Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Small Asteroid To Pass Close To Earth Tomorrow

Posted by Soulskill on from the bruce-willis-alert-color-mauve dept.

Matt_dk writes "A small asteroid will pass very close to Earth this Tuesday. Astronomers are still tracking the object, now designated as 2010 TD54, and various estimates say it should come within anywhere from 52,000 km (33,000 miles) to 64,000 km (40,000 miles) on October 12, with closest approach at approximately 11:25 UT."

3 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. Not a lot of advance warning... by Chris+Burke · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I was kinda alarmed when I read the name "2010 T" which means it was discovered in the first half of October, 2010 (as opposed to discovered in the second half via time travel). And in fact TFA says it was discovered Oct 9.

    TFA also says it's a pretty small asteroid only a few meters across, which is a pretty good excuse for not finding it sooner (and makes it Mostly Harmless), but still... More funding to asteroid finding/tracking pls thx.

    --

    The enemies of Democracy are
    1. Re:Not a lot of advance warning... by GrumblyStuff · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Heh, yeah, I can see it now.

      "Why does the President want to spend money looking at the sky?! He should be looking at the bottom line!"

      "Is there something he doesn't want us to find on the ground?"

      "Look, the Earth is 75% water and only half of it would be facing bombardment. Add that up and we've got a negative 25% chance to be hit!"

      "Asteroid monitoring? What's the use in that?"
      Cue asteroid strike a la Bobby Jindal and volcano monitoring.

  2. Re:close? by gmuslera · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In a sense, is far, is more than 3 whole earths side to side of distance. No, you will not hear a "zing!" when it passes over.

    In the other hand, was discovered just 2 days ago. If a bigger one coming with a bit more accuracy is discovered now won't be anything that could be done, the plans that are actually to deal with possible impacts implies maybe years,