Near Earth Asteroid 'Florence' Makes a Close Pass (space.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Sunday September 3, 2017 @04:22PM from the sprit-in-the-sky dept.

kbahey writes: A big, bright, near-Earth asteroid, known as 3122 Florence, made a safe fly by Friday night. Florence is classified as a Potentially Hazardous Object. At its closest, it was about 7 million km (4.4 million miles) away from earth. It is still visible in amateur telescopes over the next few days where it would be seen to move over several minutes against the background stars. It can be located using this map. According to NASA officials, the asteroid hasn't been this close to Earth since 1890, and it won't be this close again until 2500. "Asteroid 3122 Florence was discovered in 1981 by astronomer Schelte 'Bobby' Bus at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia," reports Space.com. "The asteroid is named in honor of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), who pioneered modern nursing, NASA officials said in a separate statement."

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Re:Congratulations to /. by lucm · 2017-09-03 16:58 · Score: 0, Troll

Congratulations!
This, at least sounds like news for nerds although I understand that motto is gone.
Thank you,
That's because "nerds" has a white male connotation, which is now basically as bad as having a KKK tattoo.

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lucm, indeed.