Posted on 08/18/2017 4:14:12 PM PDT by george76
A THREE MILE wide asteroid is set to graze past Earth on Sept. 1 - and NASA says it's the largest to come this close since they began keeping track ... [ full ]
This is the closest an object this large has come ... since 1890.
A massive asteroid estimated to be 2.7 miles wide is set to make a ‘relatively close encounter’ with Earth on September 1.
...
The asteroid, named for Florence Nightingale, was first spotted in 1981, and the flyby in September will be the closest it’s come to Earth since 1890.
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According to NASA, it will even be visible to small telescopes in late August and early September, when it brightens to the ninth magnitude.
During this time, it will pass through the constellations Piscis Austrinus, Capricornus, Aquarius and Delphinus.
NASA scientists will use ground-based radar to observe its features up close, using radar imaging NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar in California and at the National Science Foundation's Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
With these instruments, they will be able to see it’s true size, and even observe surface details as small as about 30 feet (10 meters).
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Earlier this month, the space agency revealed an asteroid the size of a house set to narrowly skim the Earth in October, after it was spotted by scientists for the first time in five years.
The asteroid, dubbed 2012 TC4, first flitted past our planet in October 2012 at about double the distance of its next expected pass, before disappearing.
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TC4's next approach, predicted for October 12, will bring the massive object 'damn close', according to experts, when it flies inside the moon's orbit – just far out enough to miss our geostationary satellites.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Graze?
Sure it is big.
But the moon is 252,088 miles away.
And this will be 4.4 million miles away.
We have had a bunch pass between earth and moon, some very big. This article is full crap.
So, once again we are at risk from a Three Mile Island,this time in................ space.
100 times further from the moon... But how far from the actual orbit? That would be more interesting to know. It is the stuff crossing our orbit we need to watch
Your fit over 550 earths side-by-side and it still wouldn't graze the outside one.
Hope that hussy Flo don’t homewreck our moon off its orbit as he adores her.
Thanks. Those are terrific diagrams.
7 mile wide asteroid due to graze by Earth 1 Sep... figured you’d wanna know.
Now THERE'S a scientific measurement.
Would you believe there were those who wished to honor O'Donuts for her erudite political contributions, but other scientists, studying the reflected light from the object, determined that it had far too low butterfat content to be named after Rosie, so the idea was scrapped?
I hope the “No Wake” signs are up.
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
H. L. Mencken
I’m still trying to decide if something like that hits, should I just run around eating everything in sight or shoot myself?
Probably will eat but the weather will be so damn depressing.
Don’t care
‘Bet we can measure its gravitational tug on Erf.
Thanks , wounder who’s stroking this ,so they can get more money from the government
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