An asteroid of not inconsiderable size will soon pass closer to Earth than any similar sized object has since such measurements were made:
It’s definitely not “Armageddon.” But an asteroid measuring 150 feet in diameter with a mass of 130,000 metric tons will make the closest pass of Earth for an object of its size on February 15, 2013, traveling about 17,450 miles-per-hour (4.8 miles-per-second), NASA noted on Thursday.
The asteroid’s pass will be a “record predicted close approach for a known object of this size,” said Donald Yeomans, manager of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Near-Earth Object Programs Office, in a press conferencestreamed live on NASA’s website on Thursday.
Yeomans said the asteroid, dubbed 2012 DA14, would come anywhere between within 17,100 miles and 17,200 miles of Earth’s surface, well far away enough to avoid any potential collision with our homeworld.
“No Earth impact is possible,” Yeomans clarified during NASA’s press conference.
Just in case, though, perhaps we should keep Bruce Willis and Robert Duvall on alert.
Comments
16 responses to “Large Asteroid To Pass Close To Earth”
Closer than the orbits of many of our satellites.
Looks like the Mayans were only off by a couple months and 17,000 miles.
Bruce Willis died on that other asteroid.
I’m just sayin’
@C. Clavin:
Yes, but only after he overcame the idiot president and his White House advisors was the earth saved. The politicians and technocrats were going to prematurely detonate due to their profound ignorance of the science and physics of the explosives and pressure waves.
On the other hand, doesn’t all this wringing of the hands about AGW seem silly now. All that effort and we almost get hit by a bus. Oh, wait, that was the last one, this one is a might larger.
to have a homeworld implies we have a not homeworld. Are we secretly occupying other planets?
@JKB: “to have a homeworld implies we have a not homeworld. Are we secretly occupying other planets? ”
Judging by the behavior of the contemporary Republican party, I’m going to have to say yes.
@JKB:
Shush. JKB isn’t supposed to know.
It seems that the government has been keeping this and other close calls secret and little advanced warning. Does the government have an emergency plan to deal with an asteroid strike prevention or evacuation if one hits the earth? Here they are in Washington hollaring about drones and other trivial nonsense while we are all on the edge of total disaster.The government keeps us in the dark about everything.
… also known as 130,000 Megagrams.
/sorry, pet peeve
@Tyrell: Can’t tell if you’re joking. I assume you know that it’s remarkably difficult to see these relatively small dark objects from any great distance. And once it’s confirmed, we can often narrow down the orbit pretty quickly to know if it will hit.
@Franklin:
Or 1.3 Metric Sh.tloads. (A metric sh.tload is 2.2 english sh.tloads)
Doesn’t this call for another Chuck Norris joke?
@Franklin: But does the government and NASA have a plan to change the trajectory of some thing like this ? Now that would be a useful expenditure of government funds, considering the potential risk to life on earth. It would also provide a lot of jobs and government contracts for businesses.
Another Obama screwup. If Romney was in the White House, the asteroids would mind their Ps & Qs…
i just want to know will it hit us bad on earth on Feb 16,2013
will it hurt