Asteroid Flies Under the Radar, Literally

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."

Comments

First post

[IO ERROR]

Asteroids this small, if they were to enter the atmosphere, would break up and the pieces would burn up on entry. Little or none of it would reach the ground in any form you could recover it.

The asteroids that are large enough to do damage can be seen far away enough that the cosmic blind spot is irrelevant. The article mentions a 2.9 mile wide asteroid (which would quickly wipe out all life on the planet if it hit) which scientists have known about for years. It won't come anywhere close.

At the moment, we have no defense against a planet-killing asteroid, but the European Space Agency is studying the issue, and NASA's Deep Impact project is also working on it.

Re:First post

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

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...

Planet saving == funding drive

[EmbeddedJanitor]

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!"

Yay...

[Scrab]

Stealth Asteroids....

I'm not worried though.

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

asteroid, meteor, meteoroid, meteorite

[Animaether]

Just to correct something...

Asteroid:
Any of numerous small celestial bodies that revolve around the sun, with orbits lying chiefly between Mars and Jupiter and characteristic diameters between a few and several hundred kilometers. Also called minor planet, planetoid.
I.E. still in space and orbiting.

Meteor:
A bright trail or streak that appears in the sky when a meteoroid is heated to incandescence by friction with the earth's atmosphere. Also called falling star, meteor burst, shooting star.
I.E. that which is shooting through the atmosphere, heating it and itself up in the process due to friction.

Meteoroid:
A solid body, moving in space, that is smaller than an asteroid and at least as large as a speck of dust.
I.E. still in space, not necessarily orbiting, smaller than an Asteroid. I think you meant this one.

Meteorite:
A stony or metallic mass of matter that has fallen to the earth's surface from outer space.
I.E. Fallen onto the Earth. It's what you may find if you're either lucky, or very observant.

So just to conclude.. this is indeed a Meteoroid, as it's not big enough to actually be an Asteroid. But it's more fun to say, and less confusing to the masses - especially the Nintendo owners out there.

Re:Well if I'm going to be obliterated by an aster

[fyngyrz]

No, no -- you must be from some other earth. Here, we don't spend money on planetary defense, we spend it on sports figures, actors, and politicians. And porn, of course.

Literally

[UnpopularOpinion]

So... when you say 'literally', you mean 'metaphorically' right? As in not literally under a radar... *sigh*