No, You Won’t See an 'Apocalypse Asteroid' in the Sky on Valentine's Day

Space.com ^ | February 11, 2019 03:56pm ET | Mike Wall,

[BenLurkin]

The English tabloid Express ran a story today (Feb. 11) with the headline "NASA warn 'APOCALYPSE asteroid' Bennu WILL appear in the sky this Valentine's Day."

The piece claimed that the 1,640-foot-wide (500 meters) asteroid Bennu — "a doomsday asteroid which has a high probability of impacting Earth in one hundred years time" — will be "visible to the naked eye" on the night of Feb. 14, slightly to the right of Mars.

This is entirely wrong. First of all, Bennu is not an "apocalypse asteroid," and NASA never labeled it such. (Agency scientists aren't known for their hyperbolic and florid language.) The space rock is classified as "potentially hazardous," but that's a broad designation that applies to many asteroids of sufficient size whose orbits bring them relatively close to Earth.

Even if Bennu did hit Earth, the damage would be far from apocalyptic. Such an impact would be devastating on a local scale, to be sure. But scientists estimate that asteroids need to be at least 0.6 miles (1 km) wide — about twice Bennu's diameter — to cause a global catastrophe.

Then there's the visibility angle. Express may have gotten this bit from NASA's February 2019 skywatching guide, which did note that Bennu will be close to Mars in the Feb. 14 night sky — just a fist's-width to the right of the Red Planet, in fact. But the NASA piece stated that Bennu "is too faint to see without a telescope."

[SunkenCiv]

Asteroid Bennu: Target of Sample Return Mission
Space.com | March 12, 2018 11:31pm ET | By Elizabeth Howell
Posted on 03/13/2018 6:30:05 AM PDT by BenLurkin
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3639326/posts

[snip] It is roughly 500 meters (1,640 feet) in diameter and orbits the sun once every 1.2 years, or 436.604 days. Every six years or so, it comes very close to Earth — about 0.002 AU, according to the University of Arizona. (... well within the orbit of Earth’s moon.) [/snip]

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin. Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

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[a fool in paradise]

When the Moon literally hits your eye like a big pair of pork lips, that's Apocalypse...

[Peter ODonnell]

This is the dawning of the age of I don’t care much.

[Salamander]

Pffft.

Now I won’t have anything to look forward to.

[SunkenCiv]

Just crank the Alice Cooper!

[hattend]

Carter! I can see my house!