Posted on 12/12/2012 12:00:22 PM PST by LibWhacker
Spotted just two days ago, it came zipping toward us inside the moon's orbit
A newfound asteroid gave Earth a close shave early today, zipping between our planet and the moon just two days after astronomers first spotted it.
The near-Earth asteroid 2012 XE54, which was discovered Sunday, came within 140,000 miles (230,000 kilometers) of our planet at about 5 a.m. EST Tuesday, researchers said. For comparison, the moon orbits Earth at an average distance of 240,000 miles or so (386,000 km).
Astronomers estimate that 2012 XE54 is about 120 feet (36 meters) wide — big enough to cause substantial damage if it slams into Earth someday. An object of similar size flattened 800 square miles (2,000 square km) of forest when it exploded above Siberia's Podkamennaya Tunguska River in 1908.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Nah!.Someone watched the SciFi channel last night, “Earthstorm” about an asteroid hitting the moon and sending large moon fragments to earth.
A ripoff movie of “Armaggedon” but had at least one cute woman in it.
Popcorn Bob gives it One Star.
Try me, I’m a retired physics teacher with a TS Crypto clearance.
I'm also very skeptical of the terms "Everyone knows". "It's common knowledge" and "The science is settled".
No matter what size I make it, all I see is a Russet Potato hurtling towards earth!
Actually, thanks for the link... interesting to play with...
A pretty decent meteor shower heading our way over the next few nights...keep your eyes on the skies...
New York or San Francisco would do more good. The battle with liberals can not be won so long as there is a New York and a San Francisco. DC is irrelevant
The best target would be New York and the shock jar loose the big fault and get San Francisco in a toofer.
I took physics in10th grade and have a TS/COMSEC/SCI clearance also, so I’m sure you understand what need to know means.
I took physics in10th grade and have a TS/COMSEC/SCI clearance also, so I’m sure you understand what need to know means.
You try telling time with a rock? :-)
How can orbital physics and inter-planetary dynamics be classified in any way?
The "I can tell you but then I'll have to kill you" mantra is the refuge of a BS'er.
‘I will come like a thief in the night’.
“So it is possible that we may never predict our destruction.....That is a little unnerving, isn’t it!”
Don’t worry about it.
Yes these “little” fellas can slip by. But they are not extinction class objects.
Those will be quite large and because of that and very likely get detected years if not decades or more of warning time to take action. And we already have the technology to take action that the dinosaurs didn’t have.
Rye whiskey, rye whiskey, rye whiskey I cry, if a tree don't fall on me, I'll live 'til I die.
Don't hold your breath.
But if it does happen, you can expect a disaster on the scale of Y2K.
God's Prophets predicted it, they just didn't say when. I don't want to know anyway.
Then you know that you have to be read into the program. Tell me what umbrellas you’re under, and I’ll let you know.
...and if ya don’t get rye whiskey, you surely will die.
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