Posted on 02/08/2018 9:39:35 AM PST by BenLurkin
The two asteroids are called 2018 CB and 2018 CC, and they were both discovered February 4 through an automated telescope search called the Catalina Sky Survey, according to NASA's Minor Planet Center. The Catalina telescopes belong to just one of many observatories worldwide that regularly scan the sky to track and search for space rocks, also known as asteroids.
While the majority of asteroids in Earth's solar system orbit in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, asteroid flybys of Earth happen several times a year. The last known close asteroid flyby was on Sunday (Feb. 4). The flybys are useful to astronomers because the researchers can examine the asteroids relatively close-up, gaining more information about the space rocks' size, shape, and composition.
You can watch livestreams of this week's flybys courtesy of the Virtual Telescope Project, which uses remote-controlled telescopes to track near-Earth objects.
Both 2018 CB and 2018 CC are roughly the same size as a 17-meter (56-foot) space rock that exploded over Cheylabinsk, Russia, in 2013, causing property damage and thousands of injuries. 2018 CB is about 12 to 38 meters in diameter (39 to 124 feet), while 2018 CC's diameter is estimated to be 9 to 28 meters (30 to 91 feet), according to the Minor Planet Center.
Unlike Chelyabinsk, however, both asteroids will fly past Earth instead of hitting it.
2018 CC flew by Feb. 6, at 12:58pm EST (1958 GMT), with a closest approach of about half the distance between Earth and the moon.
2018 CB will zoom past Earth on February 10 at 5:06am EST (1006 GMT), at 20 percent of the distance from the Earth to the moon. The Virtual Telescope Project will livestream this event from Italy only, starting February 9 at 3:00pm EST (2000 GMT).
(Excerpt) Read more at seeker.com ...
God keeping us humble.
LOL
“God doesn’t roll dice,” somebody said.
I agree we are under tremendous Watchcare.
Freegards
Maybe they wanted to check out the Tesla.
- - -
"The blast created by the meteor's air burst produced extensive ground damage over an irregular elliptical area around a hundred kilometres wide, and a few tens of kilometres long, with the secondary effects of the blast being the main cause of the considerable number of injuries. Russian authorities stated that 1,491 people sought medical attention in Chelyabinsk Oblast within the first few days. Health officials said 112 people had been hospitalised, with two in serious condition. A 52-year-old woman with a broken spine was flown to Moscow for treatment. Most of the injured were hurt by the secondary blast effects of shattered, falling or blown-in glass. The intense light from the meteor, momentarily 30 times brighter than the Sun, also produced injuries, leading to over 180 cases of eye pain, and 70 people subsequently reported temporary flash blindness. Twenty people reported ultraviolet burns similar to sunburn, possibly intensified by the presence of snow on the ground. Vladimir Petrov, when meeting with scientists to assess the damage, reported that he sustained so much sunburn from the meteor that the skin flaked only days later.
"A fourth-grade teacher in Chelyabinsk, Yulia Karbysheva, was hailed as a hero after saving 44 children from imploding window glass cuts. Despite not knowing the origin of the intense flash of light, Karbysheva thought it prudent to take precautionary measures by ordering her students to stay away from the room's windows and to perform a duck and cover maneuver. Karbysheva, who remained standing, was seriously lacerated when the blast arrived and window glass severed a tendon in one of her arms; none of her students, whom she ordered to hide under their desks, suffered cuts.
"After the air blast, car alarms went off and mobile phone networks were overloaded with calls. Office buildings in Chelyabinsk were evacuated. Classes for all Chelyabinsk schools were cancelled, mainly due to broken windows. At least 20 children were injured when the windows of a school and kindergarten were blown in at 09:22. Following the event, government officials in Chelyabinsk asked parents to take their children home from schools.
"Approximately 600 m2 (6,500 sq ft) of a roof at a zinc factory collapsed during the incident. Residents in Chelyabinsk whose windows were smashed quickly sought to cover the openings with anything available, to protect themselves against temperatures of −15 °C (5 °F). Approximately 100,000 home-owners were affected, according to Chelyabinsk Oblast Governor Mikhail Yurevich. He also said that preserving the water pipes of the city's district heating was the primary goal of the authorities as they scrambled to contain further post-explosion damage.
"By 5 March 2013 the number of damaged buildings was tallied at over 7,200, which included some 6,040 apartment blocks, 293 medical facilities, 718 schools and universities, 100 cultural organizations, and 43 sport facilities, of which only about one and a half percent had not yet been repaired.
"The oblast's governor estimated the damage to buildings at more than 1 billion rubles (approximately US$33 million)." -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor#Injuries_and_damage
They caught both of these with a couple day’s notice. Most they catch on the outbound.
Saw the price on the sticker and kept right on going.
Perhaps He plays billiards instead. :=)
“at 20 percent of the distance from the Earth to the moon”
So the asteroid on February 10th will come within 47,780 miles of the Earth.
That’s a little close. And the Earth’s gravity won’t affect it?
The circumference of the Earth is 24,900 miles. This is coming within 50,000 miles of the Earth’s surface.
I wonder what warning we will have if one looks like it will hit us? Was there a warning for the one that hit Russia?
Was there a warning for the one that hit Russia?
Nope.
One of these days, it won’t be a flyby. Yet, Congress has more important problems to address like globull warming and BLM and pink pussy hats.
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