News: Surprise asteroid nearly hits home

[draziw]

Ye-ouch... not the first time, by any means... still a surprise when you hear it.

Surprise asteroid nearly hits home
June 20, 2002 Posted: 5:39 PM EDT (2139 GMT)


By Richard Stenger
CNN

(CNN) -- An asteroid the size of a football field passed extremely close to Earth last week but it remained undetected until days later, astronomers said Thursday.

The space rock missed our planet Friday by only 75,000 miles (120,000 km), about one-third the distance to the moon, making the near collision one of the closest ever recorded.

Cruising at 6.2 miles (10 km) per second, the big boulder could have unleashed some major firepower had it struck, according to the NEO (Near Earth Objects) Information Center in Leicester, England.

[...]

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/0...iss/index.html

[TechieChick]

I'm amazed that it wasn't detected sooner. Isn't this monitored fairly closely by scientists the world over?

[draziw]

As I understand it, most of the objects in the "asteroid" realm of things aren't really easy to spot when they're coming toward us... but once they pass us, it gets our attention. If I recall, it has something to due with the way in which the light reflects off the asteroid (I'll have to find the link again somewhere).

<edit>
And, if they're coming from us from the same direction as the sun, well... ever try catching a fast moving baseball while looking in to the sun? It usually doesn't work too well...
</edit>

[TechieChick]

That makes sense...god it's late and I'm tired...why am I even still here?

Oh yeah, I"m working. HAH

This brings up the question, would you want to know anyway if you were going to be squished by an astroid anyway? Could you really run out of it's path? Doubtful, especially if everyone else was running with you.

[Tedob1]

that makes three this year, one in January, i believe the second was around april. the second one wasn't discovered until it passed us. it came from direction of the sun making it very hard to spot. this is really scarry. think ill go watch armageddon. bruce willis rules!

[TechieChick]

I have to break down and watch that movie, just haven't gotten around to it.

[The Old Man]

They're all over the system, and no, the astronomers cannot "monitor" even a fraction of the ones that exist that are in near-earth orbits. Even more difficult is trying to decide what they are made of; whether it is of a composition and size that burns up on entry or whether it is of a material (such as heat-resistant but fracture on impact, like crystal, into jillions of smaller projectiles running around at 20,000 mph. Tap in "astronomy" and you can find several of the observatories, and even a few of them are telling the truth about the difficulty of even all the observatories getting together, dividing up the sky into grids, and finding those whizzers before they get close. Have desert first; life is short and unpredictable. (Just joking )

[Tedob1]

techiechick, you gotta see it!

[tyger_claw]

Where would have been the estimated point of impact? (had it to hit us?)

[{P²P}Apocalypse]

Originally posted here by TechieChick
This brings up the question, would you want to know anyway if you were going to be squished by an astroid anyway? Could you really run out of it's path? Doubtful, especially if everyone else was running with you.

Ahhhh haaaa! Eureka! I have a very scientific solution to this one. While everyone is running. They can all run to the same place on one side of the planet thereby offsetting the planets gravity and stearing us out of the way of the big rock.... Of course then thats another issue, when we stear out of the way we may plunge to our firey deaths in the sun or go towards deep space and our new frozen habbitat. Hmmm... Oh well.... Simple solution.. Get in the crash position... Put our heads between our legs and kiss our a$$es goodbye......