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Asteroid To Pass Near Earth On Monday

Posted by timothy on from the if-you-look-you'll-go-blind dept.

TigerNut writes "Asteroid 2011 MD was discovered on June 22 by LINEAR, and its flight path will take it within 8000 miles (12000 km) of Earth. Orbital predictions indicate that its flight path will be significantly altered by this close approach."

6 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Should we worry? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Some definitions call anything below fifty meters a meteoroid.

  2. Re:Don't underestimate the energy of small asteroi by alba7 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Quoting the fine article: "But there's no chance that the asteroid will hit Earth on this approach, and almost no risk at its next close approach, in 2022. If the asteroid did strike, it would probably explode in the upper atmosphere — a fine spectacle, but harmless."

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    Post tenebras lux. Post fenestras tux.
  3. Re:Sure thing by carlzum · · Score: 3, Informative

    An asteroid eventually hitting the earth is a sure thing, but hitting "us" is far from a sure thing. The asteroid most likely to hit earth in our lifetime has a 99.918% chance of missing.

  4. 8000 miles = Close shave by jewelie · · Score: 4, Informative

    That's deceptively close, 8000 miles is the diameter of the earth. This thing is only gonna miss us by an earths width!

    1. Re:8000 miles = Close shave by St.Creed · · Score: 4, Informative

      Pretty close :) I hope nothing unforeseen happens (like heat from the Sun causing gas to evaporate and the flightpath to deviate slightly - the scenario as described by Niven and Pournelle in one of their books). Would be embarassing.

      Fortunately even if it does hit, it's only 8-18 meters across. According to the asteroid impact effect calculator, that'd be 720 KT of TNT when hitting the ground (assuming standard parameters, 18 meters and an iron asteroid). Tough if it were to hit you, but small chance of that. Calculator is here: http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEffects/

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      Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
  5. Animations by Spodie! · · Score: 4, Informative

    Animations Here are some nice animations of the path of the asteroid.