From the Space Review"

"While many people spent the final days before Christmas 2004 preparing
for the holiday, the small group of astronomers devoted to studies of
near Earth objects (NEOs) focused their attention instead on a
newly-discovered asteroid, 2004 MN4. That small asteroid, orbit
calculations showed, had a small but non-zero chance of colliding with
the Earth on April 13, 2029—a Friday, no less."

"...by Christmas Eve the chance of a 2029 collision was 1-in-60, giving
2004 MN4 a rating of 4 on the 0-to-10 Torino Scale of asteroid impact
hazards, the highest such score to date."

"...archival images of 2004 MN4 dating back to March 2004, months before
its discovery, further refined its orbit and ruled out any chance of a
collision in 2029..."

But we're not out of the woods yet. "....While the asteroid poses no
impact threat to the Earth in 2029, it will pass within about 30,000
kilometers of the planet—closer than satellites in geosynchronous orbit.
That passage will be close enough to allow the Earth’s gravity to
significantly alter the asteroid’s orbit. The change in the asteroid’s
orbit will depend on exactly how close to the Earth 2004 MN4 approaches,
a degree of precision not yet possible with the currently-known orbit of
the object."

"...focused on a particular scenario where the 2029 flyby puts 2004 MN4
on a new orbit with a 7:6 resonance with the Earth’s: the asteroid would
complete six orbits of the Sun in the time it takes the Earth to
complete seven. That would bring the asteroid back into the vicinity of
the Earth in 2036.

"... if 2004 MN4 passes through a “keyhole” in the error ellipse just
640 meters across—about twice the diameter of the asteroid itself—the
object would enter a trajectory that would result in a collision with
the Earth on April 13, 2036."

Which brings me up to this question. Suppose an asteriod that's been
traveling through the cosmos since the dawn of civilization is now
heading towards earth. Could that asteriod, traveling since the dawn of
creation be God's will for man's Armagedon? And suppose man has the
techology to alter the direction of the asteroid (man's hope to alter
his destiny) would that attempt go agaist God's will? Coversely could
God have given man's intelligence to prevent the destruction of earth
(God created man to take care of the earth)?

i think you think to much

i dont worry about things i cant do anything about. i think id rather
not know if the big one was heading our way. not my department, Gods in
charge of that one. there must be an earth left after Armagheddon,
however, as we are promised to inherit the earth, not some other planet
or a cloud. perhaps the bible was written at a time when other planets
were beyond the comprehension of the people, however.... hmmmm

well you have tribulation, but more importantly jesus' millinium walking
the earth. He could use an asteroid anyway he sees fit. I am with
Rambill, don't worry about it whatever happens is meant to happen and
will do so no matter what we do.

Interesting information. So do you think we should be pushing funding
from "the war" (maybe ending it ) and putting it into
scientific preparedness research? There is so much debies in space and
we actually get pelted with small stuff quite a bit. Maybe we should be
trying to alie with some other nations to develope a possible deterant
plan. What do ya think?

Not to sound so dire but this asteroid mention here is not a global kill
per say. But it's big enough to potencialy cause over $400 billion
dollar worth of damage along the Califorina coast and into Mexico. They
say the chances of it hitting is 1 in 10,000 chance, but that the same
odds of a guy getting into a car accident.