Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Surprise Flyby of Asteroid on January 9, 2017

posted by cmn32480 on Monday January 09 2017, @11:54PM   Printer-friendly
from the missed-it-by-that-much dept.

takyon writes:

[Time sensitive but remove breaking news nexus]

An asteroid with the potential to harm thousands of Earthlings was detected just two days before it passed by Earth:

A smallish asteroid zoomed past Earth this morning (Jan. 9), just two days after scientists first spotted the space rock. The asteroid, known as 2017 AG13, flew by our planet at just half the distance from Earth to the moon today at 7:47 a.m. EST (1247 GMT). (On average, the moon lies about 239,000 miles, or 385,000 kilometers, from Earth.) You can learn more about today's flyby in this video of asteroid 2017 AG13 from Slooh.com, which includes details on the space rock from Slooh Community Observatory astronomer Eric Edelman.

2017 AG13 is thought to be between 36 and 111 feet (11 to 34 meters) wide, according to astronomers at the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For perspective, the object that exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February 2013, injuring more than 1,000 people, was thought to be about 65 feet (20 m) wide.

See also: NASA Formalizes Planetary Defense Coordination Office to Track Asteroids
NASA and FEMA Conduct Asteroid Threat Response Exercise
NASA Office to Coordinate Asteroid Detection, Hazard Mitigation

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Surprise Flyby of Asteroid on January 9, 2017 | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 15 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday January 10 2017, @11:40AM

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Tuesday January 10 2017, @11:40AM (#451984) Homepage
    The webpage is a javascript monstrosity (seemed to have scripts from about 15 different sites), and I was unable to work out where the actual video was (neither could file2hd, nor youtube-dl).

    Flash? In 2017?
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday January 10 2017, @12:01PM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Tuesday January 10 2017, @12:01PM (#451989) Journal

    It could be this unlisted YouTube video [youtube.com] I found here [cnet.com].

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday January 10 2017, @12:21PM

      by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Tuesday January 10 2017, @12:21PM (#451996) Homepage
      Thank you, sir.
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves