Asteroid Passes Within 7500 Miles Of Us?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I just caught the tail end of this story on the news. Can anyone fill us in?

Thanks

Q

2

Looks like we dodged a bullet. 7500 miles is nothing in astronomical terms. The Clarke Belt, where our geostationary satellites sit is 22,236 miles.

3

According to that article there was never any chance of it hitting us, and even if it had it would have burned up in the atmosphere. Not much of a bullet!

4

I was worried about it hitting one of the satellites. You may not worry about DirecTV, but some of us do.

5

What kind of damage were we looking at if it should hit?

6

Here’s what Phil Plait said about it.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/06/26/rv-sized-asteroid-will-buzz-the-earth-on-monday/

7

According to that article there was never any chance of it hitting us, and even if it had it would have burned up in the atmosphere. Not much of a bullet!

8

The same article says that the chance of it hitting a tiny satellite in the vastness of space were infinitesimally low.

9

Yeah, but the day is gonna come when we get hit by a big one. Mark my words.

10

If a big one were going to hit somewhere on our continent, I doubt they’d warn us. What do y’all think?

Thanks

Q

11

National Geographic quotes an MIT planetary scientist saying that the asteroid was large enough and fast enough to make it to the ground, and leave a good-sized hole, too.

12

Depends on where they expect the impact and how much warning they could give. Two hours to evacuate Houston? Probably wouldn’t bother. Two days to evacuate Bum Fuck? Clear it out and sell tickets to the show.

I think a good sized strike could be a good thing. Remind the human race that we are living on borrowed time. Make hay while the sun (still) shines.

13

According to that article there was never any chance of it hitting us, and even if it had it would have burned up in the atmosphere. Not much of a bullet!

14

Yeah, but what I wanna know is: What did the article say, and would it have been much of a bullet?

15

Well, given how the Houston freeway system became 60 miles of parking lot in every direction when Hurricane Rita was expected to hit in '05, that sounds about right.

Anyway, was there ever much chance of it hitting us, or would it have just burned up in the atmosphere?

16

My guess that it had a significant chance of hitting us and would have caused great damages had it done so. I’m pretty sure that reading related articles will confirm this.

17

I suspect that Quasimodem had more in mind a “big one” wipping out life on half a continent or something like that.

Anyway, it would definitely make sense to issue warnings on all conceivable channels if it was going to hit Houston in two hours. Some people at least would manage to leave the area in time, and others heading towards it would change their plans in time. Most certainly it would save a significant number of lives.

Now, if the asteroid is going to destroy most of north America (or in my case most of Europe), I’m not sure it would make sense to warn people. As an individual, I probably would want to know, but if I were in power, I’m not convinced I would mention the impeding doom (even though, on second thought I could apply the same reasoning I used above for Houston. Some lives at least would be saved by doing so).

18

I think anyone who thinks this is paranoid.

19

What’s everyone so worked up about? So there’s an asteroid. Big deal. It’ll burn up in atmosphere and whatever’s left will be no bigger than a Chihuahua’s head.

20

So… bigger than a bullet then?