Three-mile-wide Asteroid 3200 Phaethon to skim Earth just before Christmas Read more:

metrouk ^

[BenLurkin]

A gigantic space rock called 3200 Phaethon is due to brush ‘quite close’ to our planet on December 17, Russian astronomers have revealed.

This huge asteroid is thought to cause the beautiful Geminids meteor shower which will take place between December 13 and 14, causing hundreds of bright meteors to illuminate the night sky as they burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. But NASA has also described it as a ‘potentially hazardous asteroid whose path misses Earth’s orbit by only 2 million miles‘ – which is tiny in galactic terms.

It’s about half the size of Chicxulub, the rock which wiped out the dinosaurs, and has a very unusual orbit which causes it to pass closer to the sun than any other named asteroid.

[trebb]

8 times as far away as the moon which is much larger.....

[FredZarguna]

At the distance quoted, which is to 1 significant digit, I get 8.3 LD, but your point is quite correct.

It's not close.

Next time they can get an even more hysterical headline by reporting it's going to pass fewer than 11 light seconds from Earth.

Whew! (Still not close...)

[PIF]

Wiki Actual = 2007 - 18,085,600 km;
Wiki Guess = 2017 - 10,312,000 km;
Observed Actual =2017 - 3,218,688 km;
Wiki Guess = 2093 - 2,960,000 km;

Spot the trend ...

[Celerity]

The media using science to scare people is nothing new.

Unless it’s a scientific magazine, with a credible reporter and credible sources it’s simply not science.

But lack of professional knowledge is nothing new for these cretins.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin.

Only half the size of the asteroid that snuffed the dinosaurs -- 3 miles instead of 6, which reduces in all 3 dimensions, for a total of approximately 1/8 the mass of the Chicxulub rock.

To put it in a different persepctive, a ONE mile rock would, on impact, release more energy than all the world's nuclear weapons if they were put in a pile and set off simultaneously. This current rock 3 miles across would have *twenty seven* times that much energy (give or take velocity relative to the Earth, of course), 3 cubed (because of the 3 dimensions).

It would kinda neat if this Phaethon would hit the Moon, but we probably would suffer quite a bit from the ejecta. Dang, I can't win.

Just to save your having to do the math, the Chicxulub impact released 216 times more energy than all the world's nuclear arsenals. Ouch.

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