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A car-sized asteroid made the closest Earth flyby a space rock has ever survived
space.com ^ | 18 August 2020 | Chelsea Gohd

Posted on 08/18/2020 9:13:46 PM PDT by BenLurkin

On Sunday (Aug. 16), the asteroid, initially labeled ZTF0DxQ and now formally known to astronomers as 2020 QG, swooped by Earth at a mere 1,830 miles (2,950 kilometers) away.

The flyby wasn't expected and took many by surprise. In fact, the Palomar Observatory didn't detect the zooming asteroid until about six hours after the object's closest approach. "The asteroid approached undetected from the direction of the sun," Paul Chodas, the director of NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies, told Business Insider.

The close flyby was also a fast one, as 2020 QG swooped near Earth at a blistering 27,600 mph (44,400 kph). The object is about the size of a compact car, perhaps about 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6 meters) in diameter.

According to the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, 2020 QG flew over the Pacific Ocean, far east of Australia, during its close approach. To explore the daredevil asteroid for yourself, you can check out NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's small-body database browser here.

(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: 2020qg; asteroid; asteroids; astronomy; catastrophism; flyby; nearmiss; palomarobservatory; paulchodas; science; ztf0dxq
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1 posted on 08/18/2020 9:13:46 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin
I think I saw it while star gazing. I think it was a '68 dodge

2 posted on 08/18/2020 9:17:33 PM PDT by tsowellfan (https://twitter.com/cafenetamerica)
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To: BenLurkin
made the closest Earth flyby a space rock has ever survived

How could they possibly know that?

3 posted on 08/18/2020 9:19:28 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (This Space For Rant)
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To: BenLurkin

“Negative, Ghost Rider, the pattern is full.”


4 posted on 08/18/2020 9:20:24 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: tsowellfan

5 posted on 08/18/2020 9:24:39 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (This Space For Rant)
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To: tsowellfan

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Astre


6 posted on 08/18/2020 9:25:19 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: BenLurkin

Was it the size of a Yugo or a 1958 Buick Roadmaster?


7 posted on 08/18/2020 9:36:44 PM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: BenLurkin

Sneaky rock came out of the sun. “Bandit at 12 O’clock High!”


8 posted on 08/18/2020 9:37:48 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom ("And oft conducted by historic truth, We tread the long extent of backward time.")
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To: tsowellfan

Lol, with the pedal to the metal.


9 posted on 08/18/2020 9:40:12 PM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: Jeff Chandler

“How could they possibly know that?”

All history prior to the advent of O is now null and void. This is why today’s “experts” and “scientists” keep discovering things that have been known for hundreds of years all over again, and the LSM announces the “discoveries “ as if they are shocked and amazed - so we should be too.


10 posted on 08/18/2020 9:40:24 PM PDT by bluejean (Living one day at a time in the national psych ward)
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To: Jeff Chandler
You ask too many question.
11 posted on 08/18/2020 9:43:09 PM PDT by Beowulf9
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To: tsowellfan

With the world gone so far to hell, do you get so nostalgic that you’d give your eye teeth to own that thing? I do.


12 posted on 08/18/2020 9:43:36 PM PDT by Viking2002 ("If a really stupid person becomes senile......how can you tell?" - George Carlin)
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To: BenLurkin

I wonder.
Should we destroy meteors of this approximate size?

That would, arguably, make us responsible for the damage caused by it’s remnants. But would we have the defence of showing what would have happened if we didn’t act?

Fascinating...,


13 posted on 08/18/2020 9:43:47 PM PDT by mrsmith (`(US MEDIA: " Every 'White' cop is a criminal! And all the 'non-white' criminals saints!")
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To: BenLurkin

It was a 67 Galaxy.


14 posted on 08/18/2020 10:07:14 PM PDT by lurk
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To: BenLurkin

When I was 8-11, anything that sneakily zoomed in out of the sun was assumed to be a zero...


15 posted on 08/18/2020 10:08:27 PM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is Sam Adams now that we desperately need him)
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To: lurk

When I was a kid my folks had a 67 galaxy.


16 posted on 08/18/2020 10:10:43 PM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin (Life is anecdotal)
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To: Beowulf9

I grew up on Charlie Chan. I loved him. Now, he’s a thought crime.


17 posted on 08/18/2020 10:13:07 PM PDT by davius (Kapo Soros as Ceausescu)
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To: BenLurkin

A Mercury Meteor?


18 posted on 08/18/2020 10:21:11 PM PDT by IYAS9YAS (There are two kinds of people: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.)
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To: davius

Charlie Chan is terrific!
Assaults on him shall fail.

(Great performances by Mantan and Keye Luke too.)


19 posted on 08/18/2020 10:23:57 PM PDT by mrsmith (`(US MEDIA: " Every 'White' cop is a criminal! And all the 'non-white' criminals saints!")
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To: BenLurkin

Thankfully it wasn’t a Chevy Nova.


20 posted on 08/18/2020 10:36:33 PM PDT by Bernard Marx
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