that Toutatis will not hit Earth in the next hundred years," Benner said. Toutatis is expected to be back in passing near the Earth in November 2069. At that time, he would fly in a safe distance of about 3 million kilometers from Earth - or 7.7 times the distance of Earth to the Moon.

Besides Toutatis, another asteroid that allegedly has the potential to hit Earth is Aphopis. Russian Space Agency (Rocosmos) planning a mission to the asteroid. 300-meter-wide asteroid hit the headlines in 2004, when NASA reported no chance of 1 to 223, a giant rock that hit Earth in 2029.

However, additional observations indicate, he stopped short of bumping into the Earth, only a relatively close flyby but still in the safe category, which is about 36,000 kilometers from Earth in 2029. The shortest distance, which can cause unexpected gravitational pull on Apophis, which will change its direction and potentially cause harm to the Earth occurred in 2036, when he again crossed.

In addition to the approach of Asteroid Toutatis, on 12 December also marked a number of interesting events. In 1948 events in Malaysia Batang Kali massacre. At that time, 14 members of the Scots Guards or British troops massacred 24 people in Batang Kali and burning villages in the area.

Thursday, December 12, 1985, Arrow Air commercial plane with flight number 1285 a tragic accident that killed all passengers in it. Meanwhile, on December 12, 1969, bombing that became one of the most famous tragedies in Italy, precisely in Milan and Rome.

Asteroid 4179 Toutatis, the name suggests, has a length of 3 miles or 4.8 kilometers, Source: Wikipedia