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Asteroid Cruises Past Earth ... With a Partner!
LiveScience ^ | July 13, 2008 | Robert Roy Britt

Posted on 07/14/2008 5:17:36 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

A good-sized asteroid sailing past our planet right now turns out to be two giant rocks doing a celestial jig.

The setup, catalogued as 2008 BT18, was thought to be nearly a half-mile wide after its discovery by MIT's LINEAR search program in January. Nothing else was known about it.

Now seen as two objects orbiting each other, the pair will be closest to Earth on July 14, at about 1.4 million miles (2 million kilometers) away. That's nearly six times as far from us as the moon...

Radar observations from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico on July 6 and 7 "clearly show two objects," said Lance Benner of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The objects are estimated to be 1,970 feet (600 meters) and 650 feet (200 meters) in diameter. The larger one rotates upon its axis in 3 hours or less...

Asteroid 2008 BT18 remains classified by NASA as "potentially hazardous" because its future orbits have not been fully determined.

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


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: 2008bt18; arecibo; catastrophism; linear; mit
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http://spaceweather.com/


21 posted on 07/14/2008 6:00:45 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_________________________Profile updated Friday, May 30, 2008)
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To: null and void

Hey - in 32 seconds, a couple of asteroids could destroy the Earth!


22 posted on 07/14/2008 6:11:29 PM PDT by mikrofon (GMTA ;)
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To: SunkenCiv
Had they just waited a few more months, both Sulu and his "buddy" could've had more appropriate namesakes...
23 posted on 07/14/2008 6:17:08 PM PDT by mikrofon (Arsteroids)
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To: mikrofon

“Pitcher” and “Catcher”?


24 posted on 07/14/2008 8:31:38 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: SunkenCiv

Recent thread pushing the proposition that such discussion of asteroids is just a front for totalitarianism by way of Kyoto, the New York Times, Marx, and FDR. Shame on you ;)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2041341/posts


25 posted on 07/14/2008 9:34:55 PM PDT by tlb
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To: tlb

Hey, everything is just a front for totalitarianism by way of Kyoto, the New York Times, Marx, and FDR. ;’)


26 posted on 07/15/2008 11:45:11 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_________________________Profile updated Friday, May 30, 2008)
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