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An Asteroid Passed By Earth At About Half the Distance Between Our Planet and Moon (smithsonianmag.com)
On Monday at 7:47 A.M. EST, an asteroid thought to be between 36 and 111 feet wide passed roughly 120,000 miles from Earth -- and astronomers didn't spot it until Saturday. Smithsonian reports: According to astronomer Eric Edelman at the Slooh Observatory, 2017 AG13 is an Aten asteroid, or a space rock with an orbital distance from the sun similar to that of Earth. AG13 also has a particularly elliptical orbit, which means that as it circles the sun it also crosses through the orbits of both Venus and Earth. Lucky for us, 2017 AG13 wasn't a planet killer; according to Wall, the asteroid was in the size range of the space rock that exploded in Earth's atmosphere over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February, 2013. According to Deborah Byrd at EarthSky, that meteor exploded 12 miles in the atmosphere, releasing 30 times the energy of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb. Not only did it break windows in six cities, it also sent 1,500 people to the hospital. That meteor also came out of the blue, and researchers are still trying to figure out its orbit and track down its origins. While 2017 AG13 would have caused minor damage if it hit Earth, the close call highlights the dangers of asteroids.
In what world does 30 times the energy of Hiroshima qualify as "minor damage"?
in the world where it explodes 30 times higher in the sky than the Hiroshima bomb.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
(and without radioactivity)
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
In what world does 30 times the energy of Hiroshima qualify as "minor damage"?
in the world where it explodes 30 times higher in the sky than the Hiroshima bomb.
In a world where larger asteroids could wipe out most complex life on this planet, a rock "only" big enough to destroy a city is still pretty minor.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
36 feet wide, 120,000 miles ?!
GROW UP.
> the close call highlights the dangers of asteroids.
One: Nothing happened. So how dangerous was this? If it HAD hit, maybe several hundred people would've visited hospitals and some windows woudl have had to be replaced.
Two: The danger is teaching people "an asteroid killed the dinosaurs, what if an asteroid kills us?". That is dangerous. A really BIG asteroid killed the dinosaurs. These small ones are nothing to worry about. Let's assume this thing is aiming for earth, but hits randomly somewhere inside the moon's orbit. The earth has a radius of about 6000km, the moon's orbit about 300000km. A ratio of 50, so the chances of hitting earth are 1/2500. The people making a stir about these things are the ones that stand to gain employment from scaring the general public about this.