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2018 LA: The Third Asteroid Discovered on an Impact Trajectory With Earth

posted by janrinok on Wednesday June 06 2018, @09:20AM   
from the nice-to-meet-you dept.

takyon writes:

Asteroid on Course to Earth Was Spotted Just Hours Before It Hit The Atmosphere

Witnesses reported a fireball streaking across the sky above Botswana on Saturday night. The asteroid hurtling toward Earth at 10 miles (16 km) a second looked like it could be the harbinger of catastrophe. A webcam in a rural area west of Johannesburg captured it, showing a luminous orb igniting the sky in a bright flash.

NASA had only discovered the asteroid on Saturday and determined it was on a collision course for the planet, charted for entry in a vast expanse from Southern Africa and across the Indian Ocean to New Guinea and given the name 2018 LA.

The reality of the asteroid's fiery end was less dramatic than the video shows. The asteroid was estimated at just six feet (1.8 metres) across, otherwise known as boulder-sized, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement. It burned up "several miles" above the Earth's surface.

2018 LA aka ZLAF9B2 (25-35 tons).
2014 AA (40 tons).
2008 TC₃ (80 tons).

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Original Submission

• Re:Reporter Learns of Bolides, News at 11 (Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Friday June 08 2018, @04:04PM

  by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Friday June 08 2018, @04:04PM (#690372) Journal

  (Pre-Chelyabinsk, what was the most prior meteorite event that caused impactor damage on any significant scale?)

  I think you know the answer.

  *SPOILER* (click to show) *SPOILER* (click to hide)

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event [wikipedia.org]

  If it hit a populated area rather than Siberia, then we would have a real party.

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

  Parent

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