Oh, and btw, I call it an asteroid, but really it’s an NEO, or near-Earth object.
It’s dimensions are not all that huge, only being about 30 mtrs in diameter.
Not life on Earth ending size.
Bit would make a great 4th of July event!
Calculations based on available data indicates that at closest approach to Earth on March 5, 2013 TX68 could pass as far away as 9 million miles (14 million kilometers) or as close as 11,000 miles (17,000 kilometers).
Quite a wide margin.
If you haven’t read Lucifer’s Hammer, I recommend it highly. Or any of the Niven-Pournelle collaborations, for that matter. The Mote in God’s Eye is probably their best, but they’re all really good.
Changes by an inch or two a year(slowly moves away). Also changes all the time by orbit shape. Still averages 240 000 miles ( some just round up to a quarter million miles).
Not enough change to not say LD
Any chance we can place it on top of Mecca?
Not sure why they use LD as a measurement because LD changes all the time, but so it goes...
...
The average distance is fairly consistent, and everybody is familiar with the Moon and its relationship to Earth. I think that’s why they use it.
Duck!
Are we all gonna die this time?
The earth has a gravitational pull. One of these things will hit us someday.
All the trillions wasted on global warming hysteria will then be meaningless. We should have spent that money and future money on asteroid and comet defenses. That tech would have other beneficial uses, just like the moon missions.
Planet X?
Probably won’t be visible due to chemtrails.
They use LD because half of this country never heard of the moon, and think an asteroid is a medical issue.