Asteroid to make near-miss fly-by (BBC) {60,000 km}

[eppur_se_muova]

An asteroid will pass by the Earth on Friday in something of a cosmic near-miss, making its closest approach at about 1600 GMT.

The asteroid, estimated to be about 11m (36ft) in diameter, was first detected on Wednesday.

At its closest, the space rock - named 2012 BX34 - will pass within about 60,000km of Earth - less than a fifth of the distance to the Moon.

Astronomers stress that there is no cause for concern.

"It's one of the closest approaches recorded," said Gareth Williams, associate director of the US-based Minor Planet Center.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16756450




That's ~5 Earth diameters ...

[jakeXT]

1. It's less than 5 diameters

Earth's diameter is something like 12700 km

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Oops, you're right -- I'm still thinking in those old units known as "miles" nt

[jakeXT]

3. Didn't we miss Mars with something like that?

[seeviewonder]

4. Yes, we did.

Gotta love some dimensional analysis.

[jakeXT]

6. Looks like we wanted an orbit and got a hit

http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/cartoon.htm

[seeviewonder]

7. Great toon!

[jakeXT]

5. Image

NEO BX34 - A Close Encounter
FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2012 AT 10:34PM | PETE - ADMIN
Images taken by legendary comet and asteroid hunter Rob McNaught tonight using T17 in Spain.

Rob captured the NEO asteroid 2012 BX34 about 6 hours before closest approach using T17 in Spain while he was visiting the iTelescope HQ at Siding Spring Australia. Rob's data was used by the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex to obtain radar measurements to further refine BX34's shape, size and orbital parameters.
?

http://www.itelescope.net/