BIG damn rock passing close by us.

[anunitu]

One very large asteroid to pass close tomorrow(tuesday)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203733504577024023220331032.html

A little thought prevoking to say the least.

[Magnum]

Passsing  by at a quarter of a million miles isn't real close.

Now, if we can feel some wind pick up when it goes by, that would be close. :-)

[dedndave]

i read it was closer to 200,000 miles   :red
closer than the moon
that's close enough that i don't trust the scientists to predict if and where it will pass   :P
i wonder if we will be able to see it - hope the skies are clear

[Magnum]

i read it was closer to 200,000 miles   :red
closer than the moon
that's close enough that i don't trust the scientists to predict if and where it will pass   :P

It's not like we can do anything about if they're wrong.  :bg

[dedndave]

 :lol
yah - you're right
but, i'd like to know which way to duck
at least make it look like i was making an effort   :8)

[Bill Cravener]

If something that size (size of an aircraft carrier) would hit us I wonder how big of a hole it would make? :bg

[dedndave]

i think the problem is...
where there is one rock, there are usually several
they won't tell us about the one that's going to hit us   :red

[baltoro]

...Of course,...there's always the possibility that the asteroid is actually a cleverly camouflaged robotic extraterrestrial probe,... :eek
Peter and I will attempt to contact it psychically,...
It's safe to assume that if the orbital dynamics of the asteroid suddenly change in a distinctly unnatural way,...
...that Peter and I are NOT actually mild-mannered assembly programmers,...as we have portrayed ourselves to be,...

[carlos]

Passsing  by at a quarter of a million miles isn't real close.

Considering cosmic distances it was very very close, (think of a bullet a millimeter above your scalp) it's path is inside the moon orbit, if we consider that the earth traslation speed is 107, 218 km/h had it been  less than two hours earlier o later, it would have struck us,

If something that size (size of an aircraft carrier) would hit us I wonder how big of a hole it would make? :bg

to give you an idea, the meteorite that carved the Arizona crater, was 150 feet long

[xanatose]

Is interesting how long it took the press to cover this. NASA made the announcement around 1 weeks ago.

It will pass at 0.85 the distance of the moon from the earth. Closest point at 9pm Eastern today.

I guess  Obama and the republican clowns (which basically combines into a circus) is more important than a 400 meters asteroid passing nearby. Specially as if the small rock where to hit, the equivalent energy would be around 100 megatons.


The next one tracked to pass this close (with a 2% of actually hiting) is Apophis, on 2,036.

http://asteroidapophis.com/

[FORTRANS]

If something that size (size of an aircraft carrier) would hit us I wonder how big of a hole it would make? :bg

Hi,

   Quoting from today's APOD.

Steve

Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2011 November 9


Asteroid 2005 YU55 Passes the Earth
Image Credit: Deep Space Network, JPL, NASA
Explanation: Asteroid 2005 YU55 passed by the Earth yesterday, posing no danger. The space rock, estimated to be about 400 meters across, coasted by just inside the orbit of Earth's Moon. Although the passing of smaller rocks near the Earth is not very unusual -- in fact small rocks from space strike Earth daily -- a rock this large hasn't passed this close since 1976. Were YU55 to have struck land, it might have caused a magnitude seven earthquake and left a city-sized crater. A perhaps larger danger would have occurred were YU55 to have struck the ocean and raised a large tsunami. The above radar image was taken two days ago by the Deep Space Network radio telescope in Goldstone, California, USA. YU55 was discovered only in 2005, indicating that other potentially hazardous asteroids might lurk in our Solar System currently undetected. Objects like YU55 are hard to detect because they are so faint and move so fast. However, humanity's ability to scan the sky to detect, catalog, and analyze such objects has increased notably in recent years.

[dedndave]

i think they are downplaying the consequences
that thing is the size of an aircraft-carrier - but it was hauling ass - a lot of energy involved

[Magnum]

Asteroid Apophis is approximately 885 ft across.

That could do some damage.

[dedndave]

momentum = mass x velocity (relative to earth, of course)
that's the number to look for   :P

[MichaelW]

I don't see any statements about its mass or density, but "rich in organic chemistry" may mean a relatively low density and a high loss of mass if it had passed through our atmosphere. The nickel-iron meteorite that made Meteor Crater supposedly lost about half its mass passing through the atmosphere.