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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: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Monday June 26 2017, @05:57PM (2 children)

    by frojack (1554) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 26 2017, @05:57PM (#531434) Journal

    If it ends up being the closest, .03 LU) x 250,000 then the closest approach = 7500 miles.

    Since LD is measured from the planet center you have to subtract the Radius of Earth 3958mi to get about 3542 miles above surface of earth..

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Monday June 26 2017, @07:50PM (1 child)

    by bob_super (1357) on Monday June 26 2017, @07:50PM (#531491)

    For everyone's safety, can you use metric when calculating trajectories of objects near a planet?

    • (Score: 1, Troll) by Sulla on Monday June 26 2017, @08:03PM

      by Sulla (5173) on Monday June 26 2017, @08:03PM (#531504) Journal

      Pretty sure I would rather die than read the headline "metric saves the planet".

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