2010 RF12: A second asteroid will buzz the Earth today - CSMonitor.com In a 24 hour period, 2 asteroids will come inside the orbit of the moon. One will be about 50,000 miles. The moon is about 250,000 miles away.
These hemorrhoids are very scary and that is a harbinger of the future. We know there are asteroids out there with our name on it. It a question of when.
Don’t piss them off. They could come back.
[my emphasis, natch] Better break out the 50 megaton Preparation-H bomb then.
Missed us by that much.
Bloody hell.
That’s the second biggest asteroid I’ve seen today.
Seriously though, they were only what 30 - 60 feet in diameter: the size of a swimming pool. Big deal.
Would still be a pain in the ass if they hit, though.
And if they landed in your swimming pool, you’d need a lot more water to fill that hole in the ground.
This is very scary why? A much bigger one would be cause for concern.
It depends on the total mass and speed (= energy) of the asteroid. Pieces do not have to hit the ground for the impact with the atmosphere to have a large negative impact.
An air burst of an object can make quite a boom
It is a reminder of how defenseless we are for a celestial object that will pound us some day. It is not that these ones will get us, but that a big brother is out there circling its target. Closer it comes, step by step, inch by inch ,then.
Yes, if one landed in the middle of Central Park West and 59th, it would ruin a whole lotta days for a whole lotta New Yorkers, but the odds of that, even assuming it hits, are infinitesimal. There’s much more water than land on the Earth, and much more uninhabited land than inhabited land. Hitting within a mile of a person is very unlikely,
And as the linked blog indicates, a mass 45 feet around will lose much of its mass on entry to the atmosphere. By contrast, the Tunguska Event was probably a coment, and one probably 50-100 meters in size. So, no worries.
That’s a fair point, yes.
This is no time to imitate Abbott and Costello! I’ve just learned the sun is going to burn out and engulf the earth in a measly few billion years.
I thought it was the Three Stooges? Or were they too quoting Abbott and Costello?
ETA: I see it was both. And a few others.
It was a vaudeville staple and a lot of people did it, including The Three Stooges and Abbott and Costello. Its origins aren’t clear.
So that phrase had a deep impact on the entertainment industry?
You guys are really piling on.
I’m hoping Nemesis will return in my lifetime. Totally cool.
Is there no relief from the punsters dropping in on every thread? It’s becoming something of a sore point.
If you want something known and potentially devastating, Apophis - 350m long - is the one to worry about.
This is how close it’ll get in 2029. (That’s WAY below the orbit of the moon, and in fact below the altitude of our geosynchronous satellites).
