Is it true that with every passing Halley's comet gets closer to the earth?

Answer 1

Meteors hit the earth every day. Fortunately, the vast majority of them are tiny and cause no significant damage. However, sooner or later (probably thousands or millions of years from now) a large meteor will hit the earth.

Answer 2

No, Halley's comet follows a highly elliptical orbit that brings it close to Earth roughly every 76 years. Its distance from Earth can vary each time it passes, depending on its position in its orbital path.

Answer 3

Yes they do, but some evidence we see can also be from meteorites. Comets are ice, dust, and rocks. While meteorites are rocks in space. Most likely the holes we find are from meteorites hitting earth.

Answer 4

Right now? Not very; Halley's Comet is currently out a little beyond the orbit of Neptune, moving very slowly in its climb out of the Sun's gravity well. In about 15 years it will reach its aphelion (furthest point from the Sun) and begin, very slowly, to fall back into the inner solar system. We expect it to become visible again about mid-2061.

During its last pass, Halley's Comet was a long way from the Earth, and poorly positioned to be visible. Frankly, it was a MAJOR disappointment, since I won't live to see it come back. But next time it ought to be much closer to the Earth, and make a better show. No worries; it won't be anywhere NEAR close enough to be dangerous. And for those of you who will be living on the Moon or in the orbital habitats by then, it ought to be REALLY spectacular.

Answer 5

No. There are always comets coming into the inner solar system, and most of them are too small to be noticed without a telescope. For example, in January 2011, over a dozen comets were observed falling into the Sun!

But we have no indication that a comet is heading toward any kind of unusually close pass by the Earth. Haley's Comet, which was so unimpressive and distant on its last pass in 1986, _should_ be closer and more impressive during its NEXT pass - in 2061.

In the long run - the VERY long run! - yes, there will be comets that will be on a trajectory that will strike the Earth. It has happened many times before, and will again. This may be hundreds or thousands - or hundreds OF thousands! - of years in the future, but it will happen someday.

But not today.

Answer 6

Not usually, but sometimes; sometimes the Earth even collides with small asteroids! Perhaps you wouldn't call a rock 1 meter in diameter an "asteroid", but a rock about that size collided with Illinois on April 15, 2010, startling millions of earthlings with a brilliant explosion in the sky.

You can watch the video of it at spaceweather.com, at the link below.

Larger asteroids sometimes come quite close to the Earth; there was one about 3 months ago that passed in between the Earth and the Moon. And on Friday, April 13, 2029, the asteroid Apophis will come within 20,000 miles of the Earth - but it will miss.

Most asteroids are in the "asteroid belt", a roughly toroidal (meaning "doughnut-shaped") region of space between Mars and Jupiter.

Answer 7

Well, this is PARTLY true; comets that are far away from Earth are very difficult to see. But the more accurate statement would be that comets only become visible when they begin to approach the Sun.

"Approach", in this context, is relative; large comets with a lot of "volatile" material will begin to become visible - at least in modest sized telescopes - about the time they cross the orbit of Jupiter. This is when most comets are discovered by the amateur "comet hunters" such as Gene Shoemaker or David Levy, the team that first discovered the "Shoemaker-Levy 9" comet that crashed into Jupiter so spectacularly in 1994. As that name implies, the team of Shoemaker and Levy had already shared in the discovery of eight previous comets.

Answer 8

Probably - meteors are a constant event. Most of them are too small to cause any damage, and the ones that do enter the atmosphere (meteorites) tend to burn up into nothing. Meteors are what many people call "shooting stars".

Occasionally, large enough chunks do continue through the atmosphere, hitting the earth's surface. They can cause damage to cars and houses.

However, there are currently none large enough to make a significant impact.

Answer 9

No

an asteroid is not coming twords earth in 2012.

They said it would come a long time ago and nothing happened.

so no need to worry. Scientest are still triing to build a machine that will make the asteroid

go in another direction but they don't know whats going to happen yet.

(like anything is going to happen)

Answer 10

Sort of. There is an asteroid headed in earths direction, scientists just haven't calculated if it will hit or miss. They feel strongly that it will come within 26 thousand miles of earth. However they are not yet certain of that. This will not happen till 2029. If the asteroid does hit earth it will end ALL life on earth, it will sterilize our planet. The asteroid I believe is the size of manhattan.