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Bright Asteroid Visible Tonight

Posted by michael on from the step-away-from-the-computer dept.

Ender, Duke_of_URL writes: "NASA is reporting that 1998 WT24, a near Earth asteroid, will be easily visible (9th magnitude) to telescopes in Auriga and Perseus. This NEO will be passing within 5 lunar distances to Earth, so there's no danger of collision."

1 of 14 comments (clear)

  1. Whoops! by fm6 · · Score: 4, Informative
    This NEO will be passing within 5 lunar distances to Earth, so there's no danger of collision.
    Sloppy English is all part of the Slashdot experience, but in this case it just won't do. "Five lunar distances" is only 0.015 AUs. The NEO people at JPL consider a collision possible if the rock is predicted to pass within 0.05 AUs. Of course that possibility is still very very small, but it ain't zero.