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A short history of nearly everythingThe greater likelihood, however, is that we wouldnБЂ™t see any object-even a comet-until it was about six months away, which would be much too late. Shoemaker-Levy 9 had been orbiting Jupiter in a fairly conspicuous manner since 1929, but it took over half a century before anyone noticed. Interestingly, because these things are so difficult to compute and must incorporate such a significant margin of error, even if we knew an object was heading our way we wouldnБЂ™t know until nearly the end-the last couple of weeks anyway-whether collision was certain. For most of the time of the objectБЂ™s approach we would exist in a kind of cone of uncertainty. It would certainly be the most interesting few months in the history of the world. And imagine the party if it passed safely. БЂњSo how often does something like the Manson impact happen?БЂ«I asked Anderson and Witzke before leaving. БЂњOh, about once every million years on average,БЂ«said Witzke. БЂњAnd remember,БЂ«added Anderson, БЂњthis was a relatively minor event ...» |
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