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Could Earth Be Hit By
An Asteroid This Week?
NASA - "This object has the possibilty
of impacting the Earth."

Exclusive to Rense.com
By Ian Gurney
6-26-4
 
Over the last couple of months I've read with interest the furore generated by "Aussie Bloke" and his claims of an imminent earth impactor of some kind. I've also noted Michael Goodspeed's anecdotal stories about missile readiness at Fort Greely, the arrival of Toutatis, the deployment of many of the worlds naval units and the intercepted conversation from Snowballnet.
 
I intend to talk about Toutatis a little nearer September 29, but for the moment I would like to concentrate on what could be a current threat to our planet.
 
I was initially skeptical about "Aussie Bloke's" claims, which have now been proved a hoax, but I've spent a good deal of time over the last six weeks researching and investigating the possibilities of an impact event or any other celestial happenings of interest in the last week of June.
 
As has been mentioned on Rense.com, we are currently being treated to a good nightime display from the Taurid meteors and on Sunday, June 27 at 01h GMT (which corresponds to Saturday, June 26 at 9:00 p.m. EDT) the Earth should be passing through the June Bootids meteor shower, ejected by Comet Pons-Winnecke.
 
Coincidentally, I have found that on June 27 and June 29 the Earth is also subject to an extremely close approach by two little known asteroids. The first, on June 27, is designated 25143 Itokawa. Information is sparse on Itokawa, but what is known is that the asteroid is approximately 0.36 kilometers wide and on June 27 it will come within 0.0128968 Astronomical Units of Earth. An Astronomical Unit (AU) is equal to 149,597,871 kilometers, so Itokawa will pass us bye at less than a million miles
 
The June 29 asteroid is designated 2004 MC. It was only discovered ten days ago, on June 15 and will come even closer to Earth than Itokawa. 2004 MC will come within 0.0097 Astronomical Units of the planet, less than 850 thousand miles, a very near miss, and because of the late discovery of the asteroid NASA is unsure of the size of 2004 MC and its orbital path is not absolutely certain.
 
On June 21 NASA's Near Earth Orbit Dynamic Site said of 2004 MC "This object has the possibilty of impacting the Earth". This statement was, however, removed on June 22, just one day after it appeared.
 
Co-incidentally, on June 21 Asteroid 2004 MR1, an asteroid measuring some 35 metres wide, missed Earth by only 0.0038 Astronomical Units, about 350 thousand miles.
 
Whether or not Itokawa and 2004 MC do pose a threat to Earth I cannot say. However, one thing is sure, both these objects are coming very, very close to us in the next few days. For more information on the orbit simulations of the asteroids and observation information, please check the links below.
 
Oh, and have a nice day.
 
Itokawa:-
Orbit Simulation:-
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db_shm?rec=25143
 
http://newton.dm.unipi.it/cgi-bin/neodys/neoibo?objects:Itokawa;main
 
2004 MC:-
Orbit Simulation:-
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db_shm?sstr=2004+MC+
 
http://newton.dm.unipi.it/cgi-bin/neodys/neoibo?objects:2004MC;main
 
Copyright: Ian Gurney June 2004.
Ian Gurney is the author of "The Cassandra Prophecy-Armageddon
Approaches." (www.caspro.com) and can be contacted at info@caspro.com
 
Ian Gurney is a journalist, broadcaster and author of the bestseller "The
Cassandra Prophecy" published by International Global Press. ISBN
0953581314.


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