No Politics Here: Earth just had a near-miss with a 'city killer' asteroid

[dud]

Surprised this wasn't posted but we just missed getting hit by a hefty asteroid ... and few knew about it until shortly before the flyby:

https://news.yahoo.com/earth-just-had-a-near-miss-with-a-killer-asteroid-175546112.html


"An asteroid dubbed a ‘city-killer’ narrowly missed colliding with the Earth on Thursday, scientists have revealed.

Asteroid 2019 OK - around 100 metres in diameter and racing at 24 kilometres a second - flew past Earth at around 11.22am on Thursday morning.

Astronomers had no idea the rock was coming due to the asteroid flying towards us from the direction of the sun.

Associate Professor Michael Brown, from Monash University, said: “It’s impressively close. I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet. It’s a pretty big deal.

"[If it hit Earth] it makes the bang of a very large nuclear weapon – a very large one."

Three other asteroids also hurtled past Earth on Thursday, but none were as close or as large as 2019 OK.

The asteroid was picked up by separate astronomy teams based in Brazil and the US over the past few days.

Swinburne University astronomer Associate Professor Alan Duffy: "It would have hit with over 30 times the energy of the atomic blast at Hiroshima.

"It's a city-killer asteroid. But because it's so small, it's incredibly hard to see until right at the last minute.

"It's threading tightly between the lunar orbit. Definitely too close for comfort.""

 

[SlowSpyder]

Quick! How can AT P&N blame Trump?

 

[thilanliyan]

Does it say somewhere how close it actually got?

 

[Puffnstuff]

Given the amount of rocks we have in this solar system I'm not surprised by it at all.

 

[Jaskalas]

within about 73,000 kilometers (45,000 miles) of Earth.

For some perspective...
The diameter of Earth at the equator is 7,917 miles. This asteroid missed Earth by just over 5x Earths.

*Corrected figure

 

[brycejones]

For some perspective...
The radius of Earth at the equator is 3,963 miles. This asteroid missed Earth by just over 11x Earths.

VERY close compared to almost anything else, but still a solid miss.

Or roughly 6 times closer to us than the moon. Also wouldn't it be more like 5.5 Earths an Earth would be the diameter of the planet not just its radius.

 

[UNCjigga]

Does it say somewhere how close it actually got?

Closer than lunar orbit...which I understand in astronomical circles is a BFD for an asteroid of that size.

 

[trenchfoot]

Seems to me that asteroid's flyby is pretty much like an F22 coming out of nowhere on afterburners 10 ft. over our heads.

How rude and sneaky of that miscreant wayward WMD to use the sun like any WWII fighter pilot would in order to pounce on an unsuspecting enemy.

 

[dank69]

As I understand it, nobody knew about it until about an hour before it would have impacted. And the few that knew about it an hour before didn't tell anyone, haha. No need to cause a panic.

 

[HomerJS]

Quick! How can AT P&N blame Trump?

Quick! How soon before Trump blames Obama

 

[UNCjigga]

Seems to me that asteroid's flyby is pretty much like an F22 coming out of nowhere on afterburners 10 ft. over our heads.

How rude and sneaky of that miscreant wayward WMD to use the sun like any WWII fighter pilot would in order to pounce on an unsuspecting enemy.

...or like a dragon!

 

[purbeast0]

As I understand it, nobody knew about it until about an hour before it would have impacted. And the few that knew about it an hour before didn't tell anyone, haha. No need to cause a panic.

Damn, Bruce Willis would really have been pushing it with that time frame.

 

[dank69]

Quick! How soon before Trump blames Obama

I was going to try to describe this event but a pictar is worth a thousand words, so:

 

[kage69]

"It's a city-killer asteroid. But because it's so small, it's incredibly hard to see until right at the last minute. It's threading tightly between the lunar orbit. Definitely too close for comfort."


1. Whew!
2. Thanks Obama.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

57-130m diameter, came ~73k km from earth. Pretty close, and could have done some serious damage if it hadn't hit the ocean (that'd still cause damage).

So, yeah, about that NASA funding guys?

 

[whm1974]

Come to think of it, isn't the Earth way overdue for another massive asteroid impact?

 

[NostaSeronx]

Come to think of it, isn't the Earth way overdue for another massive asteroid impact?

Shhhhh! They are listening in!

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

57-130m diameter, came ~73k km from earth. Pretty close, and could have done some serious damage if it hadn't hit the ocean (that'd still cause damage).

So, yeah, about that NASA funding guys?

Very little damage really if it strikes the ocean. It would disintegrate on impact and most energy would go towards some vaporization. If an H-bomb much larger than this happened on the ocean floor we wouldn't notice it. Since it's not radioactive there wouldn't be fallout and the chances of hitting a populated area aren't great.

These have probably hit every decade or two going back a billion years. In any case there's really no practical way to do much as these would give a few hours notice and getting a significant number of people out of the way isn't likely to happen. Duck and cover!.

 

[soundforbjt]

This looks like a job for Space Force !

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Come to think of it, isn't the Earth way overdue for another massive asteroid impact?

I'd not say way overdue. A supervolcano is more likely. Besides it's likely that we're going to at least as good of a job or better ourselves, so no worries there.

 

[zinfamous]

Quick! How can AT P&N blame Trump?

fuck off quisling.

But hey: how much of the near-earth, science, observational, etc etc budget has Trump slashed to pay for his billionaires and fantasy wall? Sure, we can probably blame Trump if we don't try very hard.

 

[zinfamous]

I'd not say way overdue. A supervolcano is more likely. Besides it's likely that we're going to at least as good of a job or better ourselves, so no worries there.

Right, I don't think asteroid impacts follow any kind of "~regular geologic schedule" like volcanoes or earthquakes do. Even if some space-bound object is on a regular orbit or trajectory, much can happen along that path that alters the travel

 

[Paratus]

Come to think of it, isn't the Earth way overdue for another massive asteroid impact?

The chance of a dinosaur killer hitting in the next century is actually pretty small. Sky surveys have detected 90+% of the possible large asteroids on a bad trajectory.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Very little damage really if it strikes the ocean. It would disintegrate on impact and most energy would go towards some vaporization. If an H-bomb much larger than this happened on the ocean floor we wouldn't notice it. Since it's not radioactive there wouldn't be fallout and the chances of hitting a populated area aren't great.

These have probably hit every decade or two going back a billion years. In any case there's really no practical way to do much as these would give a few hours notice and getting a significant number of people out of the way isn't likely to happen. Duck and cover!.

Depends on the speed, doesn't it? A fast rock obliterates itself in the atmosphere, slow enough and enough material ends up hitting to create some pretty intense storm surges... at least I assume a rock the size of a football stadium would make some waves.

 

[soulcougher73]

Quick! How can AT P&N blame Trump?

Well had he been on duty like he is supposed to instead of playing golf he could have warned us.