Posted on 05/21/2019 4:52:36 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Asteroid (66391) 1999 KW4 is actually a double asteroid or a binary asteroid...composed of one large asteroid orbited by a smaller moon...about a third of a mile wide and orbits around the larger body about once every 16 hours.
The Las Cumbres Observatory describes 1999 KW4 as “slightly squashed at the poles and with a mountain ridge around the equator, which runs all the way around the asteroid. This ridge gives the primary an appearance similar to a walnut or a spinning top.”
While 1999 KW4 is classified as a “Potentially Hazardous Asteroid” by the Minor Planet Center, it should clear Earth at a very safe distance of 3,219,955 miles. To put it in perspective, that’s more than 13 times the distance from the Earth to the moon.
The closest approach will happen Saturday at 7:05 p.m. EDT (23:05 UTC) and will be most favorable for observers in Earth’s Southern Hemisphere. People in the Northern Hemisphere will need to wait until a day or two after closest approach for the asteroid to come over our southern horizons.
If you want to try to spot it, check out the helpful tips and charts provided by NASA solar system ambassador Eddie Irizarry over at EarthSky.
(Excerpt) Read more at losangeles.cbslocal.com ...
“Mile wide walnut asteroid”
Aha!
That explains what the squirrels have been doing in the back yard.
They’re building a space ship.
3,219,955 miles
I would have just rounded up. They must have an actual Wizard tip calculator.
That’s just not right.
The squirrels have grabbed every propane bottle from every barbecue in the neighborhood.
That must be their fuel source.
Cold weenies for dinner so squirrels can go Warp 9.
National Association of Squirrel Astronauts (NASA) is in their final countdown.
So do the squirrels on asteroid walnut wonder if their pecan moon is made of bleu cheese?
There she goes!
We have liftoff!
Nut Grabber 1 is a go!
I sense that you don’t believe that squirrels can fly.
Well, I give you Rocky The Flying Squirrel.
A great series of documentaries about squirrels in flight.
*ping*
Those furry miscreants took my fishing pole!
They haven’t figured out how to build a tractor beam.
I think they’re going to try and snag that big walnut with my fishing pole.
It’s only got twenty pound test on it.
They’ll probably have to play the walnut until it gets tired.
It’s got a Penn reel, so that will hold up.
What is that curved thing? Is it a visitor?
I see, I see, a spaceship from WAR OF THE WORLDS!
Oh no!
Klingons!
It’s a space battle!
Klingons versus Squirrels!
The Klingons must really want a nut!
Wait a minute!
The squirrels have fired Alexandria ocasio Whatsherteeth at the Klingons!
She’s the biggest nut in the galaxy.
The Klingons are withdrawing!
I think it’s dirty pool to shoot Alexandria at them. She’s more bother than a shipload of Tribbles.
I think I remember it from Space 1999 (or was it UFO?)...
Photoshopped?
Photoshopped?
What kind of dark world do you live in that you don’t believe Rocky flew to the moon?
Photoshopped.
Next thing you’ll be telling us that Bullwinkle didn’t play football at Whatsamata U.
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