The Keyhole to Earth

Keywords: Asteroid, Keyhole, Collision, Earth

The Story: Recently, Stephen Hawking said that we should consider populating another planet in order to save the human species. He cited possible disaster as the reason. When one of the most brilliant minds of this day makes such a recommendation, I figure there must be a concrete reason. It only took me 2 minutes online to find a candidate: asteroid 2004MN4. (Ak!) According to astronaut Rusty Schweickart, "MN4" as he calls it will pass very close to Earth in 2029. If it happens to pass through a certain 600 meter area - Rusty calls it a "keyhole" - it will then collide with Earth in 2036. According to Rusty, the possibility of this happening is low - about 1 in 10,000, about the same probability of getting into an automobile accident on any given day. If we change the course of the asteroid so that it misses this "keyhole", we can avoid collision. If we wait until 2029 (when the fate of the asteroid will be known) this will become much more difficult to accomplish. This is only one resource, and I have not done any fact-checking to determine the validity of this information. If it is true, however, this is not a fact, feat, nor a mystery, but a matter of global dilemma.

Pull up a chair:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3559642561778921659&q=asteroid