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Small Asteroid Discovered Orbiting Earth (cnn.com)
Frosty Piss writes from a report via CNN: A small asteroid has been found circling Earth. Scientists say it looks like the asteroid, named 2016 HO3, has been out there for about 50 years. Calculations indicate 2016 HO3 has been a stable quasi-satellite of Earth for almost a century, and it will continue to follow this pattern as Earth's companion for centuries to come. Scientists think the asteroid is between 120 and 300 feet (37 to 91 meters) in diameter, and NASA says it never gets closer than 9 million miles (14 million kilometers) from Earth. It was found on April 27, 2016 by the Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey telescope in Haleakala, Hawaii. So how do we miss a 300 foot object that has been orbiting the Earth for around 50 years? Probably the same way we've missed all the flying saucers!
Never is such a long time.
We prefer the term "Mother Ship"/
And it's fucking tiny.
Let's put some numbers on this. The average grain of coarse sand is 2mm in diameter, so a grain of coarse sand a kilometre away occupies an arc of 115 millionths of a degree. A 37m rock 14 million km away occupies an arc 151 millionths of a degree, very much the same ballpark.
So spotting this thing would be like trying to see a cold, dark grain of sand from a kilometre away, at night. Good luck with that.
All you need is a good torch, sorry flashlight, and a telescope. Hardly rocket science.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it