[Orlando]

This is close !

[Capt.April]

It's Bush's fault.

[doug from upland]

If it hits, please may it hit Chappaqua.

[Sola Veritas]

Let's see, what is the old saying.....

"Close only counts with hand grenades and horse shoes."

[Joe Hadenuf]

Way to close. This thing is about 35 meters in diameter and would wreak havoc on any major city it happened to hit.

[Southack]

Recently Discovered Near-Earth Asteroid Makes Record-breaking Approach to Earth

Asteroid 2004 FH passes about 43,000 km (26,500 miles) above the Earth's surface on March 18, 2004. Earth's gravity bends the trajectory of the asteroid by about 15 degrees. The asteroid crosses from one side of the Moon's orbit to the other in 31 hours.

Steven R. Chesley
Paul W. Chodas
NASA's Near Earth Object Program Office
Wednesday, March 17, 2004

A small near-Earth asteroid (NEA), discovered Monday night by the NASA-funded LINEAR asteroid survey, will make the closest approach to Earth ever recorded. There is no danger of a collision with the Earth during this encounter.

The object, designated 2004 FH, is roughly 30 meters (100 feet) in diameter and will pass just 43,000 km (26,500 miles, or about 3.4 Earth diameters) above the Earth's surface on March 18th at 5:08 PM EST (2:08 PM PST, 22:08 UTC). (Close approach details here).

On average, objects about the size of 2004 FH pass within this distance roughly once every two years, but most of these small objects pass by undetected. This particular close approach is unusual only in the sense that scientists know about it. The fact that an object as small as asteroid 2004 FH has been discovered now is mostly a matter of perseverance by the LINEAR team, who are funded by NASA to search for larger kilometer-sized NEAs, but also routinely detect much smaller objects.

Asteroid 2004 FH's point of closest approach with the Earth will be over the South Atlantic Ocean. Using a good pair of binoculars, the object will be bright enough to be seen during this close approach from areas of Europe, Asia and most of the Southern Hemisphere.

Scientists look forward to the flyby as it will provide them an unprecedented opportunity to study a small NEA asteroid up close.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Wow! That's almost as close as a geostationary communications satellite!

[nightdriver]

26,500 miles is getting close to the area of the geo-synchronous satellites. I wonder if there might be a rather spectacular collision with one of them.

[Euro-American Scum]

Newly-discovered asteroid 2004 FH is going to fly-by our planet TODAY, March 18th , 2200 GMT) 5:08 pm, est. only 43,000 km , which is only 26,500 miles from Earth.

Clinton blames the NRA.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Damn close!

[SevenDaysInMay]

All the better reason to fill one's pantry now. War and earth strikes! Film at ...

Qom, Iran would make a good bulls eye.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Well, even if it hits the earth, the odds of it hitting land is just 1 in 3. To hit somewhere in the US is what, 1 in 50 or more? I doubt the US takes up more than about 1-2% of the earth's surface. And even if it hits the US, there is a 95% or greater chance that it hits a rural area.

So I'm not real worried.

But I do wonder how the Spaniards will react if it hits Spain...

[Cold Heat]

This is close !

Very!

[Prince Charles]

Full story from link:

Steven R. Chesley
Paul W. Chodas
NASA's Near Earth Object Program Office
Wednesday, March 17, 2004

A small near-Earth asteroid (NEA), discovered Monday night by the NASA-funded LINEAR asteroid survey, will make the closest approach to Earth ever recorded. There is no danger of a collision with the Earth during this encounter.

The object, designated 2004 FH, is roughly 30 meters (100 feet) in diameter and will pass just 43,000 km (26,500 miles, or about 3.4 Earth diameters) above the Earth's surface on March 18th at 5:08 PM EST (2:08 PM PST, 22:08 UTC). (Close approach details here).

On average, objects about the size of 2004 FH pass within this distance roughly once every two years, but most of these small objects pass by undetected. This particular close approach is unusual only in the sense that scientists know about it. The fact that an object as small as asteroid 2004 FH has been discovered now is mostly a matter of perseverance by the LINEAR team, who are funded by NASA to search for larger kilometer-sized NEAs, but also routinely detect much smaller objects.

Asteroid 2004 FH's point of closest approach with the Earth will be over the South Atlantic Ocean. Using a good pair of binoculars, the object will be bright enough to be seen during this close approach from areas of Europe, Asia and most of the Southern Hemisphere.

Scientists look forward to the flyby as it will provide them an unprecedented opportunity to study a small NEA asteroid up close.

[reg45]

The ones that hit should be called disasteroids!!

[LibWhacker]

You can play around with Jay Melosh's Crater Calculator to see approximately how large the crater would be from something like this smacking into us, and also calculate the energy release. Making bad case (instead of worst case) assumptions, I get a rim-to-rim crater size of about 800 meters and an energy release of about 300 kilotons of TNT. Nasty consequences for such a little guy!

[The Raven]

That's not a good feeling. That means if it had been on a collision course......it would be too late to do anything.

[tm22721]

This thing was only discovered Monday night.

If it had been Earth-threatening, we would not be reading this right now. The internet and all infrastructure would be 'offline' as people would not report to their jobs, generally behaving like there was no tomorrow.

[LurkedLongEnough]

Quick, call Bruce Willis!

[Fury]

Noooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[stboz]

Does this thing have any trailers? Could be a spectacular light show.