Winter New Year’s Day Full Moon of Long Nights -11
Russia to Plan Deflection of Asteroid From Earth 
(Apophis* the meteor Russia plans to deflect)
I read about the Russian’s plan the other day and a bizarre thought crossed my mind. I’ve watched several different asteroid approaches the earth movies and brave scientists or working class astronauts save the day.
Here’s the crazy idea: what if an intended deflection does not work and has the unintended consequence of pushing an asteroid closer to us rather than further away. In other words what if the big asteroid strike comes from human error not bad like orbital mechanics?
As these things move from science fiction movie into tomorrow’s news, we have to face our fallibility. Just sayin’
*Known in scientific circles as both 2004 MN4 and 99942 Apophis, this 885-foot-long space rock has a fairly good chance of impacting the Earth within a quarter century..
After making a breathtakingly close pass on Friday the 13th in April 2029 — less than 10 percent of the distance between Earth and the moon — Apophis will have about a 1 in 45,000 chance of hitting Earth in 2036 when it swings back around.
To better understand Apophis’ danger to Earth, some scientists advocate sending a transmitter to the asteroid’s surface to better track its movement.
