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Astronomers spot closest Earth-buzzing asteroid ever recorded :
Astronomers have identified an asteroid that's just made the closest pass to Earth ever recorded – and it was only spotted after it had passed. The object skimmed Earth's atmosphere over the weekend, close enough to have its orbit changed by the planet's gravity.
On August 16, an asteroid designated 2020 QG whizzed past our planet at a distance of only 2,950 km (1,830 mi) above the surface. That's well within the altitude of many satellites, and almost twice as close as the previous record-holder, an asteroid called 2011 CQ1. Of course, this record is about the closest pass to Earth, and doesn't include objects that have impacted the planet.
That said, even if it had hit, asteroid 2020 QG wouldn't have caused any damage. It measures about 3 to 6 m (10 to 20 ft) wide, meaning it would have just burned up in the atmosphere.
Perhaps the Monolith was doing a fly-by.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday August 21 2020, @04:51PM (3 children)
What makes you think that? All the mentioned was that 2950km was "about 30 Karman lines away" - using the original equation solution, rather than Karman's subsequent suggestion of 100km actually makes that statement less accurate.
Besides, as I already pointed out Karman's calculations completely ignores vital aspects of reality anyway - which means it's still just an arbitrary value with no actual relevance to the real world.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday August 21 2020, @11:35PM
Facts.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday August 22 2020, @09:18AM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday August 22 2020, @02:28PM
You mean "definitely not buzzing the Earth"? That has even less to do with what definition of the Karman line was being used.