Asteroid blows past Earth in near miss ( video )

watts Up With That? ^ | May 29, 2012 | Anthony Watts

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From ChicoEr.com

Flying close enough to Earth that in astronomic terms one could feel the breeze as it passed, a small asteroid flashed by just after midnight today.

NASA reported the space rock, with the unimaginative name of 2012 KT42, was just 8,700 miles above the atmosphere when it went by.

While the asteroid’s approach is actually within the orbit’s geosynchronous satellites, it is not of the sort to inspire fears of global destruction.

NASA estimates the object is roughly 10 to 30 feet in diameter. It is still not tiny. The fireball that flashed over California earlier this year and dropped fragments of itself over the Sierra Nevada, was said to be abut the size of a mini-van.

From Spaceweather.com

SMALL ASTEROID BUZZES EARTH: Newly-discovered asteroid 2012 KT42 is flying past Earth today (May 29th) only ~14,000 km above the planet’s surface. This means 2012 KT42 will actually fly inside the Clark Belt of geosynchronous satellites. The 3- to 10-meter wide asteroid ranks # 6 on the top 20 list of closest-approachers to Earth. According to the asteroid’s orbit, there is no danger of a collision. Even if it did hit, this space rock is too small to cause significant damage. It would likely disintegrate almost entirely in the atmosphere, peppering the ground below with relatively small meteorites.

Flyby images: #1, #2.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Meanwhile the Sun is doing its thing:Images from

Solar Prominences

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[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Failed to get this prior to the above image:

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Sergio Castillo Image taken: May. 29, 2012 Location: Inglewood,California Details: The Sun is displaying 3 big amazing Prominences one of them seems to be Thousands of miles long in scale to Earth it makes you think how small our planet is compare to what is out there in the universe.This images were taken with a Lunt 60mm H-alpha scope double stack and my Teli CCD camera.

[Migraine]

Thank you so much for this post! I had not seen this news anyplace else. It is highly important. This was truly a near miss. A rock this size could create a major nuclear-like explosion (compare Tunguska c. 1910), which ignited a huge section of forest and the concussion blew miles-long stands of trees over like they were matchsticks.

[dfwgator]

It’s a ‘near hit’. A collision is a ‘near miss.’ - George Carlin

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I did find a few threads earlier...checked and added them to the astroid keyword list.

[BenLurkin]

Here's the picture taken from the International Space Stations...

[soycd]

I just noticed that the logo for http://www.usa.gov/ appears to be a 0bama style election logo.

[PapaBear3625]

A rock this size could create a major nuclear-like explosion (compare Tunguska c. 1910),

Depends on what it's made of. A solid nickel-iron asteroid would make quite a mess if it hit in one piece. A loosely-held-together rock would break apart in the upper atmosphere and expend its kinetic energy there in a bright flash.

[blam]

File this under:

It's Always Something. (IAS)

[NormsRevenge]

Heck , a 3-meter would make a nice big crater for a pool. a natural reservoir.. heck, isn’t Lake Tahoe a crater lake? I forget.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Lake Tahoe is pretty good sized,....have not been there.

I'll ask my son, he might known a bit about it,...he visits there a bit.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

IAS,....great keyword idea....LOL!

[Marine_Uncle]

Glad to see it did not interfere with the returning Dragon from the ISS.

[Species8472]

Let it fall NEAR my house.

Meteorites From Big Fireball Spark Space Age 'Gold Rush

[blam]

"I'll ask my son, he might known a bit about it,...he visits there a bit."

I have a rock from Tahoe out on my deck.

Tahoe is not a crater lake...it is an Alpine lake. It is the 2nd deepest lake in the US after Crater Lake in Oregon. It is the 26th biggest body of fresh water in the US. The whole area is absolutely beautiful.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From the comments at WUWTL

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• Phil says:

  May 29, 2012 at 3:17 pm

  That’s nothing. In 1883, the world came a lot closer to ending: Interpretation of the observations made in 1883 in Zacatecas (Mexico): A fragmented Comet that nearly hits the Earth, Manterola, et al 2011:

  For the calculated distances, we see that these objects were close to impact Earth. Furthermore, the calculated size of the objects is greater than or of the same order of the object which produced the Tunguska event. So if they had collided with Earth we would have had 3275 Tunguska events in two days, probably an extinction event.

  Had not heard of this one......

[Cyber Liberty]

You don't want a "gold rush" in your back yard. You'll find out what a swarm of human locusts looks like, and you'll get bupkis. Pretty much ruined John Sutter.

[Rebelbase]

“NASA estimates the object is roughly 10 to 30 feet in diameter.”

Certain areas of earth could use an impact of that magnitude.