City-Sized Asteroid to Pass Earth This Fall

FiniteLoop sends a collection of links about a city-sized asteroid named Toutatis which will approach - but miss - Earth this September. MSNBC also has a story, and JPL and the Near Earth Object program have more information.

Comments

Familiar territory

[Caseylite]

Someone call Bruce Willis!

Sure. It'll miss.

[Anonymous Coward]

But, they fail to mention that it is of such size as to have sufficient gravity that when it passes, it will rip the oceans from the face of the earth and carry them off into space.

All you doubters are gonna be mighty thirsty. It's going to be a hot dry 2005!

But miss!?!

[LqqkOut]

> Will approach - but miss - Earth.

ACK! "But Miss" sounds like a negative statement. I, for one, wouldn't feel the least bit sad if we're excluded from the city-sized-meteor-strikes-planet team.

Hmmm

[sv25]

All of these misses... Geez, the universe sure does have bad aim!

Coming this fall???

[TopShelf]

OMG, is there enough time to make the TV movie???

2.9 miles long and 1.5 miles wide

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

Are they sure it's completely flat?

Re:Catch that puppy

[tunabomber]

President Bush: Well, a city-size asteroid has landed on Fallujah. It's so sad but so conv- I mean what are the odds!?

Re:City sized?

[stevesliva]

It is definitely the size of several dozen libraries of congress and will pass withing a few moon units. However, scientists can predict its path to the less than the width of a human hair, so do not fear.

Yup

[fiannaFailMan]

The dinosaurs are extinct cos they didn't have a space programme.

Re:Yup

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

How do you know they are extinct? Maybe they had a space program, left for another plnet, and let the Earth be hit by the asteroid. There'd've been enough bodies of already dead dinosaurs for us to find.

Re:Yup

[Lord_Slepnir]

THey're not extinct, they're just hiding behind your funiture.

To put things into perspective...

[Saeger]

A "city-sized" asteroid is about the size of:

• 0.01 Texas'
• 2000 Rock of Gibraltar's
• 5000 Library Of Congress's
• 10000 Empire State buildings
• 20000 Football Stadiums
• 150000 Houses
• 300000 Semi Trucks
• 2300000 "New Beetle's"
• 2500000 VW Bugs
• 30 Oprah's || CowboyNeal's

(unit conversions came out of my ass just, like most stats)

--

Re:City sized?

[wronskyMan]

Yes, but if it hits, how many VW Beetles worth of damage will it cause?

Planet sized rock to pass our asteroid...

[tttonyyy]

...depending on your frame of reference. Perhaps they're just relieved at missing our planet? :)

Obviously I've been spending too much time playing this.

Bottom of the seventh...

[MosesJones]

And another swing and a miss by the Kuiper belt, the Kuiper belt is batting a .0000001 ERA against small blue planets over the course of this aeon. Of course the last hit that wasn't called foul was a grand-slam homer which cleared the field for a couple of seasons.

Re:We should be safe...

[Fearless Freep]

God does not play dice with the universe... ...He plays billiards

Re:City sized?

[xargoon]

Damnit, can't you americans adopt SI already! ;)

Re:City sized?

[SamSim]

Roughly the same as eight Statues of Liberty, or twelve football fields.

Re:City sized?

[I don't want to spen]

You mean in 600 years, everyone reading this could be dead?