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Asteroid Flies Under the Radar, Literally

Posted by samzenpus on from the too-late-to-drill dept.

mrn121 writes "Space.com is reporting that a 16-foot wide asteriod has passed the Earth in a phenomenally close call. The Asteroid, named 2004 YD5, passed just below the 22,300 mile range where geostationary satellites sit. What makes the incident most interesting is that the asteriod was not seen until after it passed the Earth, due to the well-known Cosmic Blind Spot caused by the Sun."

4 of 385 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    Someone wants us dead.

    Sounds like we need to send an exploratory force out towards the sun to find out who the bastards are! Maybe they're on venus or mercury or somethin.

    Oh wait. We don't _have_ an exploratory force. Oh well, guess we'll just have to be sitting ducks.

    Or hope this was just a freak coincidence.

    Sounds like a plot for a new movie...

  2. Planet saving == funding drive by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 5, Funny
    How people love to play on our fears to get power, money etc.:

    Church: "Give us your money and listen to us or you BURN IN HELL!"

    DOE: "Give us your money etc or YOU'LL RUN OUT OF GAS!"

    NASA: "Give us your money or YOU'LL GET KILLED BY AN ASTEROID!"

    --
    Engineering is the art of compromise.
  3. Yay... by Scrab · · Score: 5, Funny

    Stealth Asteroids....

    I'm not worried though.

    I have my teeny triangular space ship, and I'll destroy it before it becomes a problem....

    --
    RoseColor red={0, 0xffff, 0x0000, 0x0000};VioletColour blue={0, 0x0000, 0x0000, 0xffff};find / -name *mybase*|chown you
  4. Re:First post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not really, the asteroid could be totally illiterate and it would still burn up.