Another asteroid similar to Russian meteor zooming past us harmlessly

Hey, at least they spotted this one in advance. Albeit it within a day or so advance, but still before it actually passed at it's closest.

A newly found asteroid will pass by Earth at about the distance of the moon's orbit, with its closest approach coming at 2:35 a.m. ET (7:35 a.m. UTC) Monday.

Named 2013 EC, the asteroid is roughly the size of the space rock that exploded over Russia two and a half weeks ago, measuring somewhere between 10 and 17 meters (33 to 55 feet) wide. The asteroid that sparked the Russian meteor is estimated to have been about 17 meters wide when it entered Earth’s atmosphere.

I'm also very glad to hear it's 100% a moot point for concern.

The asteroid is due to come within 246,000 miles (396,000 kilometers) from Earth. In comparison, the moon's distance from Earth varies between 225,622 and 252,088 miles (363,104 to 406,696 kilometers).

Source

It's good to know they are looking and looking hard at this point. That is a very small one to spot in the first place as I understand it. It tells me they are putting a solid effort into it.

Maybe someone with their own telescope can see it? ...Or is one this small, too hard to spot that way?

Hi Wrabbit, always read your replies and posts, yes, they are watching the skies closely, My college friend works at the hro in Arizona, went from 44 hours per week to 60, They are serious. You would have to have a huge scope to see this new one, @17m, your position and direction would have to be almost perfect. I believe we will see more of this and come November, maybe another light and pyro show. Stay tuned....

Id like to know how they are finding it? I don buy the "using telescope" excuse for a small rock flying past at that distance.

Im guessing some sort of advance planetary radar picking these up....but thats just my wilde conspiracy theory.

I wonder if it's trajectory puts it anywhere near the Moon?

Here you go
www.virtualtelescope.eu...

Originally posted by teslahowitzer
Hi Wrabbit, always read your replies and posts, yes, they are watching the skies closely, My college friend works at the hro in Arizona, went from 44 hours per week to 60, They are serious. You would have to have a huge scope to see this new one, @17m, your position and direction would have to be almost perfect. I believe we will see more of this and come November, maybe another light and pyro show. Stay tuned....

Hmmmm, this is a curious and concerning twist. They upped your friends hours from 44 ( a lot) to 60 (a darn lot) to watch the skies. "They" obviously did this because your friend is good at the job. So, to up the hours that much, something could be up (literally). Have you quizzed him or her on why the unusual increase in workload? And please elaborate on the November comment. Thanks.

reply to post by teslahowitzer

Thanks for the personal perspective. I had figured after the real physical damage the Russian one did, they'd be watching extra close. It seems to me that there is more junk out there, but that may just be a personal thing. It's knowing that so many professional people are watching that leaves me feeling half way decent about it all.

I'm sure people like your friend would yell from the roof tops if they spotted something everyone needed to know about.

What's interesting is that they spotted this rock in advance, but couldn't spot the Russian one. Perhaps it's because the Russian one was a secret military test by the USA!

Originally posted by wildespace
What's interesting is that they spotted this rock in advance, but couldn't spot the Russian one. Perhaps it's because the Russian one was a secret military test by the USA!

Maybe they did spot the russian one just did not tell them
Just wanted to see what would happen.

Don't they may not tell us either