Massive 4 Vesta Asteroid Is Zooming by Earth, and Here's How You Can Spot It

Inverse.com ^ | June 28, 2018 | By Josie Rhodes Cook on

[BenLurkin]

The space rock is coming for a visit, but it won't get too close for comfort.

T he 4 Vesta asteroid is currently making a drive-by visit to Earth. The asteroid, which reportedly measures more than 300 miles in diameter, is now so close to Earth that at night, you can see it with your very own eyes — no telescope required.

...

So why isn’t anyone freaking out over this massive rock flying through space so close to Earth? Because even though it’s so close we can see it in the night sky, it’s not actually that close at all.

Newsweek reported Thursday that Vesta will be closer to Earth than it has been in 20 years. But “close” to Earth, in this case, means that it’s currently about 106 million miles from our planet.

Vesta can currently be seen next to Mars and Saturn in the night sky. For anyone looking for the asteroid in the northern hemisphere, it is northwest of the Sagittarius constellation.

[katana]

300 miles wide? Lucky miss. Impact of something that sized would produce a mass extinction.

[PLMerite]

"Massive 4 Vesta Asteroid Is Zooming by Earth, and Here's How You Can Spot It"

Just look up:

[babyfreep]

Ohh...let’s check this out.

[Simon Green]

300 miles wide? Lucky miss. Impact of something that sized would produce a mass extinction.

An impactor of that size would sterilize the Earth. Not even bacteria would survive.

[Simon Green]

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin. There's three guys marooned off there, if memory serves. ;^) Ping to APoD list.

[null and void]

Fortunately they had water to throw away!

[doorgunner69]

Ah, well, I made it to my 70th birthday, so it is all gravv now.

[BenLurkin]

Surf’s up, dude!

[txnativegop]

cloudy tonight

but I have a week or two to take a look

Thanks for posting BenLurkin

[no-to-illegals]

No trip to outer space required to repelll or break in half ? That’s good cause we are out of heroes that we can spare. The Donald is too busy !!!

[piytar]

Did some quick math. If it Earth dead on, the impact would be about 223 sextillion megatons. It would quite literally shatter the planet.

[no-to-illegals]

Hey it’s a shooting gallery fellow targets. Don’t go painting no bullseyes, please

[pas]

I don’t go to mass anyway.

[Red Badger]

Yes, and one of them discovered the ‘Anopticon’...............

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anniversary_(short_story)

[Conan the Librarian]

“Hoping that it posted to both you guys”

I have been thinking of these two short stories ever since I started reading about this Vesta pass. Thanks!

I do wish they would hire better writers for these things though.

[elbook]

even asteroids that come withing the distance of the lunar orbit (~200,000 miles) has only a chance in a million of hitting earth.

106 million miles ...

Slow news day

[BenLurkin]

It’s astronomy, FRiend.

[SunkenCiv]

Yes, and one of them discovered the ‘Anopticon’

Well, the discoverer and inventor had died in the incident -- one of the three survivors had held onto the object as a souvenir without realizing it had value. :^)