Closest Flyby of (non striking) Asteroid Yet!

Check it out:

www.newscientist.com...

Though not very large, it was still just about on top of us.

how much damage would an astroid like that do if it impacted earth ?? i know it would lose a lot of its size cause it would burn up in the atmosphere.

I know! LOL!

The closer they get the more they lie!

Just think of the number of satellites that would be taken out if the atmoshpere was just brushed by an asteroid. That might cause a few problems.

Originally posted by tealc
how much damage would an astroid like that do if it impacted earth ?? i know it would lose a lot of its size cause it would burn up in the atmosphere.

This fits in the 10-20 meter diameter class. As it mentioned in the article it would likely explode in the atmosphere (likely quite high in the atmosphere). Explosive yield would likely be in the high kiloton to low megaton range, although atmosphere would be so high as to prevent damage on the ground (unless you were in a very unlucky airliner in the line of fire...)

This is about the size of asteroid that regularly impacts the upper atmosphere about 5 times a year. This has been well documented by the US KillSats, which constantly search for nuclear explosions on the surface of the planet.

Did you guys see this?


news.bbc.co.uk...

So then, I wonder if this was the object I mentioned in my September 26th post, "What did I see last night?". To bad that article doesn't give any location... umm... "visual" wise.