Newly Discovered Asteroid To Pass Within Geostationary Orbit Sunday

theshowmecanuck writes: A newly found asteroid the size of a house will give earth a close flyby this weekend. It will pass just below satellites in geostationary orbit, and above New Zealand around 14:18 EDT / 18:18 GMT / 06:18 NZST this coming Sunday (Monday morning in NZ). "Asteroid 2014 RC was initially discovered on the night of August 31 by the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona, and independently detected the next night by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope, located on the summit of Haleakal on Maui, Hawaii," NASA officials said in a statement.

Comments

Isn't that cutting it kinda close

[Anonymous Coward]

Not the 34,000 km above earth part, but the "we discovered it a week ago" part.

Re:Isn't that cutting it kinda close

[i kan reed]

An asteroid the size of a house would have to be going extraordinarily fast to pose much of a threat to the planet as a whole.

Re:Isn't that cutting it kinda close

[felixrising]

Meh, don't worry about it, I'm sure some other Country is spending money tracking NEOs.

Re: Isn't that cutting it kinda close

[i kan reed]

Let's put it this way: I'm more worried about being hit by a car than a crashing plane. Even though crashing planes are big, and dramatic and caused 9/11.

Can we see it?

[Jonifico]

Will it be visible by the naked eye?

Re:Quick, capture it

[CeasedCaring]

Space.com says it's a 60-footer. http://www.space.com/27026-ast...

And the next one will be the size of Texas

[HangingChad]

All our hopes and dreams revolving around deflecting asteroids and comets all hinge on being able to detect them far enough out to make an intercept. Makes me think we should really reconsider the priority we put on manned space missions, particularly generational missions. Otherwise we stand a good chance of getting snuffed out as a species if we hang around here long enough. Asteroids and comets are not even the most dangerous threats we face.