Posted on 01/31/2017 8:32:27 AM PST by BenLurkin
2017 BH30, which was discovered Sunday by the Catalina Sky Survey just hours before passing by us at the creepy-close distance of only 40,563 miles (65,280 kilometers).
This asteroid is estimated to be between 15 to 32.8 feet (4.6 to 10 meters) in length, making it somewhere between the size of a truck and a...big truck. That's pretty small by asteroid standards, but it's also the closest spotted asteroid to pass us since September, when asteroid 2016 RB1 passed within 24,000 miles (about 39,000 kilometers) of our planet's surface, putting it almost as close as satellites in geosynchronous orbit.
This is the third asteroid to buzz by earth closer than the distance to the moon this year. We don't expect a closer pass by one of these visitors until October, when asteroid 2012 TC4 could come more than twice as close.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnet.com ...
I’m getting tired of all these vagrant asteroids whizzing by earth.
Can’t they hold it until they get by Saturn? There’s a C-store with a bathroom on Saturn.
Obviously a Distinguished Graduate of Urinalism School.
TRUMPS FAULT!!
(Come on. You KNOW itll happen)
;-)
Or when you ask for an address they start giving you directions.
Drive time is more meaningful than miles, there are other variables. I don’t find it bothersome at all.
What does “six times closer” (than 240,000 miles) mean?
Planet X (or is that Planet Y or Z) is comin’.
Interesting
It’s the “hurtling towards” that you got to watch for.
“is there some speed or directional difference between whizzing by or simply buzzing by
Scientifically speaking...buzzing by is an effect when you drink a six pack waiting to see it.
“Whizzing by” is the effect when you polish off the six pack before it gets here—and it passes by when you can’t hold it any long.
Thank you. The headline had me laugh much so I couldn’t type.
Cant they hold it until they get by Saturn? Theres a C-store with a bathroom on Saturn.
I TOLD those asteroids to stay away from the Chernobyl beer!
I never understood this usage of our language. The object is 24,000 miles away. If it is six times closer, does that mean it is 144,000 miles closer?
So many ppl nowadays can’t handle fractions. :-)
I agree. Substituting “twice as close” for half-the-distance is confusing and probably inaccurate.
For example, a 25% increase is the opposite of a 20% reduction. (Increasing 100 by 25% yields 125. Decreasing 125 by 20% yields 100.)
The language in the article is the popular way to describe things but is confusing to say the least.
Too funny!!!
Its disorienting.
The first one I saw looked like the size of a basketball, right over my car. It looked like it was moving slowly, and the fire coming off it looked like a massive sparkler.
Of course, it was way, way up in the sky...and it was still looked big.
You mind has to take a second or two to realize what it is.
That, every month or two, was the ONLY good thing about driving home two hours every other night, in the middle of the night.
They’re trying to get in before the “ban”.
Its the hurtling towards that you got to watch for.
I was wondering about this object in the sky. It kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
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