Thursday, February 25, 2016

A mini SMOD makes a close visit to our planet

 An asteroid is set to fly past our planet on March 7, passing within 11,000 miles.  Yes, that's right, 11,000 measly miles.  .By way of comparison, the moon is 250,000 miles away.


According to scientists, there is no danger that we will be hit by the space rock. However it will fly underneath some communications satellites. The 100 foot wide space rock has been christened Asteroid 2013 TX68.

Space watchers may remember the Chelyabinsk meteor that broke up over Russia three years ago. That meteor was 65 feet wide but fortunately broke up in the atmosphere before it could hit Earth.  If an asteroid the same size as 2013 TX68 entered our atmosphere, scientists believe it would cause an air burst twice as strong.

Seems like a lot of close calls lately.

3 comments:

  1. I don't want to live through a nuclear winter. I vote that it hit me directly.

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  2. Actually, NASA claims new observations indicate it won't pass by us until the 8th, and will miss us by 3,000,000 miles.

    Source: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4888

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  3. Most of the communication satellites are at 22,500 miles. There are other satellites in lower orbits but they usually only collect data. The moon is 238,000 miles away.

    ReplyDelete