Asteriod really near miss.

[maw lod qan]

Our local news just said NASA has announced "oops, our bad" .

In the past few days, only after it had passed, did they see a car size asteriod that passed 2000 miles from Earth.

Being it came from the direction of the Sun, they didnt see it till it was leaving.

[skyhog]

yes, saw this in the news. What surprised me was they said it would have burned up and not reached the ground. I thought something that size might have made it to the ground as at least a small meteorite. Also, as the detection method is purely visual, wouldn't we expect this??

Ed

[Roy Challen]

Car-sized? Not really worthy of the word asteroid, is it?

[JamesF]

7 minutes ago, Roy Challen said:

Car-sized? Not really worthy of the word asteroid, is it?

Depends whether it lands on your house or not :)

James

[JamesF]

I'm not really up on these things, but 2,000 miles does strike me as a surprisingly near miss.  That's about half an Earth radius, isn't it?  Or about as far as the Earth moves around the Sun in a minute and a quarter?

James

[John]

The one that created meteor crater could have been 50 metres across they reckon. An iron one too.

 

[DaveL59]

34 minutes ago, Roy Challen said:

Car-sized? Not really worthy of the word asteroid, is it?

wasn't red and branded Tesla was it? 😉 

[theropod]

NASA also says most meteors are sand grain sized, which Might be true, but much larger bodies have, do and will enter our atmosphere. Many reach the ground. Antarctic glacial talus piles are literally filled with meteorites. The ocean floors have to be littered with meteorites that have sunk into the sediment. Over millions of years there have been some monsters. End Cretaceous bolide anyone? This last event only goes to show how newspeak is employed. Unless this object was made of pumice there’s a very good chance it could either have reached the ground or exploded, like that Russian bolide, high in the atmosphere. NASA is downplaying how much a threat an object this size would pose if a major city were ground zero.

[Highburymark]

Here’s an even more fortunate close shave - thankfully the meteorite just managed to miss the visitor centre 🥵

[Roy Challen]

18 hours ago, DaveL59 said:

wasn't red and branded Tesla was it? 😉 

At least that would have dealt with one piece of space junk!

[skyhog]

I've always based my thoughts on the Arizona crater when I read about near earth objects and a possible strike. It was in the order of 50 metres.... Sobering thought when you look at the list of observed rocks on the neo websites...