Posted on 06/27/2011 10:08:33 AM PDT by blam
NASA: An Asteroid Will Barely Avoid Slamming Into Earth Today
David Edwards, The Raw Story
Jun. 27, 2011, 11:47 AM
Image: Flickr Ed Sweeny
Astronomers have just discovered an asteroid that is expected come close enough to Earth Monday that it will be visible with amateur telescopes.
The Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research centre (LINEAR) spotted Asteroid 2011 MD on June 22. It has an orbit similar to Earth's.
The asteroid will be visible from parts of South Africa and Antarctica when it makes its closest approach at 1:14 p.m. EDT (1714 GMT), passing just 7,500 miles (12,000 kilometers) from the Earth's surface. The rock will be so close that its trajectory will be sharply altered by the Earth's gravity.
"There is no chance that 2011 MD will hit Earth but scientists will use the close pass as opportunity to study it w/ radar observations," NASA's @AsteroidWatch tweeted last week.
Scientists say there is no danger of the bus-sized object striking Earth this time, but an impact is possible when it makes the next pass in 2022.
"Asteroid 2011 MD measures about 10 meters. Stony asteroids less than 25 m would break up in Earth's atmosphere & not cause ground damage," NASA wrote on their Twitter page.
The record for near-miss asteroids was set in February when 2011 CQ1 came with 3,400 miles (5,471 kilometers) of the planet.
Image: NASA
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Thankfully, folks with real degrees in real science can calculate orbits.
Now, just think of a “climate change” dunderhead was doing those calculations.
Oh, the humanity.......
Put your head between your legs and kiss your a@@ Goodbye
Global warming causes asteroid impacts. After long sojourns throught the unimaginable cold of deep space, the asteroids look for a warm place to retire.
Why does Earth always get the passive voice?
How about, “Earth barely misses squashing meteor today”?
So it's going to miss us, but even if it hit us, it wouldn't do anything notable.
Would probably put on a quick 3 second show though.
If Cheney wanted to crash an asteroid into Earth, he would have done it already. His weather-control machine has been upgraded.
The big one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtuIVM61nKE
So they've already done the trajectory analysis? I call BS on the "next time" hypothesis...
by the freeper clock you already missed it.
SC - In case blam did not send this to you for Catastrophism.
The data they get in this hour will give them 1000 times the accuracy to predict the 2022 pass.
Well, that passed four minutes ago (20 by the busted FR posting clock), so I guess we dodged a bullet.....
OUCH!
Global warming attracted it! The sky is falling!!Well, maybe not.
You might say it’s a warning shot over the bow...
Women and minorities hardest hit.
They are both Bush's fault.
“Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.”
- Winston Churchill, The Story of the Malakand Field Force: An Episode of Frontier War (1898), Chapter X
Bush’s Fault..
Just logged on. What happened? Did we just almost get killed..........again?
Another day, another close call! :-)
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