Giant asteroid to 'narrowly miss' Earth

Giant asteroid to 'narrowly miss' Earth

www.telegraph.co.uk

A newly discovered asteroid the size of an office block will narrowly miss the Earth on Monday - coming 23 times closer than the moon.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The space rock will reach within 11,000 miles of the surface and give off a light bright enough to be seen through a small telescope, experts said today.
It was only spotted on Wednesday by a robotic telescope in New Mexico that scans the skies for such hazards. An alert was then put out yesterday by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in Massachusetts.

www.telegraph.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Already posted.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

20 meters across is not a giant asteroid.

fear mongering caught red handed!





"Asteroid 2011 MD is estimated to be between 10 and 50 yards wide.

UK asteroid expert, Dr Emily Baldwin, said: "We are certain that it will miss us, but if it did enter the atmosphere, an asteroid this size would mostly burn up in a brilliant fireball, possibly scattering a few meteorites." ops link


vs


"Giant asteroid to 'narrowly miss' Earth"


fearmonger me some more

11,000 miles? hmmm.......CNN said 3500 or so. at any rate, i'm not too worried about it hitting. if something truly were to hit us, we wouldn't hear of it.

Originally posted by Phage
Already posted.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

20 meters across is not a giant asteroid.

True, but I wouldn't like it landing on MY house, especially if I was home at the time.

Originally posted by backinblack


True, but I wouldn't like it landing on MY house, especially if I was home at the time.

Yeah, but it has to hit somewhere though.

reply to post by seedofchucky




fearmongering indeed my friend...

this is the worst one i have ever seen though... from our good old friend the sun...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/aa1e0970d5db.jpg[/atsimg]

the sun

Spacewheather.com says 7500 mi. Either way not too big would break up passing through the atmosphere so were good but indeed intresting!

Misleading title. 20 meters is not giant. Not sure if I would even call it an asteroid. Maybe a large meteor.

reply to post by Phage


That's pretty big.. It was definitely mess things up. It'd be like a nuke of incredible size. Likely bigger than any we've created (including tsar).

I hope a nice sized chunk falls on my lawn.

If I survive, I'll be rich.

you pretty much can guarantee a link to the telegraph.uk contains a tabloid article.

Is it really fearmongering though? I just call it a tabloid headline intended to draw the reader into checking out the article myself.

2nd

Originally posted by Phage
Already posted.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

20 meters across is not a giant asteroid.

Well this one was 50 meters and hit with force of 10 megatons so based on that 20 meters would work out to able 4 megatons. Not world ending by no means but that would still cause a lot of damage if it hit in the right place.

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by Misterlondon


Thats hilarious.

I`m confused though,if the Sun had that pic on the front page of a newspaper it would sell more newspapers imo, but online?

Either way if people got into a panic over that pic they would never trust the Sun again come monday.

Whats the point.

Well that is not a big deal, but thanks for posting it.

The “Asteroid 2005 YU55” makes me worry for sometimes, especially disagreements between US and Russian astronomers about its path.

www.compassnewspaper.com...:-us-russia-fight-over-asteroid-that-could-destroy-earth&catid=308:he adlines&Itemid=600

Scary.

It's pretty close... close enough to change its orbit because of Earth's gravity... Maybe next pass it will hit

Better title...

Bend it Like Beckham! Small Asteroid to Whip Past Earth on June 27, 2011

Near-Earth asteroid 2011 MD will pass only 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) above the Earth's surface on Monday June 27 at about 9:30 EDT. The asteroid was discovered by the LINEAR near-Earth object discovery team observing from Socorro, New Mexico. The diagram on the left shows the trajectory of 2011 MD projected onto the Earth's orbital plane over a four-day interval. The diagram on the left gives another view from the general direction of the Sun that indicates that 2011 MD will reach its closest Earth approach point in extreme southern latitudes (in fact over the southern Atlantic Ocean). This small asteroid, only 5-20 meters in diameter, is in a very Earth-like orbit about the Sun, but an orbital analysis indicates there is no chance it will actually strike Earth on Monday. The incoming trajectory leg passes several thousand kilometers outside the geosynchronous ring of satellites and the outgoing leg passes well inside the ring. One would expect an object of this size to come this close to Earth about every 6 years on average. For a brief time, it will be bright enough to be seen even with a modest-sized telescope.

neo.jpl.nasa.gov...

I hope it hits the hell out of us. Only if it has the zombie virus on it, though. Man, I've been waiting years for that.

Glad to know they can detect asteroids of this size.

Helps me to sleep at night.