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Earth Set for an ‘Asteroid Encounter’ This Week; 750ft Space Rock Could be ‘Potentially Hazardous'

posted by cmn32480 on Monday June 26 2017, @05:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the time-to-get-off-this-rock dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

The asteroid – named 441987 (2010 NY65) – is marked as a concern because it's 230 metres in diameter and travelling just 7.9 lunar distances (that's about three million km) from us.

[...] If it were to strike, its weight could impact with a force 300 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb, scientists have predicted.

2010 NY65 was discovered on July 10, 2010 by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft and is expected to make yearly close approaches to Earth until 2022.

It might sound far-fetched, but experts have warned that an asteroid crash that would wipe out humanity could be imminent.

Dr Alan Fitzsimmons, speaking ahead of asteroid week this month, said there is currently nothing we can do to stop a large space rock heading our way – and the impact would be catastrophic.

Well, an asteroid impact is certainly one way to solve all our problems.

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  • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Tuesday June 27 2017, @01:46PM

    by hemocyanin (186) on Tuesday June 27 2017, @01:46PM (#531899) Journal

    The Tsar Bomba was a three-stage bomb with Trutnev-Babaev second and third stage design, with a yield of 50 megatons. This is equivalent to about 1,570 times the combined energy of the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 10 times the combined energy of all the conventional explosives used in World War II, one-quarter of the estimated yield of the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, and 10% of the combined yield of all nuclear tests to date

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba#cite_note-15 [wikipedia.org]

    Yeah -- I doubt it would be a world ending event although it would suck for whatever local region it hit (from link above): "The heat from the explosion could have caused third-degree burns 100 km (62 mi) away from ground zero."

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