Giant asteroid heading close to Earth

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Telegraph

Giant asteroid heading close to Earth
A giant asteroid weighing 55 million tonnes will just miss the Earth later this year, Nasa experts have predicted.
By Martin Evans 7:02AM BST 05 May 2011

The rock, which is quarter of a mile across, will pass between our planet and the moon in November and will be visible with small telescopes.

Robin Scagell of the Society for Popular Astronomy said: “It’s rare we get the chance to see an asteroid up close.”

If it were to hit the earth, the asteroid, named YU55, would have an impact equivalent to 65,000 atom bombs and would leave a crater more than six miles wide and 2,000ft deep.

Passing by at a distance of just 201,000 miles, the asteroid will be the largest object ever to approach the earth so close.



Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8494145/Giant-asteroid-heading-close-to-Earth.html

[itsrobert]

1. May 21st?

?

[uppityperson]

2. As it says in OP, November.

[Arctic Dave]

3. I actually saw a mobile billboard about that today.

Who the F paid for that nonsense?

[PurityOfEssence]

4. You think war is a racket...

...well, yes, it is and Smedley Butler was prescient, but religion is and always has been the best racket.

They's money in them thar hills!

[Turborama]

5. 201,000 miles doesn't worry me at all. Hope I can see it with my camera zoom. n/t

[reggie the dog]

6. this is one of those things we dont have to worry about

because it would just kill most of us anyways if it hit right?

[Very_Boring_Name]

7. 100 foot tsunami's would engulf the planet (if you didn't die on impact)

It wouldn't be a painful death, but watching the giant wave head towards you probably wouldn't be a very nice last few moments.

[reggie the dog]

11. how high up the mountains would the waves make it??

[Posteritatis]

19. One that small wouldn't

I wouldn't want to be within, oh, two hundred miles of it, and the next year or two would be chilly, but something like that wouldn't be a world-ender like the Chicxulub impactor.

The Tunguska explosion was a comet about half that size exploding in midair, for comparison.

[Rageneau]

8. Isn't "will pass between the Earth and the Moon" coming too damn close?

Shouldn't the Secretary of Asteroids be working on this?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

9. Secretary of Asteroids is doing backflips

From his office at Camp Swampy, the Secretary is preparing to raise the threat level from Green to Blue for the first time in memory.

He's having his office spiffed up in preparation for an anticipated visit by a reporter, maybe.

:hi:

This sounds like a pretty good cabinet post. Does the Secretary of Asteroids sit at the big table with the other secretaries? Or at the little table for Secretaries of Departments That Don't Have Real Guns?

[Ready4Change]

15. Not as great a job as you might think.

You'd probably get a lot of miss-addressed spam mail meant for the Secretary of Hemorrhoids.

[No Elephants]

10. All your base are belong to us.

[Nihil]

12. And, if you listen closely, you will probably hear a voice ...

"Bugger it! Missed again ... but at least I'm getting closer!"

:evilgrin:

[Javaman]

13. Personally, I welcome our new giant asteroid overlords. nt

[chillspike]

14. Is that going to effect sea levels?

???

[Ready4Change]

17. Not big enough for tidal effects, I don't think.

It's mountain sized. But at that range I'm not sure it would even be detectable by the instruments we use to measure slight gravity variations here on Earth. (Such as those caused by our own mountains.)

[Richard D]

16. No worries . . . .

. . . it won't be a danger to the earth for another 100 years or so. !!!!

[IDemo]

18. "will be the largest object ever to approach the earth so close."

That would be - within the recorded history of such events, anyway. I'm sure there have been some massive objects which came very much closer in the history of the planet.