Asteroid that could’ve obliterated NYC skimmed past Earth – and NASA didn’t notice

www.dailystar.co.uk ^ | 12/08/2017 | By Rachel O'Donoghue

[Red Badger]

A MASSIVE asteroid that could have destroyed New York City skimmed past Earth – and NASA had no clue.

The large space rock – dubbed 2017 VL2 – passed the planet on November 9 at an astonishing distance of just 73,000 miles, which is considered tiny in space terms.

Space boffins think that if the rock measuring between 16 and 32 metres had hit, it could’ve wiped a major city such as New York off the map.

The rock belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids and was first seen at ATLAS-MLO observatory in Hawaii a day later.

It was travelling at a speed of 8.73km/s and would have caused catastrophic damage if it had made impact.

Now the asteroid has flown past Earth, it is not set to make another flyby until 2125.

NASA recently revealed a space rock the size of a mountain could hit the planet in 2036.

When first discovered in 2014, Apophis had a record-breaking collision risk of four on the Torino scale.

Steve Chesley, a NASA scientist, along with Paul Khodas from the space agency’s jet propulsion laboratory, predicted the collision will occur on April 13, 2036.

“Apophis has been one of those celestial bodies that has captured the public’s interest since it was discovered in 2004,” said Chesley.

“Updated computational techniques and newly available data indicate the probability of an Earth encounter on April 13, 2036, for Apophis has dropped from one-in-45,000 to about four-in-a million,” he added.

[Lonely Bull]

NYC needs it.

9-11 bad, asteroid good.

[Mastador1]

In the far more likely scenario that it hit the ocean, what (if any) negative consequences would result? The kinetic energy of a 32 meter rock zooming in a interplanetary speed must be enourmous but would it be enough to, for example, generate a small tsunami? Hydrogen bombs didn't, so I'm guessing no but who knows?

The whales, for the love of cod, think of the whales and sea life that would be destroyed! The loss of a city and a few million humans would be trivial compared to the life of just one whale!

[RegulatorCountry]

“Space boffins,” are those like tribbles or something? Sounds like vermin.

[AustinBill]

“Boffins” is British slang for “science nerds”.

[RegulatorCountry]

I know, I just think it's a funny word that does sound like some small, annoying critter.

So here's a Space Boffin with a fishbowl on it's head:

[SunkenCiv]

It's better to be safe than sorry, I wholeheartedly agree. It's 1,210 feet in diameter (not a sphere, more of a turd shape) and it's probably a loose aggregation of smaller chunks, but that would definitely leave a mark as it arrived like a shotgun blast with an assumed mass of 671,000,000 tons, kind of a lot, really. It would be a big owie.

[PIF]

8.73km/s or 19,828.45 mph for those that were wondering ...

[Red Badger]

boffins is a British-ism like ‘geek’ or ‘nerd’....................