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Closest Ever Asteroid Passage Revealed

Posted by michael on from the horseshoes-and-hand-grenades dept.

tricaric writes "Another asteroid passed, last March 31st, close to the Earth. This time it was only about 2 Earth radii from the Earth. The observation have been published only a few days ago, because 'Although the observed arc is only 44 minutes, the orbit is quite determinate and, given the exceptional nature of this close approach, the object is now receiving a designation.' Check out the ORSA animation!"

2 of 52 comments (clear)

  1. Misleading Headline by barakn · · Score: 5, Interesting
    "Closest Ever Asteroid Passage Revealed?"

    check out the 1972 daylight fireball. It came so close it actually skipped off the atmosphere. There are plenty of other close encounters in the literature that came well before this.

    --
    "I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
  2. Re:It was tiny... by OneOver137 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yeah, but it would've made many satellite operators nervous to not have a good orbit determination. A collision in geo makes a mess and takes away much of that real estate for quite some time. Orbital traffic management for both known and 'alien' bodies such as this asteroid is a growing concern among those in the space operations business.