Asteroid 2004 FH

Spaceweather.com ^ | 3/18/2004 | NASA

[Orlando]

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.

[PLMerite]

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

Withdraw from the European Space Agency?

[Lokibob]

Been a couple of months since I posted it, but I think it is pretty good.

[capitan_refugio]

That's pretty neat. I had not see the animation before. Thanks.

[capitan_refugio]

Was the "Teton bolide" the one shown in the color photo on that thread? I remember the post about "exogeology," but I guess I signed off because I don't recall the rest of the thread. I now see that the Greenland animation is there too.

It is almost 1:00 pm Pacific time as I post this, so we only have about an hour to go until the "close encounter."

[capitan_refugio]

The thought of a thousand-foot tsunami is strangely exciting, except if you live near a coastline.

Hey, wait a minute. I live near a coastline!!

[cogitator]

Was the "Teton bolide" the one shown in the color photo on that thread?

Yeah. On today's asteroid thread I couldn't find the picture I found before, so I posted one that just showed the bolide trail above the mountains. It's the same picture, but cropped.

[Phil V.]

Is it safe to go outside yet?

Do you believe that Osama has more of these lined up?

. . . or is this another dastardly Bush/Cheney/Rummy trick to distract attention from their bumbling incompetence?

Is it November yet?

[George from New England]

"Which tells us they weren't sure until sometime today that it would miss."

If they knew it was going to hit, we wouldn't be told at all!!!

[CygnusXI]

45 minutes to go.....

[capitan_refugio]

I remember in the mid-1960s, a large fireball passing over Ventura County one "summer" evening. I was visiting my grandfather's ranch and laying outside in a sleeping bag. The fireball suddenly arced over much of the sky, with a strong, persistent trail, that was visible for several seconds, and ended with a audible "pop" (although the sound was delayed from the naked-eye event). I always wondered if it may have been a satellite re-entering the atmosphere.

[George from New England]

Bad news...they changed the spelling to Ramen.

Sorry to break it to you this way

[George from New England]

"The average velocity of the earth in orbit is 18.5 miles per second.
If the miss is 26500 miles then we miss by about 24 minutes."

But this is a leap year, and 2000 wasn't. Oh crap, redo the calculations!!

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

26,500 miles!!!

That's so close it's not even remotely humorous.

[Nick Danger]

45 minutes to go.....

Just in case, I would like to thank the Academy, my parents, Free Republic, Pam, Cathy, Georgeann, George Chory, Roger Nielsen, Chuck and Manuel, and all the many wonderful people who have made my life what it is... until today.

Should Northern Virginia turn into a smoking crater in 20 minutes or so... it was nice knowing you all!

[b4its2late]

3 minutes to go.

[capitan_refugio]

What about the people of New Zealand?! You need to thank them too!

[capitan_refugio]

2000 WAS a leap year! 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not!!

Good Lord, the calculations are all wrong!

We're screwed.

[capitan_refugio]

I went outside at 2:06 pm Pacific time. I heard something that sounded like a far off freight train.

I think it was ... a far off freight train.

[Phil V.]

I just heard a loud noise.

How long for the shock wave to reach California . . . or do you even care?

[Phil V.]

I do not trust those math guys.

I'm wearing my hard hat at least for another 24 hours.