Came *this* close...

[Sweet Meteor]

https://www.newsnationnow.com/world/bus-size-asteroid-to-zoom-by-earth-ducking-below-satellites/

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An asteroid the size of a school bus is headed our way, but NASA says the space rock will zoom safely past Earth on Thursday.

The newly discovered asteroid will come within 13,000 miles of Earth, well below many of the communications satellites orbiting the planet, scientists said this week. The closest approach will occur Thursday morning over the southeastern Pacific Ocean.

Once it’s gone, the asteroid won’t be back to Earth’s neighborhood until 2041.

Scientists estimate the asteroid is between 15 feet and 30 feet. By asteroid standards, that’s considered puny. Asteroids of this size hit Earth’s atmosphere and burn up once every year or two, said Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. There could be as many as 100 million of these little asteroids out there.

The real threat are considerably bigger asteroids. The good news is that these are easier to spot much sooner than just a few days out.

Asteroid 2020 SW, as it is known, was discovered last Friday by the Catalina Sky Survey at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

[89th]

[LuFins Dad]

A 30 foot meteor? That would have had as great an impact as Tom Steyer’s run for the nomination...

[Mik]

13K is still very close, astronomically speaking. Yipes.

[George K]

@Mik said in Came *this* close...:

13K is still very close, astronomically speaking. Yipes.

Geosynchronous orbits are 23K miles.

The article says that we get one of these in the atmosphere every year or so.

[Klaus]

Is there any date in sight when there's a significant chance of a real extermination event by a meteor? One that only a few bacteria will survive, at best? That would make my day.

[LuFins Dad]

@Mik said in Came *this* close...:

13K is still very close, astronomically speaking. Yipes.

It would have been mostly dust by the time it hit the ground.