Posted on 11/16/2010 6:21:12 PM PST by NormsRevenge
A tiny asteroid will zip close by Earth tonight (Nov. 16) at a range much closer than the moon, but poses no threat of striking our planet or even entering the atmosphere, NASA has announced.
The asteroid 2010 WA will pass Earth at 10:44 p.m. EST (0344 GMT), missing the planet by about 24,000 miles (38,000 kilometers), NASA's asteroid-watching team wrote on Twitter. It is nearly 10 feet (3 meters wide), so small it would simply break apart if it encountered Earth's atmosphere.
NASA officials said the asteroid is a "very small space rock" that will pass the Earth at roughly one-tenth the distance between our planet and the moon, according to NASA's AsteroidWatch Twitter feed. [5 Reasons to Care About Asteroids]
On average, the moon is about roughly 238,900 miles (384,402 km) from Earth. Some of the highest satellites above Earth fly in geostationary positions about 22,370 miles (36,000 km) up. The International Space Station sails through space about 220 miles (354 km) above Earth.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Aw, it’s just something the scientists like to pull on each other. Razz the new guy at work.
Punch him in the arm when the asteroid passes by and yell, “Made ya flinch!”
What I heard almost 60 years ago is that the asteroid belt, where most of the asteroids “live” may have been formed when a planet blew up or was smashed into and fragmented. If you look at a picture of the planets, you see that there is a noticeable gap between earth and mars.
What I heard almost 60 years ago is that the asteroid belt, where most of the asteroids “live” may have been formed when a planet blew up or was smashed into and fragmented. If you look at a picture of the planets, you see that there is a noticeable gap between earth and mars.
The idea that some sort of lost planet used to be in that orbit has been around since Ceres (about 1/3 the total mass of the asteroid belt) and the other largest asteroids were discovered. I think the guy’s name was Oberth. There’ s more about this on the website of the late Tom Van Flandern.
There’s a mnemonic called “Bode’s Law” (or sometimes “Titius-Bode’s Law”) that includes the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter (that’s the first big gap) as a planetary orbit. But the entire total mass of all those asteroids wouldn’t equal Earth’s Moon.
http://milan.milanovic.org/math/english/titius/titius.html
:’)
http://projects.cbe.ab.ca/AlexFerg/showcase07-08/rehakclassblog1/Pictures/planet-comparison.jpg
http://creationwiki.org/pool/images/1/18/Moons_of_solar_system.jpg
http://www.spacetoday.org/images/SolSys/KuiperBelt/Quaoar/QuaoarComparedWithEarthMoon.jpg
Nope! Close, it is between Mars and Jupiter. ‘Bode’s Law’ is interesting:
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1917Obs....40..346A&db_key=AST&page_ind=0&data_type=GIF&type=SCREEN_VIEW&classic=YES
Yes you are right, between Mars and Jupiter. That will teach me to work from memory after midnight. ;-)
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