Posted on 10/11/2017 7:26:47 PM PDT by MtnClimber
A house-size asteroid will give Earth a near-miss on Thursday, giving experts a rare chance to rehearse for a real-life strike threat as it passes inside the moon’s orbit.
Dubbed 2012 TC4, the space rock will shave past at an altitude of less than 44,000km (27,300 miles) – just above the 36,000km altitude at which hundreds of geosynchronous satellites orbit the Earth.
That represents about an eighth of the distance between the Earth and the moon.
Nasa’s Mike Kelley, who leads the exercise to spot, track and intimately probe the transient visitor, insisted there was “no danger. Not even for satellites”.
“We’ve now been observing TC4 for two months, so we have very accurate position information on it, which in turn allows very precise calculations of its orbit,” which will not cross that of Earth nor its satellites, he told AFP.
As its name suggests, the object was first spotted five years ago when it called on Earth at about double Thursday’s projected distance, before disappearing from view.
It is 15 to 30 metres (50 to 100ft) wide – about the size of the meteoroid that exploded in the atmosphere over Chelyabinsk in central Russia in 2013, with 30 times the kinetic energy of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
The resulting shockwave blew out the windows of nearly 5,000 buildings and injured more than 1,200 people.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
And so far no systems that could deflect one of the close calls that happen every year.
On the bright side, one that size hits and the most it can do is destroy one medium size city.
Another article states that it is at 5:41 universal time or 1:41 EDT. Say a prayer just in case. ;)
The way this week is going, I’d take precautions. Especially if you life in CA...
When (not if) an asteroid strikes planet Earth, you’d better be on your knees praying to Almighty God for repentance, forgiveness, & protection.
It’s predicted to happen in Revelation 8:8-11.
Give it directions to Mecca.
Yawn. We have missed ones that would have killed all life on earth, and didn’t see them until they had gone by.
Talk about oops.
I wouldn’t spend a red cent on Mars base until home base is secured.
2022 will be a very interesting year!
Let’s see, five years ago it passed earth at twice the distance it will pass this time. Two numerical progressions: 2, 1, ? And 2012, 2017, ?
It passes us again on it’s way back out early morning on the 13th.
You beat me to it by less than a minute.
What? Does it go around the sun? That would be over 160 million miles in less than 48 hours. That can’t be right. I guess I don’t understand it’s orbit.
Article says 2079 is the year to watch. I don’t plan on being here then, but who knows?
I didn’t know that. Now I have to worry twice. lol.
What will happen in 2079, other than the solar eclipse in NYC?
” posted on 10/11/2017, 10:31:39 PM”
Article says that a close pass in 2050 will be a miss, but the interaction of that one might cause a hit in 2079.
Nice study of path possibilities and gravity impact on future paths.
https://twitter.com/ptastro1/status/880046404256677888/photo/1
I think I see it com
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