Giant asteroid will zoom past Earth, averting apocalypse
An asteroid the size of a 15-story building will zoom past the Earth next week, the closest such flyby in a century and a reminder of the persistent risk of collision.
In a different orbit from outer space, the spinning rock, dubbed DA14, could have struck the Earth with a force equivalent to more than 2 million tons of TNT.
But instead, it will continue on eight times as fast as a speeding bullet back into deep space, averting calamity and thrilling scientists.
“It is a record-close approach for an asteroid of this size,” said Donald Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Objects Office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, in a Thursday morning news conference.
On average, an asteroid of DA14′s diameter — estimated to be about 150 feet — gets this close every 40 years or so, he said. A collision would be expected every 1,200 years.
No “killer asteroids” are headed toward us within the next 50 years — that we’re aware of.
Damn. I was hoping to die before I get old.
This is an open thread.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Stephen Root may have played more roles than Nick but he doesn’t get the handsome leading man parts that Nick plays.
The asteroid was attracted to earth’s global warming. CNN told me so.
myiq, you can’t die before you get old. Only the good die young.
Maybe the Obots will try to hitch a ride. Too soon?
Praise be backtrack is going to turn the asteroid and save all of us.
his executive orders told us so
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/9860421/Record-close-asteroid-may-miss-the-Earth-but-it-could-take-out-your-phone.html
OMG it may stop us from texting
I may watch because CBS gave a stern warning about the dress code and I want to see if banning “side boobs” makes Joe Biden show up anyhow
http://129.164.179.22/apod/ap130210.html
a picture of SMOD
Toure sighting, and getting some “feedback”. This is from Kevin Jackson’s Blacksphere …..
http://theblacksphere.net/2013/02/toure-schooled-gun-control/
I haven’t watched the tape, I have a Neblettphobia, that is, the fear of my ears bleeding. From the comments, it appears this is a liberal audience and they were rude to the lady too.
He is such a fucking idiot .
The second video at the link as a 5 minute clip with just the lady challenging him, about the one minute mark. Didn’t know how to embed that one? Sorry the sound quality is so sh*tty.
Toure always sounds shitty.
I agree. My husband was in a similiar situation when one of his troops’ wives came to him saying her husband was sexually abusing their young daughters. Mr.VB turned it over to NCIS to investigate, they found him guilty, perv went to prison. Wife came back to tell Mr.VB, he ruined her life, lost benefits, no husband, no support. Would he do it again? You betcha.
They should change the law to make special provision for military dependents in cases like that.
They have, it’s called “government assistance” and we all helped her out. I haven’t brushed up on the UCMJ lately, but I think if you commit a felony, you lose all the perks ?
Sidebar: I used my husband’s situation as an example, Paterno should have done the same thing, call for an investigation, Sandusky would have been history before many more kids were abused. Paterno would have still had his legacy. It’s what leaders are suppose to do.
I hate to brag, but our area had a direct hit from a BIG ONE 35 million years ago. So I’m not worried
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_Bay_impact_crater
Google searches turn up all kinds of tin foil theories, including it may have been The One that wiped out the dinos. I love this stuff.
If you look at the globe there are a lot of big circular lakes, bays, gulfs and seas around the world.
Or just look at the moon.
Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters can be found here http://spaceweather.com/
scroll down the page to the cute little chart that measures the distance in LD .
LD means “Lunar Distance.” 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach.
In the military we called then “BFRs”
I eat asteroids for breakfast.
The Chesapeake hit would have fried your ass too
I used the wiki link for brevity, but google Chesapeake Crater for the graphics.
Ok, I’ve been to enough doomsday movies to know our government isn’t going to warn us anyhow. /snork (thankyouverymuchhollywood),
On my old internet radio show Neighborhood Radio , I used to read the space weather from http://spaceweather.com/ on the air I even had written ( emailed ) permission from Dr Tony Philips the webmaster
One day in 2004 I read this on the air :
URANUS: Earth and Uranus are having a close encounter this month; the two worlds are “only” 2.9 billion km apart. Shining like a 6th magnitude star, Uranus is barely visible to the unaided eye. Look for it in the constellation Aquarius around 10 o’clock at night, but don’t bother unless you have very dark skies. [sky map]
Better yet, use a telescope. Ralf Vandebergh of the Netherlands took the above picture of Uranus on Sept. 16th using a 10-inch telescope and a digital web camera.
“Uranus has a strong polar flattening due to its fast rotation (17 hours and 14 minutes),” says Vandebergh. “This image clearly shows the flattening. It was also observable by eye–simply looking through the telescope’s eyepiece–at 300x in excellent seeing.”
http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?day=19&month=09&year=2004&view=view&PHPSESSID=5p9sv8ccjs1b1pg9bjofrarl57
I wonder if the guests at the inaugural dinner got knives and forks to eat with?
Made me think of this you rascal……snork
That’s one of my favorite movies.
As for the Marines being de-bolted, the Marines standing guard at the Beirut Barracks before the bombing weren’t allowed to have rounds in their chambers. (and that was a Reagan order). Loading and Boom was the difference seconds made that fateful day.
I think parade Marines have long been neutered. This is a non-issue.
http://www.local15tv.com/news/local/story/Explosive-Fed-Mandate-Killing-Thousands-of-Red/xj8T4zPamkOGc8fuT40W_Q.cspx
government killing fish. where are the protesters?
That is so maddening! We just did something similar, “cleaned up” an old iron plant that had become a reef, teeming with life. Mother Nature often repairs herself if we just leave her alone long enough.
What is that little cute and rare fish that’s endangered putting many California farmers out of business because they can’t irrigate ? My first thought….relocate the fish. We do that all the time with eagle nests built too close to airports.
Snail darter and you can’t re-locate a whole ecosystem.
My best last Grammy experience……NOTHING will top this
I think about 6 years ago?
Oh crap, wrong thread…….