Asteroids

[EarlJam]

Did you all see that story last week where an asteroid passed within 49,000 miles of Earth? The article stated that scientest just discovered the asteroid "a few days ago." Holy shit. 49,000 miles? In space speak, that's pretty fucking close.

The media didn't cover it much, but dang. It's a bit disturbing to me. What if, "a few days out," scientests discover a large asteroid that will plow right into us?

I'm a bit surprised it was such a non story, but then again a celebrity was not involved.

Far out.

-EarlJam

[DukeUsul]

The funny thing is that discovering it "a few days out" actually was a fair bit of advanced notice, based on one article I read.

[indoor66]

Did you all see that story last week where an asteroid passed within 49,000 miles of Earth? The article stated that scientest just discovered the asteroid "a few days ago." Holy shit. 49,000 miles? In space speak, that's pretty fucking close.

The media didn't cover it much, but dang. It's a bit disturbing to me. What if, "a few days out," scientests discover a large asteroid that will plow right into us?

I'm a bit surprised it was such a non story, but then again a celebrity was not involved.

Far out.

-EarlJam

You know the old story, easy come, easy go.

[Lavabe]

Did you all see that story last week where an asteroid passed within 49,000 miles of Earth? The article stated that scientest just discovered the asteroid "a few days ago." Holy shit. 49,000 miles? In space speak, that's pretty fucking close.

The media didn't cover it much, but dang. It's a bit disturbing to me. What if, "a few days out," scientests discover a large asteroid that will plow right into us?

I'm a bit surprised it was such a non story, but then again a celebrity was not involved.

Far out.

-EarlJam

Patrick Davidson would be able to stop the asteroid from hitting the Earth.

[Miles]

It's my understanding that these smaller asteroids don't pose a serious threat, as they'll burn up as they enter the atmosphere. You should be more worried about the larger asteroids with predictable orbits, like Apophis, the one we'll observe in April, on Friday 13th in 2029. It has the opportunity to pass through a very small window, at which point Earth's gravitational pull will change it's orbit around the sun, setting it on a collision course with Earth seven years later.

Impact from Apophis would be devastating. The energy released would be about the same as 65,000 nuclear bombs.