Thanks fieldmarshaldj.
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Posted on 12/22/2018 11:58:39 AM PST by ETL
If only a hippopotamus will do this Christmas, Santa has the space rock for you.
A small asteroid will fly safely by Earth Saturday (Dec. 22) and according to the folks at NASA, it looks just like the mighty hippo in new radar images. The asteroid, called 2003 SD220, is also making its closest approach to Earth in more than 400 years and won't be any closer until 2070, NASA officials said. It last flew by Earth on Christmas Eve of 2015.
"Do you want a hippopotamus for Christmas?" officials with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory wrote on Twitter Friday (Dec. 21). "You're in luck. Hippo-shaped #asteroid 2003 SD220 will fly safely past Earth on Saturday, Dec. 22, at a distance of ~1.8 million miles (~2.9 million km)." (If you're wondering about the Christmas-hippotomas connection, watch this adorable music video of "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" as sung by a 10-year-old Gayla Peevey in 1953.)
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Yeah, no comment.
Yeah that's it, a croissant!
A croissant that's been eaten and digested.
I knew someone here would come
up with the right word for it.
I can see why they think it looks like a hippo. I can see why other people might be reminded of other things.
Yes, I would name it the Hillary asteroid too. It looks like a tumbling hippo.
What direction to look ?
What is best time to view it?
We’re screwed if this thing penetrates our atmosphere.
I didn't see it at first, but the image (orientation) on the left kind of resembles a hippo in profile, while the two on the right sort of look like, well, you know, "Mr Hanky", or whatever name you apply to "it".
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The circumference of the Earth's orbit around the Sun (I roughed it with simple geometry and ballpark numbers) is 584,335,740 miles. 1.8 million miles is .0000000030804209 or .00000030804209 percent. Closer call than it probably sounds -- and a one mile rock would end civilization (and probably kill nearly everyone, or everyone) if it smacked into the Earth.
Hippo asteroid pass 2018 site:youtube.com
The Captain on The Jungle Cruise Ride should be able to shoot it out of the Sky if it starts wiggling its Ears.
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