Surprise Asteroid Makes Near-Miss of Earth
Tuesday, june 16, 2009




A small asteroid buzzed by Earth Tuesday, though only real astronomy geeks in the Pacific would have noticed.

The rock, estimated to be no more than 200 feet wide, zoomed past our planet at an altitude of 40,000 miles at 1:44 p.m. universal time — or 8:44 EST.

Dubbed 2009 DD45, it was discovered only on Sunday by Australian astronomers.

Forty thousand miles may sound like a lot, but it's only about one-seventh of the way to the moon, and less than twice as far out as many telecommunications satellites.

Had 2009 DD45 hit the Earth, it would have exploded on or near the surface with the force of a large nuclear blast — not very reassuring when you consider humanity had only about three days' notice.

According to the Australian news Web site Crikey, the asteroid is likely to be drawn in by Earth's gravity, meaning it may return for many more near misses in the future.

I have been trying to warn orgers about their possible impending doom via various cosmic disturbances for ages.


THANK. YOU.

one seventh of the distance to the moon?

emm said:

It really was a close call!

"less than twice as far out as many telecommunications satellites"

damn... what kind of damage would it have done...

coolcat said:

the answer is right in the article

"Had 2009 DD45 hit the Earth, it would have exploded on or near the surface with the force of a large nuclear blast"

Jakeasaurus said:

You must be going through the change

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[Edited 6/16/09 11:21am]

Jakeasaurus said:

Yeah, I saw that... but how much damage does a "large" nuclear blast cause? Would it destroy a city? a country?

how large is large...

coolcat said:

Widescale global. If it hit theh ocean, large tsunamis would take out coasts easily, if hit land, could have taken out a countries easily on a continent scale with left over effects of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, atmospheric changes and maybe even the earth shifting from impact. I am surprise this was kept secret. Maybe that is why they had an experiment in Arizona tracking asteroids the other month and the space shuttle not lifting off. This was an extinction dodge bullet.

justice101 said:

This article describe the scale of damage at around a large city... millions of lives lost:

http://www.articlesbase.c...00275.html

From the article:
"This means if Asteroid DD45 had hit the earth, it would not have created a global catastrophe, but it would have created regional impact, and dependant upon where it would have hit, it could have caused a major disaster with loss of human life."

justice101 said:

no it would have been Hiroshima not a whole country but localized devastation. maybe a slight temperature change

coolcat said:

Prolly something like this:

just get it over with already...

The amount of times I've heard something like this is beyond stupid. If it happens it happens. And being completely oblivious to it would be a hell of a lot better than knowing impending doom is coming. Can you imagine the panic on the streets that would be induced by something like this becoming public knowledge? And then when it misses the chaos is still around.

Worry about the more important things in your life than some asteroid missing the earth by thousands of kilometers. Your stressing out over nothing and doing yourself no good by thinking about it

Damn and I just got my converter box on my TV.

not that it makes a difference

morningsong said:

so this is the second time this year we've seen this little rock!

Is it morbid of me to want to project where it will go the next few times it comes around?

I want to know WHERE on Earth it would hit.