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.
That recalls to mind a line from that cheesy flick Armageddon when the Pres. asks that same question and Billy Bob says " Our budget for collision detection is about 1 million dollars a year, that allows us to cover about three percent of the sky, and begging your pardon Mr. President...but it's a big ass sky!"I can't believe they didn't see this coming
Originally posted by: Tarca
We really need to get off our duffs and colonize the moon and mars!
This planet is due for another strike. I was watching an asteroid documentary and as averages go we are in a prime period for a big one.:Q
Much more recently, several potential Earth-impactors have been discovered and then lost due to insufficient tracking data. We can count two in 1994 (sizes around 60 and 300 metres), one in 1995 (30-40 metres across), one in 1997 (about 50 metres), and another in 1998 (250 metres in size). Only the last - 1998 OX4 - gained media attention. It has three opportunities to strike Earth, but not until after 2038, and each has a fairly small probability. Similarly 2001 AV43, a 60-metre NEO spotted last January, has a slim chance of hitting us in 2066.
Another discovery late in 1994 is peculiar. It was tracked for 35 days, and took only two-thirds of a year to circuit the sun, spending most of its life closer to our star than the Earth but coming far enough outwards every orbit to have a chance of colliding with us. Luckily it cannot do so before 2059.
But over the next four decades, 34 separate close approaches rendering opportunities for impact have been identified, with individual probabilities of up to one-in-10,000. One such asteroid, 1994 WR12, is around 200 metres in size, and so could cause damage on a continental scale should it hit. Calculations rendering the impact probabilities mentioned are highly complicated, and Britain does not have any group with the expertise to perform them.
I'm afraid I would tend to agree with you here.Originally posted by: networkman
As "Official Scapegoat" in one Forum and "Paranoid Nut" on another, I tend to believe that some folks in the government were aware of the object before it was in our immediate vicinity but chose not to announce it due to the potential panic it would cause when they also have acknowledge that there's nothing they could do about it either.
Originally posted by: RustyNale
Hmmm, need a really deep hole to hide in, and lots of food.WoW:Q
That is the potentially promising outcome IMO. If they can significantly alter even a relatively small NEO's trajectory then the precedent will have been set and the assembly(in orbit if need be) and insertion of much larger projectiles could be undertaken and accomplished by a joint US/European/Russian/Chinese/Japanese venture in a fairly timely fashion if they had the motivation provided by a near certain future impact to catalyze and galvanize them to action. It leads one to ponder if the Chinese have other motivation besides Space based weapons platforms and Prestige driving their manned and unmanned space program.......The report repeatedly refers to a NASA probe, due to be launched in 2004, called...Deep Impact...that will chase Comet 9P Tempel 1 (so they say) and launch a solid copper projectile into the Comet's nucleus to see how big a hole it makes - and to see how much it alters its orbit - in 2005!
Originally posted by: badthad
...what networkman said! There's not a dasm thing we could do about it. If it was annouced, then idiots would be using it as an excuse to rob, rape and pillage. :disgust:
Originally posted by: LANMAN - I can't believe they didn't see this coming.
Watch Deep Impact smack Comet 9P Tempel 1 and alter its orbit enough to send it on a collision course with Earth... Ooooops! :QThe report repeatedly refers to a NASA probe, due to be launched in 2004, called...Deep Impact...that will chase Comet 9P Tempel 1 (so they say) and launch a solid copper projectile into the Comet's nucleus to see how big a hole it makes - and to see how much it alters its orbit - in 2005!
Originally posted by: OhioDude
Watch Deep Impact smack Comet 9P Tempel 1 and alter its orbit enough to send it on a collision course with Earth... Ooooops! :QThe report repeatedly refers to a NASA probe, due to be launched in 2004, called...Deep Impact...that will chase Comet 9P Tempel 1 (so they say) and launch a solid copper projectile into the Comet's nucleus to see how big a hole it makes - and to see how much it alters its orbit - in 2005!