Asteroid Toutatis Slowly Tumbles by Earth

On December 12 2012 the Asteroid Toutatis slowly passes by Earth on its orbit. Toutatis is a giant asteroid, “three miles long,” and has been observed by NASA because of the possible threat it could impose on Earth in the future. On December 12 Toutatis was the closest to earth, and it passed relatively close to earth 18 lunar distances approximately 4.3 million miles. However that distance was far enough from earth to prevent any collision anytime near in the future, and prevent any collision to end the world on December 21 2012 “doomsday”. As the asteroid passed the Earth it wobbled in a way as if a football was thrown poorly and NASA was able to photograph it an learn more about how the asteroid looked, and thus knowing more about what they are really dealing with. Toutatis is expected to pass Earth again in 2069 this time over 2 times closer at 7.7 lunar distances from the Earth. However there is a zero percent possibility of it striking the Earth then too.

I thought that this was a very interesting article considering this asteroid was one of the scenarios thought of by “Doomsday Sayers”. I thought it was interesting that an objet that is considered close to earth is 4.3 million miles away; distances like that really blow me away, but are considered close. I think that the article was very helpful to its readers because it shows that the probability of an object striking earth is very slim compared to the vastness of