Posted on 11/10/2009 11:26:06 AM PST by Free ThinkerNY
Although no one noticed at the time, the Earth was almost hit by an asteroid last Friday.
The previously undiscovered asteroid came within 8,700miles of Earth but astronomers noticed it only 15 hours before it made its closest approach.
To put it in perspective the Moon is a distance of 250,000miles, which is nearly 30 times further away from our planet. But before you head for the nuclear bunkers you will be relieved to learn the tumbling rock was only 23ft across. Similar sized objects pass by this close to Earth about twice a year and impact on the planet about once every five years.
Astronomers believe the object, called 2009 VA, would have almost completely burned up while entering Earth's atmosphere, causing a brilliant fireball in the sky but no major damage to the surface.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Naw, but my dad does. Can't even sit on the toilet some days.
In top 5 of my fav. 50’s Sci Fi movies .
“Similar sized objects pass by this close to Earth about twice a year and impact on the planet about once every five years.”
(All the cheerleaders come out for smooches! -- Calvin and Hobbes)
Cheers!
Dixie Mistie shouts! ;-)
The Tunguska Event was a powerful explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Russia on June 30, 1908. Although the cause of the explosion is the subject of debate, it is commonly believed to have been caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 3 6 miles above the Earth's surface.Different studies have yielded varying estimates of the object's size, with general agreement that it was a few tens of metres across.
Estimates of the energy of the blast range from 5 megatons of TNT to as high as 30 megatons of TNT of TNT roughly equal to the United States' Castle Bravo thermonuclear bomb tested in late February 1954, about 1,000 times as powerful as the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
So, "a few tens of meters" - say 30 meters or roughly 100 feet across. And the rock that passed by today was about 23 feet across - maybe 1/64 the mass of the big Tunguska rock.
The photos of the flattened trees from the airburst are really incredible.
I don't think a 23 foot diameter rock would burn up in the atmosphere.
The clue is, "...pass this close..."
Most enter the atmosphere, light things up, and exit the atmosphere back into space.
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