On the pictures to the right of this wikipage…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Apophis_pass.svg –
Shows the course of 2004MN4, the standard asteroid watch images show MN4′s course to be heading directly into our planet, but this image shows that the course of the asteroid will change as it approaches earth, the return to its previous course.
I find this amusing, why would the course of the asteroid change as it approached the earth, the earths gravitational pull should draw it directly towards the earth, should it not?
I mean, I can not even research this without chuckling my little heart because of the ignorance that comes written in the research, scared tiny minds pretending that this rock is going to change course and move around the earth like it is being controlled, pff…
Here you can nasa’s image of the course of the asteroid
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/images/2004mn4or.gif
QM, how are we to predict changes in trajectory, that is the reason we do not send missiles at near earth objects, because we can not control the trajectory path of the object by doing so, it can lead to a worse situation than it was in the first place.
Of course we can evidently predict the general path of a travel object down to a tee, but how can we predict sudden and slight changes in trajectory?
I see now QM, I have been looking at the earth in the image as a static object, waiting for the approaching asteroid.
I didnt notice the travel path and only focused on the path of the asteroid because it was highlighed, the earths path is not highlighted in the image.
I am not stuck up QM, like I said I failed to pay attention to the orbit of the earth, only considering the orbit of the asteroid, that is because the image only highlights the path of the asteroid.
General human error, no need to insult me.