Posted on 12/03/2024 7:56:17 AM PST by Red Badger
The location the asteroid will burn over.
Image Credit: PorcupenWorks/Shutterstock.com, modified by IFLScience
In a matter of hours, a small asteroid will burn over the Siberian skies. This is only the 11th time that an asteroid has been predicted to hit our planet before it actually happened, but it shows that the system of planetary defense is working!
At around 4:15 pm UTC today, the asteroid will burn in the atmosphere. The object is tiny, about 70 centimeters (27.6 inches) in diameter. It's not the smallest known asteroid – a previously predicted impactor holds that record for now. It's still pretty small and a testament to the observatories that can spot these tiny rocks and the software developed to quickly work out where and when they are going to hit.
The location the asteroid will burn over.
Image Credit: PorcupenWorks/Shutterstock.com, modified by IFLScience
In a matter of hours, a small asteroid will burn over the Siberian skies. This is only the 11th time that an asteroid has been predicted to hit our planet before it actually happened, but it shows that the system of planetary defense is working!
At around 4:15 pm UTC today, the asteroid will burn in the atmosphere. The object is tiny, about 70 centimeters (27.6 inches) in diameter. It's not the smallest known asteroid – a previously predicted impactor holds that record for now. It's still pretty small and a testament to the observatories that can spot these tiny rocks and the software developed to quickly work out where and when they are going to hit.
I doubt it’ll do much damage.
What ‘System of Planetary Defence” is being spoken of here? There is one? I was under the impression that we only sometimes “see” asteroids, comets, and meteors coming? And sometimes not at all ahead if they come at us “from the sun” angle?
The asteroid was discovered by the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson Arizona. This is the fourth prediction of an asteroid impact in 2024. In January, a bright fireball burned over Berlin and left behind extremely rare meteorites. In September, a bright fireball exploded over the Philippines. Another one burned over the Pacific in October. Four in one year is a new record!
The region where the fireball is expected to take place is scarcely populated so we might not get footage like after the Chelyabinsk meteor. Plus this asteroid is more than 30 times smaller than that so it won’t be as spectacular or damaging.
Get ready to call the Ghostbusters if it is anything like this:
Tunguska Event? 😬
The village of Lansk might lose some phone service and windows... do they even have phones?
Ping!.....................
Tiny? It’s going to have a self-esteem problem.
Tiny Asteroid.
In other words, a meteor. Like thousands that enter the earth’s atmosphere daily.
If I lived in Lansk I think I’d get in my Yugo and take a road trip......at least go as far as I could until it broke down 😏
Good news, we are making improvement.
(weird I already made this point on Another thread today)
While a massive asteroid strike is nearly nonexistent in % chance per year the resulting damage would be nearly infinite.
So .0000001 % chance times infinity is still enormous. The article I read said it was an insurance type probability problem. Same article said just for the yearly price to maintain one McDonald’s restaurant we could fairly well scan, Map and monitor most of the dangerous asteroids in the solar system.
That my friends is cheap insurance.
Do they have windows? 🌠
I’m kind of busy today.
Can we reschedule this?
Just as long as everyone knows it’s NOT a nuclear event.
Looks like a Fiat 500 that had a bastard child 😂
We used to see Soviet Ladas when I was a kid and we went up into Canada to fish remotely. Sault St. Marie Ontario had an import dealership. Looked like boxy, poorly-made utilitarian only crap then.
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