Posted on 08/30/2016 4:20:38 PM PDT by Beave Meister
On Saturday, astronomers discovered a new asteroid, just a few hours before it almost hit us.
The asteroid is called 2016 QA2, and it missed the Earth by less than a quarter of the distance to the moon. That puts it about three times as far away from Earth as our farthest satellites. And we never saw it coming.
So how did 2016 QA2 sneak up on us like that? For this particular asteroid, the answer seems to be that it has a very peculiar orbit. It's highly elliptical, which means it can usually be found hanging out by either Mars or Venus, but rarely ends up near Earth.
But another, more worrying reason is that there aren't a lot of people looking for potentially dangerous asteroids. While Congress has tasked NASA with finding 90 percent of asteroids 450 feet or larger by 2020, the agency is nowhere close to that goal. Funding for asteroid detection is very low, and most telescopes that could detect asteroids of this size won't come online for a few more years.
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
Trial run?
I’m beginning to think that it wouldn’t be such a bad scenario after all.
I’ve never understood that passage. If 1/3rd of all the green on Earth is dead, and all the water is turned to blood I’m pretty sure people will expect Jesus to turn up.
Good thing I ducked.
So, how big was it, bigger than Hillary’s A$$?
The Story doesn’t say.
“If 1/3rd of all the green on Earth is dead, and all the water is turned to blood I’m pretty sure people will expect Jesus to turn up.”
Maybe they won’t want him to turn up.
The Egyptians didn’t want to give up their gods, either, just because of a few plagues...
If it happens, may it hit Chappaqua.
Most stories try to avoid stating how big Hillary’s ass is. The asteroid was somewhere in the 50-100ft range, not something that would be part of Nasa’s near earth object detection program.
50-100ft is more of a meteor than an asteroid.
Well Thank God it did because I haven’t cleaned my apartment. Just imagine - if it did happen and my apartment is a mess? That is not the way to leave this Earth with a messy home. =)
If it was within 1/4 the distance of the moon how come our gravity did not capture it
Scary that we didn’t spot it — we don’t need a LOT of time, just enough to get the tinfoil on and duct tape the windows and doors.
>>>The asteroid was somewhere in the 50-100ft range<<<
Oh, so it’s just a Moochelle Category Asteroid. Got it.
A Hillary Category Asteroid would be a Planet Killer, no doubt.
Well then, NASA Chief Bolden, I guess if we are hit by an asteroid and our planet's life is destroyed, then it will be Allah's will, eh?
Every single time I read that, it makes my blood boil.
I’m sure that the earth’s gravity changed it’s trajectory, however the asteroid’s speed would have to have been slower to be captured.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.