Asteroid flyby? I hope!

[RoyJackson]

Discovered in late February by astronomers in Spain, it will pass just 16,700 miles from our planet next year, according to NASA...even closer than many geostationary communications satellites.

Read more: Asteroid to buzz by Earth next year -- time to call the insurance agent? | Fox News

16700 miles is pretty close...

To put this in perspective, the asteroid (or comet) that exploded above Siberia in 1908 was "a few tens of meters" across.
Tunguska event - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The asteroid in the Fox News article is about 150' across (about 50 meters).

 

[flyerdan]

Looks like this will be a topic on the first half of Coast to Coast tonight. This is a recurring theme that gets discussed a bit there.
Hopefully it will be a miss since someone saw fit to shut down the space program so we can't go up there and tweak it.

 

[RoyJackson]

Looks like this will be a topic on the first half of Coast to Coast tonight. This is a recurring theme that gets discussed a bit there.
Hopefully it will be a miss since someone saw fit to shut down the space program so we can't go up there and tweak it.

Even if the shuttle program hadn't ended, I doubt if there would be enough time to change the asteroid's path and I doubt the shuttle would have the range to got as deep into space to make a difference.
That's not defending the decision to "refocus" NASA, BTW...

 

[Piperflyer]

I thought 2012 was the end of the earth; not 2013

 

[RoyJackson]

I thought 2012 was the end of the earth; not 2013

Well, I surely hope that asteroid isn't "The End of the World as We Know It".

The way I read it, this is a stony asteroid...meaning heavy (millions of tons). It's probably not big enough to end the world...but if it hit, or exploded above the earth (ala Tunguska), over...say New York City...the effects would reach far south (Washington DC or further south)and far north (Boston, at least).
I'm actually very surprised there hasn't been more on the news websites about this...16700 miles...that's really close!

 

[boomer1025]

Just think of all the seat time you would get filling in that hole in your back yard:thumbsup:
I just hope they don't try an change it's course, might end up slamming it into the moon.
The news didn't pickup on the last close call we had not to long ago.

 

[shortthrow50]

Well, I surely hope that asteroid isn't "The End of the World as We Know It".

The way I read it, this is a stony asteroid...meaning heavy (millions of tons). It's probably not big enough to end the world...but if it hit, or exploded above the earth (ala Tunguska), over...say New York City...the effects would reach far south (Washington DC or further south)and far north (Boston, at least).
I'm actually very surprised there hasn't been more on the news websites about this...16700 miles...that's really close!

I thought that an asteroid weighing millions of tons hitting the earth at the speed that it would would be plenty to end the world. Certainly not over night but after a year or two of no son from the black out of debris and all the other effects from the force of impact. So many things would happen even from a "small" impact

 

[RoyJackson]

I thought that an asteroid weighing millions of tons hitting the earth at the speed that it would would be plenty to end the world. Certainly not over night but after a year or two of no son from the black out of debris and all the other effects from the force of impact. So many things would happen even from a "small" impact

No doubt the dust and debris would result in colder temperatures for a year or two...maybe more.
I'm no astronomer, but IIRC, the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs was a few miles across and even that didn't wipe out all life on earth.

This one is estimated to be the same size as the Tunguska object or slightly larger...but the Tunguska object was thought to be more comet like (ice, frozen gasses and some rock).
There's no doubt millions would be killed if this object struck a populated area (the NYC scenario I described a few posts back).

 

[k0ua]

Roy I think he was referring to the climate change starvation that would ensue. If it kicked up enough dust.. crop failure and all that. Millions could die, not from the impact but lack of food, breakdown of society, or other doomsday scenarios we can dream up.. Who knows what would really happen.

James K0UA

 

[RoyJackson]

Roy I think he was referring to the climate change starvation that would ensue. If it kicked up enough dust.. crop failure and all that. Millions could die, not from the impact but lack of food, breakdown of society, or other doomsday scenarios we can dream up.. Who knows what would really happen.

James K0UA

Yeah, I knew what he meant...and those colder temperatures could result in shortened growing seasons, thus a potential for mass starvation and as your wrote, societal breakdown.