Asteroid comes close to Earth

[Parkbandit]

An asteroid of a similar size to a rock that exploded above Siberia in 1908 with the force of a thousand atomic bombs whizzed close past Earth on Monday, astronomers said on Tuesday.
2009 DD45, estimated to be between 21 and 47 meters (68 and 152 feet) across, raced by at 1344 GMT on Monday, the Planetary Society and astronomers' blogs reported.

The gap was just 72,000 kilometers (44,750 miles), or a fifth of the distance between Earth and the Moon and only twice the height of satellites in geosynchronous orbit, the website space.com said.

The estimated size is similar to that of an asteroid or comet that exploded above Tunguska, Siberia, on June 30 1908, flattening 80 million trees in a swathe of more than 2,000 square kilometres (800 square miles).

2009 DD45 was spotted last Saturday by astronomers at the Siding Spring Survey in Australia, and was verified by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Centre (MPC), which catalogues Solar System rocks.

The closest flyby listed by the MPC is 2004 FU162, a small asteroid about six metres (20 feet) across which came within about 6,500 kms (4,000 miles) of us in March 2004.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.783c3aae6eb418393fc6f8c443ef676 5.2f1&show_article=1

It was only being tracked as of a week ago? Doesn't that sound like it's cutting it a bit close?

I think I've been watching the history channel too much lately.. and the whole dinosaur extinction theory...

[Daniel]

So it goes..

[Izzy]

lol@ the small asteroid having "FU" in its name.

[fallenSaint]

Would it be too geeky to complain about wizards and meteor swarm in this post?

[MotleyCrew]

http://l.yimg.com/img.movies.yahoo.com/ymv/us/img/hv/photo/movie_pix/touchstone_pictures/armageddon/billy_bob_thornton/armabillyteach.jpg

Well, our object collison budget's a million dollars. That allows us to track about 3% of the sky, and beg'n your pardon sir, but it's a big-ass sky.

[iJin]

Wait for it..

[Stanley Burrell]

Some giant meteor is like, "well, fuck that."


http://l.yimg.com/img.movies.yahoo.com/ymv/us/img/hv/photo/movie_pix/touchstone_pictures/armageddon/billy_bob_thornton/armabillyteach.jpg

Well, our object collison budget's a million dollars. That allows us to track about 3% of the sky, and beg'n your pardon sir, but it's a big-ass sky.

This reference made me :)

[Tolwynn]

I think I've been watching the history channel too much lately.. and the whole dinosaur extinction theory...

The good thing, relatively speaking, is that a Chicxulub/Nemesis-class impact would take an object ~6 miles in diameter, and it's seriously unlikely anything like that would be missed.

[Back]

Slow news day.

[Suppa Hobbit Mage]

I've been watching History lately too, and there has been a whole series of programs on 2012 being the end of the Mayan calendar and Nostradamus predictions of the end of the world, etc etc etc.

I went and made sure my guns were clean and loaded in case zombies storm my house.

[ViridianAsp]

I've been watching History lately too, and there has been a whole series of programs on 2012 being the end of the Mayan calendar and Nostradamus predictions of the end of the world, etc etc etc.

I went and made sure my guns were clean and loaded in case zombies storm my house.

Yeah, this fever is going around. My fiance is like, "OH GOD SAM, it's gonna be like fallout. We should build a vault!"...

I at this point roll my eyes and begin to ignore him.

[Asha]

its hard to even see them on a course to us sometimes.
i heard there was one coming in 2017 or something that will annihilate us.

[Jorddyn]

I've been watching History lately too, and there has been a whole series of programs on 2012 being the end of the Mayan calendar and Nostradamus predictions of the end of the world, etc etc etc.


Scene: Somewhere in Guatemala, 1012 AD

Frank: Look, Joe, I've finished 1000 years worth of calendars!
Joe: Seriously, dude. Give it a rest. Have a beer.

Scene: Same place, 1912 AD

Jim: OMG, the calendar ends in 2012! The world is going to end!
Bob: Seriously, dude. Give it a rest. Have a beer.

[Androidpk]

It was only being tracked as of a week ago? Doesn't that sound like it's cutting it a bit close?


I didn't know it until recently but in the past there have been some more frightening incidents. I don't have the exact dates in front of me but in 2002 I believe a small asteroid wasn't detected until AFTER it already entered Earth's atmosphere and exploded above the Mediterranean Sea with the force of a small nuclear weapon. If that had exploded above a city the damage would have been catastrophic. This was also when India and Pakistan were on high alert against each other. You can imagine what would have taken place between those two countries if the asteroid exploded in that region.

Before that in 1989 a 300 meter asteroid missed hitting Earth by 400,000 miles, but it passed through exactly where Earth was 6 hours prior to that.

"Astronomers say that had the asteroid hit Earth, the impact would have been equivalent to one Hiroshima-sized atomic bomb detonating every second for 50 days."

Apparently an asteroid of that size is capable of passing by Earth undetected every 2 to 3 years.

[Trouble]

I've been watching History lately too, and there has been a whole series of programs on 2012 being the end of the Mayan calendar and Nostradamus predictions of the end of the world, etc etc etc.

I went and made sure my guns were clean and loaded in case zombies storm my house.

Do y'all remember when most/all the planets aligned a few years ago? I remember people freaking out about that too. I was hoping something would happen, like maybe an extra-high tide... but no dice. :(

[Parkbandit]

I've been watching History lately too, and there has been a whole series of programs on 2012 being the end of the Mayan calendar and Nostradamus predictions of the end of the world, etc etc etc.

I went and made sure my guns were clean and loaded in case zombies storm my house.

I've been playing CoD World at War... honing my zombie headshot skillz.

[Methais]

I've been playing CoD World at War... honing my zombie headshot skillz.

You should be playing Left 4 Dead in that case.

[Skeeter]

or Killzone. (sorta)

[Miscast]

Guys, relax. All we need is this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/86/FFVII_White_Materia.jpg

I found it on Wikipedia so it must be real.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_(Final_Fantasy_VII)#Materia