is there a meteor going to hit earth anytime soon?
85695
Meteors are constantly hitting the Earth.  Most of them are small and burn up in the atsmosphere.
799157
Yes, it is true. The name of the asteroid is 99942 Apophis. You can get more in the link. Basically, it will be a near miss in '36 and the Earth's grav, will set it on a course for Earth. If it happens, it will strike the west coast of the US and cause severe regional destruction. This is a very real threat and the teacher (though he may have been off on the dates) he is right. But, dont worry, this is only one mile wide, and will not kill the human race.
932550
the article from 40 years ago must have been wrong, or more likely more accurate observations revealed that the asteroid posed no danger to earth. The only asteroid that "MIGHT" hit the earth that is known of is the asteroid discovered in 2004 and named Apophis. it will come very close to earth in 2029, so close that it might be pulled into an orbit that will hit the earth on its next approach in 2036\n\nhowever we will not know for sure until we get more accurate measurements of its orbit, probably not till its approach in 2029.\n\nSo don't worry about it, by then we should be able to deflect it, if it indeed will be on a collision course.
586535
A continuing effort to identify even near Earth asteroids which are relatively easy to track and have a greater possibility of collision is still incomplete, with only a fraction of their orbits plotted. Since the orbital periods of comets and other Oort cloud entities are in the tens, hundreds, or even thousands of years, many of these objects have never been seen in recorded history, much less their orbits calculated and possibility of collision with Earth evaluated. With this in mind, an event such as this might be possible at any point in the future, although since objects from the outer solar system tend to be rather reflective, chances are that they would be spotted and we would have some advance warning of a likely intersection with Earth orbit presenting a cause for concern. That said, the chance of it happening in any particular year is extremely remote, the likelihood of it happening sometime in the next several million years greater.
465327
the world is not going to end next year. the world is going to end in 2012 when the meteor hits. DUH!!!
22142
There is not a speciic comet that you will be able to see soon. Expect some meteor showers to be coming in your area. A good site that I recommend is: www.heavens-above.com
369372
We are currently observing 7 objects with a small possibility of hitting us in the near future, and keeping tabs on 14 others that we can't see right now (the sun is in the way).  We also know of 26 objects which we have "lost," but feel that it would be a good idea to find again, just in case.  We also know of another 33 objects that could potentially hit us, but are rather small and would only cause minimal surface damage.\n\nAll in all there are a quite a number of potential impactors right now, we're watching them closly to see if any really will hit us or not.  Obviously this does not count really small things that hit us all the time, just things that are large enough to see in moderate sized telescopes.\n\nJust noticed the source link below mine -- nice to see that Yeomans and Baalke got the JPL site working and up to date again!
281451
There are plenty of meteor craters on earth and there are plenty of traces of the meteorites to examine as a result. I don´t know where you got the idea that they never leave a trace. \n\nThere aren´t as many meteorcraters on earth as there are on the moon but this is because earth is geologically active. This activity, along with water and wind erosion, wipes out the traces of the smaller impacts after a while. \n\nEarths atmosphere keeps the smaller meteors from crashing into earth. Meteors move at about 60 km/s and anything moving at that speed will make a splash, even when it hits something as thin as earths upper atmosphere levels. The energy from the friction is so great that the air becomes ionized and we see the meteor as a bright streak across the sky. Most meteors are the size of a grain of sand and the heat makes them evaporate. They basically become part of earths atmosphere. The extremely fine dust they have become (like cigarette smoke) eventually falls down to earth.\n\nBigger meteors get exposed to greater forces and can explode in the sky before they hit the ground. This is called an air burst or a bollide. The debris from the explosion can spread over very large areas and finding the meteorite from such an event can be difficult. Usually meteorites can land on earth fairly intact if they survive the first contact with the atmosphere. They are slowed down by the atmosphere until they move at terminal velocity. That is the maximum speed an object can fall as the air slows the object down. Terminal velocity is different for every object. \n\nMeteorites are very different from ordinary rocks and a trained eye can spot them easily. \n\nHuge objects have so much kinetic energy that the atmosphere cannot stop them. Instead they impact the earth with tremendous force. It doesn´t require a very big object to punch through. An object 1 meter in diameter could to great damage. The object that produced Meteor crater in Arizona was 70 meters in diameter. It happened about 50 000 years ago. Upon impact the object exploded like a popcorn, turning itself inside out and fused with the rock it hit. The meteorite/rock mix makes up the walls of the crater.
1142458
Our sun will expand and engulf the earth and turn it into a ball of molten rock, then vapor.  Run... this will happen in about 5-6 billion years.
26143
the earth will probably not exist in the same fashion as it does today.  a meteor will probably hit us and start the life cycle again in the next 200 mill or so.  Probably more water and less land so i figure more water based life will exist
96388
No. But there will be one that comes pretty damn close. If you use a search engine like Yahoo! you can find out about the near miss that happend not too long ago (I think around November 1998). It was never on the news for good reason.  But we had a close call that could have wiped us all out. Check it out. Its very interesting. The site even give you a scale to show the asteroids proximity to earth, its course and what day it will pass by again. Hope that helps.
774640
Try the BBC website which has info about what meteor showers happen when. http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/solarsystem/meteors/index.shtml\n\nor the International Meteor Organisation\nhttp://www.imo.net/calendar/2007  - although it might be a bit too technical\n\nor Sky & Telescope magazine\nhttp://skytonight.com/observing/objects/meteors/3306006.html?page=1&c=y
364781
Some people gave you good links in their answers, so you can find when the most spectacular showers can be seen.\n\nBut if you are patient, you can see meteors at ANY time of the year. Just lie down on the ground (its easier to stare at the sky like this), and wait ... I'm sure you won't have to wait longer than 20-40 minutes to see one.\n\nYour geographical location has no importance, but you can see more meteors before dawn then in the evening. Be sure to choose a location which is far away from any city lights (if you can see the Milky Way, its okay :-)
444699
You don't have to worry. The meteor that is sure to hit us will be in 2880.
199622
Scientists estimate that as many as 200,000,000 visible meteors enter the earths atmosphere every day.These and other meteorites are estimated to add more than 1,000 tons daily to the earths weight.Source world book encyclopedia.
310995
Meteorites are very small.  They are remains of meteors if they enter the atmosphere.  If itm was an asteroid, we woulkd die.  I would, however, wait for impact 1 mile where it lands, then go take it and sell it for $100,000,000!!  BLING BLING!!\n\nThose idiots who cant understand meteors dont ever hit the earth, prove it.  Meteorites are the ones that are in the atmosphere.  Meteors is if it is trying to go through.
430419
Have you ever looked at the sky and seen a shooting star?\n\nThese are meteors burning up as the enter the atmosphere.  Is this what you are talking about?