Giant asteroid nearly hits Earth

[dadevvtsvre]

Apparently, on Monday of this week, an asteroid about the size of a 10-storey building nearly hit Earth. It's closest point to Earth was over the Pacific Ocean, near Tahiti. It was about 72,000 kilometres (about 45,000 miles) at this point away from Earth. That doesn't sound like it was very close, but in reality it's only a fifth of the distance to the Moon and only twice as far as communications satellites orbit.

Scientists are saying if the asteroid had hit Earth, the force from the explosion would've equalled roughly 1,000 atomic bombs, not to mention the tsunami that would've been caused if it had hit the ocean.

Quoted from Yahoo!:

An asteroid similar in size to an object that exploded above Siberia in 1908 with the force of 1,000 Second World War-era atomic bombs sped past the Earth on Monday, astronomers said Tuesday.

The asteroid, 2009 ND DD45, estimated at 21 to 47 metres across, passed 72,000 kilometres from the Earth at 8:34 a.m. ET, according to NASA's Near Earth Object program.

Astronomers apparently knew about the asteroid but weren't afraid because they knew it wouldn't hit. It was probably for the best not to tell anyone, anyway. Better not to cause a panic over an asteroid that isn't even going to hit us.

It's still a bit freaky thinking about this kind of stuff because you never know how many close calls like this happen, not to mention the fact that we barely even realize these asteroids are here before it's probably too late. Granted, if it was a really big deal then I think we'd be told, but still, there could always be that one little rock that slips past us.

This asteroid is being compared a lot to the meteor that hit Tunguska in Siberia in 1908. The rocks were about the same size. The meteor in 1908 exploded a couple miles above Earth and flattened over 800 square miles of land. That asteroid's force was about 1,000 times the force of the atom bomb dropped over Hiroshima.

Sources:
http://www.newsoxy.com/astronomy/article11722.html
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/090303/c ... d_flyby_14
http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Wow_Huge ... 35620.html
http://gear.ign.com/articles/959/959359p1.html

 

[Guest]

;D

 

[Feldschlacht IV]

Well shit, that's pretty crazy. I remember when I was little people would occasionally freak out over Halley's Comet.

 

[Guest]

;D

 

[Ellie]

If one does hit us it's not like we'll be around for long to worry about it, eh?

 

[Kraft]

That would have been sweet if it had smashed into the moon, that would be a site to see from the earth! All the sudden a huge hole appearing in the surface of the moon, combined with the white cloud and sorta... ripple effect... That would be sweet to see!

Screw you you astronauts footprints that have been there for ever! SCREW YOU JACKHOLES!!! you are gone. GONE, HEAR ME!!!

 

[Cruelty]

great now i have to worry about a space rock falling on me for the rest of my life


btw, that would be cool is an asteroid hit the moon. would that likely have any real affect on the earth? :0

 

[dadevvtsvre]

btw, that would be cool is an asteroid hit the moon. would that likely have any real affect on the earth? :0

That depends on the size of the asteroid. Small ones wouldn't do much, they hit the moon all the time. But a larger one could, you know, hurl giant moon rocks at us.

Plus, the earth and the moon depend on each other to keep balance, kind of like a hammer thrower. You can compare the hammer thrower to Earth and the ball to the moon. If the hammer thrower's ball suddenly became unattached as the hammer thrower was spinning, he could go off balance and probably fall over. If an asteroid was large enough and hit the moon with such a force to do considerable damage and knock it away, then the earth's orbit would get all wacked up. The equator could end up where the North Pole is now, which would cause huge shifts in climate. At least, that's the theory.

More on that here.

Fun fact: The moon is actually getting farther and farther away from us, at about one and a half inches a year.

 

[seven]

So . . . what else haven't they told us?

Fun fact: The moon is actually getting farther and farther away from us, at about one and a half inches a year.

True. Undoubtably this will kill us if something else doesn't first.

 

[Mundane]

Cool, now we can survive to see what happens in 2012...

 

[dadevvtsvre]

Fun fact: The moon is actually getting farther and farther away from us, at about one and a half inches a year.

True. Undoubtably this will kill us if something else doesn't first.

In 15 000 000 000 years, the moon is supposed to be about 250 000 kilometers farther away from us than it is now, before it stabilizes. I don't think this would have any adverse effects on us. Besides, we'll be killed by the sun before the moon creeps far enough away to have much real effect, from my understanding.

But hey! We'll all be dead anyway, and there are much bigger problems right now.

 

[Hybrida]

The meteor in 1908 exploded a couple miles above Earth and flattened over 800 square miles of land. That asteroid's force was about 1,000 times the force of the atom bomb dropped over Hiroshima.

An 1.3 gigaton Fusion Hydrogen bomb (1,340 megatons) = 800 square mile blast radius (nuclear expert here). That asteroid could've wiped out the entire state of Florida! I've heard about an asteroid the size of texas might hit earth in 2030. ( from PBS NOVA )

 

[Ulqiorra]

1,000 atomic bombs, eh? Then as arby said, thank fuck it didn't hit us.
But the only scarier than the thought of this huge destructive asteroid hitting us and wiping out florida, is Pepsico going out of business.
"Ahhh! We got no Mountain Dew!!" seriously.

 

[Venetia]

why the fuck did you necropost to say that Hybrida

i only hope that all "nuclear experts" are as observant as you, we'll all die a lot sooner