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Newly Discovered 60-foot Asteroid About To Buzz By Earth
An asteroid nicknamed "Pitbull" and detected by the University of Arizona observatory atop Mt. Lemmon on August 31st will make a close approach to Earth Sunday; it's predicted to pass at a distance of about 25,000 miles, and to pass over New Zealand. According to the article, The asteroid is a similar size to the rock which caused enormous damage to the city of Chelyabinsk in Siberia. Last year's explosion generated the equivalent energy of more than 20 atomic bombs detonating and left more than 1,000 people injured while damaging thousands of buildings. Astronomers at Nasa, who track the movements of the more than 11,000 near-Earth objects, are confident Pitbull will not strike the planet.
This thing left Earth space six hours ago! It'll be closer to Mars than us by the time I make my first pot of Coffee on Monday.
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Now what could we possibly have done in such a short time, should it have been heading directly towards us?
We couldn't stop it, but we could predict the impact site, and take action to minimize damage. In the unlikely event that the impact site was populated, people in the area could remove fragile items from shelves, move into shelter, and stay away from windows that might shatter.