A Sneaky Asteroid Buzzed By Earth Yesterday

Smithsonianmag.com ^ | 10 Jan, 2016 | Jason Daley

[MtnClimber]

Monday at 7:47 A.M. EST, an asteroid passed by Earth at about half the distance between our planet and the Moon—roughly 119,500 miles, reports Mike Wall at Space.com. The space rock, dubbed 2017 AG13 was on the "smallish" size as far as asteroids go, Wall reports, thought to be between 36 and 111 feet wide.

But the most interesting thing about this near miss is that astronomers didn't spot the space rock till Saturday. It managed to fly under the radar for so long because the asteroid was fairly dim and moving fast (roughly ten miles per second). But just days before it passed us by, researchers at University of Arizona’s Catalina Sky Survey caught a glimpse.

According to astronomer Eric Edelman at the Slooh Observatory, 2017 AG13 is an Aten asteroid, or a space rock with an orbital distance from the sun similar to that of Earth. AG13 also has a particularly elliptical orbit, which means that as it circles the sun it also crosses through the orbits of both Venus and Earth.

[MtnClimber]

I wonder how much Earth’s gravity changed it’s orbit?

[jerod]

[freedumb2003]

>>I wonder how much Earth’s gravity changed it’s orbit?<<

CO2 attracted it.

AGW attracts meteors!

[ClearCase_guy]

Russian asteroid

[ClearCase_guy]

It managed to fly under the radar

Misuse of idiomatic expression.

[jonno]

Moving at 36K miles per hour.

That could have made a mess had it struck...

[poinq]

It does not manage anything. It does not fly. And its over human radar.

[poinq]

Yep, if it hits earth we will lose a lot of dinosaurs.

[Pit1]

And democraps.

[Godebert]

"Moving at 36K miles per hour. That could have made a mess had it struck..."

An asteroid of that size (about 50 ft. diameter) and velocity (36k mph) is equivalent to about 500 kilotons of TNT. The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima as a comparison was about 15 kilotons of TNT. The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth is 58.5 years.

Impact Earth! Very cool simulator

[Hot Tabasco]

It does not fly.

Would "zipped by" have been more appropriate, or even "scooted by"?

[Constitution Day]

passed by Earth at about half the distance between our planet and the Moon

I'm thankful it wasn't closer, otherwise this asteroid could have put our asterisk.

[Az Joe]

Had to read that a few times... lol

[rfreedom4u]

between 36 and 111 feet wide

That’s an awful big variance.

[jonno]

Cool indeed - thanks!

[elcid1970]

Similar to the Tanguska impact in 1908?

[PLMerite]

Astronomer's reaction:

[Constitution Day]

;) I couldn’t resist.

[Godebert]

The Tunguska event was estimated to have been at least 15 megatons of TNT, or about 1,000 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A much larger impactor (about 30x) than this asteroid.