An asteroid the size of a 10-story building flies closely past Earth

[babylonsister]

:scared:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29470290/

Asteroid flies closely past Earth
Astronomers knew 115-foot-wide rocky object was coming

updated 3:34 p.m. CT, Mon., March. 2, 2009


An asteroid the size of a 10-story building flew past Earth today about twice the distance as the highest Earth-orbiting satellites.

The space rock was about 115 feet (35 meters) wide, perhaps a bit larger than one thought to have created a colossal explosion in the air above Siberia in 1908 that flattened 500,000 acres (2,000 square kilometers) of forest.

Asteroid 2009 DD45 was closest to Earth today at about 8:40 a.m. ET. It was some 44,740 miles (72,000 km) away. That's twice the height of a geostationary communications satellite.

Astronomers had known the asteroid was coming and said there was no risk of collision. Other asteroids have been known to pass by closer to our planet. And, of course, sometimes they slam into us. Car-sized objects streak into our atmosphere several times a year. Most burn up in the atmosphere or land in the ocean (the planet surface is two-thirds water).

Asteroids as big as the 1908 Tunguska object that devastated the Siberian forest might strike Earth as often as once every two centuries, scientists speculate. As space rocks enter Earth's atmosphere, smaller ones can break apart or explode before hitting the surface. If one were to strike or explode above a city, the results would be locally devastating.

[YDogg]

1. nice.

[Robeysays]

2. not that big...

;(

how's the space ship supposed to hide behind it?


this is all wrong. projct x fialled.

[Subdivisions]

4. Big enough to destroy a large city. n/t

[Robeysays]

6. wouldn't even know it hit them.

[Xithras]

9. Yeah, but the odds are kinda slim.

2/3rds of the planet is water. Of the land parts, nearly all is either uninhabited or thinly populated. Urban areas cover less than 2% of the land on the Earth, and only a little over .5% of the Earths total surface area.

Even if we WERE hit, the odds that it would damage a major city are extremely tiny.

[elocs]

11. I think hitting the water would be very, very bad too. n/t

[csziggy]

12. What kind of tsunami would that make if it hit the ocean?

So that improves the odds for a destructive event.

Is this the rock that some kid calculated would hit the Earth, but his figures were found to be incorrect? Or is this a new near Earth asteroid that will need to be kept track of for future fly bys?

[Xithras]

16. Umm...none.

You're talking about a detonation on par with a large nuclear explosion. We set of plenty of nukes in the South Pacific in the 1950's...no tsunami's.

The power of a tsunami is directly proportional to the amount of water displaced at its point of origin. No matter how hard it hits, a rock the size of an apartment building just isn't going to displace that much water. In fact, according to one bit of research (http://users.tpg.com.au/users/tps-seti/spacegd7.html), the tsunami generated from a rock this size would be only 1-3 feet high and dissipate rapidly. Anyone close enough to be endangered by that is close enough to be exposed to the impact blast anyway.

Hollywood may love to make movies with big rocks making big waves, but science tells us that only rocks hundreds of meters wide are powerful enough to generate those kinds of waves. If a rock that big hits us, the wave won't be our biggest concern.

[indepat]

3. Mercy, 44.740 miles is still too close for comfort for a Tunguska-sized object,

but we'll take a near-miss any day. :P

[Yukari Yakumo]

14. I rather call it a RushBo-sized object instead. {nt}

[dysfunctional press]

18. we've had even closer near-misses in the past...

some have passed closer than the geostationary satellite orbits.

[wtmusic]

5. That has to cause a substantial disruption of the asteroid's orbit

from the Earth's gravity. Same time next year? :scared:

[Robeysays]

7. NO! in

http://www.neverrain.com/upload/2008/01/2012_February2008(web).jpg







;)

[theblasmo]

13. Sorry...

What was that year again?

[UndertheOcean]

8. wow !

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. "There is no safety in the Cosmos" - Alan Watts

[cobalt1999]

15. This is the kind of thing I'm glad I don't know about beforehand.

44,740 miles is, cosmically speaking, like a bullet going through your clothes but missing you. Even a hit in the ocean would have created some incredible waves.

[Orrex]

17. I heard that it was brought down by a controlled demolition

[Canuckistanian]

19. It's inevitable. We're due to be hit by something this big sooner or later

There are enough large asteroids in near-Earth orbit to make this a reality.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_event

[Orrex]

20. Yeah, he spoke at CPAC this past weekend

Zing!

[Canuckistanian]

21. Good one!

Although Limballs is a 100% UN-natural event.

[anigbrowl]

22. You know, the diameter of Earth is only about 8000 miles

So if you look at it that way, between us and this passing object, there would have been space to fit 5 more earths. If earth were a car on a freeway, it'd be like seeing a piece of debris 4 or 5 lanes away. Not that big a deal.