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Asteroid Whizzing By Earth 6 Times Closer Than the Moon (cnet.com)
An anonymous reader shares a CNET report: The problem with asteroids passing near Earth is that they're often difficult to spot. Fortunately the hardest ones to see in our neighborhood also tend to be the smaller ones. Such is the case with 2017 BH30, which was discovered Sunday by the Catalina Sky Survey just hours before passing by us at the creepy-close distance of only 40,563 miles (65,280 kilometres). This asteroid is estimated to be between 15-32.8 feet (4.6-10 metres) in length, making it somewhere between the size of a truck and a... big truck. That's pretty small by asteroid standards, but it's also the closest spotted asteroid to pass us since September when asteroid 2016 RB1 passed within 24,000 miles (about 39,000 kilometres) of our planet's surface, putting it almost as close as satellites in geosynchronous orbit. This is the third asteroid to buzz by earth closer than the distance to the moon this year. We don't expect a closer pass by one of these visitors until October, when asteroid 2012 TC4 could come more than twice as close.
I can't help it, but those reports have been increasing in numbers rapidly. Either NASA needs money or our detectors have been improving considerably lately.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
What kind of english is that?
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
This is the third asteroid to buzz by earth closer than the distance to the moon this year.
That's it, I'm heading down to the local planning office at Alpha Centauri and lodging a stern complaint about this new hyperspace bypass.
How come Slashdot never gets Slashdotted?
We don't expect a closer pass by one of these visitors until October, when asteroid 2012 TC4 could come more than twice as close.
Well, they didn't expect this one. So I'm guessing they'll spot others whizzing past between now and October.
How about at half the distance ? Twice as close. Means as much as twice as cold.
goddamit, this was supposed to hit us at the end of last October to spare us the trauma of having to vote for Killary to avoid the catastrophe of being Trumped by Putin.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Five times the savings!
*sigh*
A pox on web designers who feel that window.innerWidth == screen.availWidth
...one sixth the distance to the moon... ...less that half that distance...
I'm almost shaking from just how the phrases "6 times closes to the moon" and "more than half a close" mess with my brain...
Please, for the sake of us people with less than normal minds, don't use phrases like that!
What's slowing the 1% down? I'd go to Mars if there was an empty seat.
I'm not kidding when I say I wish it would hit the Earth and wipe us all out. This planet needs a reset.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I thought no one can hear you scream.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
"You stole my lyrics" -- Dez Fafara (Coal Chamber)
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
. . . . .until we stop noticing. . . . .
I think that's exactly what the boss at Chernobyl said. :)
! Then, when the Earth is unlivable, these billionaires will escape to Mars.
There is nothing that mankind could conceivably do that would make Earth more unlivable than Mars.
So it missed us by 5 Earth Diameters. If a car overtakes you and is 5 car lengths to the side of you (73 feet away,) is that creepy? If you're walking along and somebody runs past at 25 feet away, do you think they nearly hit you?
Scale is everything, people. This was rare. Not scary.
What kind of effect would it have if something this size entered the atmosphere? Is "big truck" size small enough to completely burn up? I'm sure composition has something to do with that, but still. What are we talking, neat light show, or nuclear size explosion?
Maybe they're warning shots?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The problem with that is there's some fantastic museums there.
China, US, and the former USSR have already knocked out satellites. From the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01...
> China successfully carried out its first test of an antisatellite weapon last week, signaling
> its resolve to play a major role in military space activities and bringing expressions of
> concern from Washington and other capitals, the Bush administration said yesterday.
>
> Only two nations â" the Soviet Union and the United States â" have previously destroyed
> spacecraft in antisatellite tests, most recently the United States in the mid-1980s.
At the speeds in question, a head-on impact with an inert third stage will at least break up the rock into smaller, harmless fragments. No nukes required. The force of impact might even vaporize most of the target. The main problem is detecting the rocks. The Chelyabinsk meteorite was not detected http://www.businessinsider.com...
While a similar rock may not directly wipe out humanity, like the Chicxulub rock wiped out the dinosaurs, consider this... Washington or Moscow gets hit, with no warning, by the equivalant of a multi-megaton nuke. If the surviving commanders have itchy trigger-fingers, a disastrous nuclear exchange could ensue.
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
There is one and only one thing I can think of and that is full blown nuclear war.
Even that is unlikely to make Earth unlivable. Modern nukes are relatively clean, and they are smaller and there are many fewer of them than a few decades ago. A full blown nuclear war may kill a billion or so people, and the economic disruption may kill another billion or two, but humanity would almost certainly survive. Mars, on the other hand, has about a 0% chance of supporting even a single human in the foreseeable future without regular resupply missions from Earth.
There, there. How much is Elon Musk paying you for spreading doubts and diverting our attention, while he builds his Elysium over there?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Boom tomorrow.
Something that is one time closer to us than the moon is right here, on top of us. Something that is six times closer (an absurd statement that has no real meaning) would consequently be five times further away than the moon, but in the other side? 1/6 of the distance is not six times closer!
! Then, when the Earth is unlivable, these billionaires will escape to Mars.
There is nothing that mankind could conceivably do that would make Earth more unlivable than Mars.
Seriously.
One damn planet in the entire universe, maybe, where you can walk around in your shirt sleeves sometimes and enjoy it, and we treat it as disposable.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
Maybe they're warning shots?
"Here boy! Fetch!"
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
We're building a Space Wall. It will be a beautiful wall. No meteor will be able to get over it. The Grays will pay for it!
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
Doesn't anybody--especially you mathematicians and physicist--have problems with using multipliers to scale smallness? How can anything be six times closer to anything else. Surely the writer means 1/6 as close. I know that's not as easy on the ears, but is sure is "more" correct, or perhaps six times less wrong.
Personally, I'd look at distributing strontium-90 more widely. It'll follow calcium biochemically and be severely deleterious for anything with bony (or calcareous) hard parts. Pretty nasty stuff.
Granted, Mars would remain unliveable for longer. But we could do that to Earth tomorrow. Well, a few months for anyone competent enough to build their own nukes.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"