Thanks BenLurkin.
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Posted on 02/23/2016 4:25:38 PM PST by BenLurkin
It is believed to have exploded about 18 miles (30km) above the Atlantic Ocean, 6 miles above the troposphere, the atmospheric layer where the Earth's weather occurs.
It is unlikely that anyone saw it, but it was probably picked up by the military, who record atmospheric explosions.
"Impacts like this happen several times per year on average, with most going unseen," Plait said.
It's the much larger impacts that we should be worried about.
Nasa tracks around 12,992 near-Earth objects which have been discovered orbiting within our solar system close to our own orbit.
It estimates around 1,607 are classified as Potentially Hazardous Asteroids.
In September, Paul Chodas, manager of Nasa's Near-Earth Object office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, said: "There is no existing evidence that an asteroid or any other celestial object is on a trajectory that will impact Earth.
"In fact, not a single one of the known objects has any credible chance of hitting our planet over the next century."
One such asteroid is 2013 TX68, which poses no threat to Earth, but could get very close to the surface, according to the space agency - although it adds there is a very slim chance of this happening.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I didn’t see it so it didn’t happen./S
The Russian anti-meteor rocket works.
If a space rock explodes over the ocean and there is no one there to see it....
I recall a few years ago somebody discovered a new “near Earth” asteroid that was fairly large. They discovered it AFTER it had passed by near the earth.
Unless someone posts it on you tube....I won’t believe it.
It’s the ones that don’t explode on entry that need watched closely.
A 100 ft wide asteroid could do tremendous damage if it hit over a populated area. The 2013 Russian meteor was considerably smaller and exploded high in the atmosphere and still caused a lot of damage and injuries.
makes me think of pop-rocks in space :)
Did it change direction several times before exploding? Maybe it was aliens. Or the Russians. The “space rock” could have been a cover story. Maybe...
Buenos Aires was 800 miles away from suffering the real world fate it got hit with in “Starship Troopers”. this is pretty damn terrifying. Reaction of the world? YAWN. Hiroshima from the sky...WHATEVER!
How come that brits always put the ‘asa’ in lower case when they write about NASA? Just wonderin’.
Believed, unlikely and probably........OK
Brits are anti-acronymites.
LOL! When I transferred to KSC to work the shuttle launches, they gave us an inch thick book of acronyms. And a lot of them had more than one meaning, so context mattered.
I read somewhere it killed a couple Siberians. Siberia is a big place with not much population.
You have my sympathy about those acronyms. I was pretty good with them until I signed up to FR. After about the second year my brain was full and wouldn’t process any more.
You have my envy for working on the shuttle program.
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