Asteroid Misses Us

[Toxic-Avenger]

Anyone hear about this? A soccer field-sized asteroid missed us by only 70,000 miles. That's 1/4th the distance to the moon.

An asteroid that big would proably be the end of life as we know it. It's what's known as a "country buster." The crater left if this asteroid hit would be larger than the one near Winslow, Arizona.

This is what would happen:

Projectile Diameter Velocity Target:

Rocky Asteroid 100 meters or 328 feet moving at 40 kilometers per, or 24 Miles per second before it hits Earth.

Energy Released = 238 MT (MegaTons of TNT)
(Largest Nuclear Weapon: 100 MT)

QUAKE!! Magnitude 7.2 (largest recorded Earthquake: 9.5)
Crater Diameter: 2.0 km or 1 1/4 miles
Crater Depth: 0.4 km or 1,312 feet

A collision this large occurs roughly once every 3100 years.

Here's a site where you can make up your own collisions and disasters. The results are somewhat generic, but still fun/scary.

janus.astro.umd.edu/astro/impact.html

[Cassiopeia]

Do you know approximately when this asteroid almost hit earth?

[It's~A~Nova]

I read an article about this the other day. It said the asteroid would probably have the same effect as the one that hit Russia in the early 1900's, not be the end of the world.

I think it said this happened a week or so ago...if I find that article I'll come back and post it.

[It's~A~Nova]

Found it~


Surprise asteroid nearly hits home

An asteroid the size of a football field passed extremely close to Earth last week but it remained undetected until days later, according to astronomers.

The space rock missed our planet last week by only 75,000 miles (120,000 km), about one-third the distance to the moon, making the near collision one of the closest ever recorded.

Cruising at 6.2 miles (10 km) per second, the big boulder could have unleashed some major firepower had it struck, according to the NEO (Near Earth Objects) Information Center in Leicester, England.

The destructive force might have been comparable to an asteroid or comet that exploded over Siberia in 1908, which flattened 77 square miles (2,000 square km) of trees, according to the NEO.

But the asteroid, designated 2002 MN, is not in the same league as potential killer rocks measuring more than 0.6 miles (1 km) in diameter, some of which are known to lurk in our space neighborhood between Mars and Venus.

"2002 MN is a lightweight among asteroids and incapable of causing damage on a global scale, such as the object associated with the extinction of the dinosaurs," the NEO center said in a statement.

2002 MN was first spotted on June 17 by scientists with the Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) project in Socorro, New Mexico, three days after it gave the Earth a close shave.

Nevertheless, the big boulder should not pose a risk for some time.

"This asteroid is not something to worry about," said Donald Yeomans, head of the Near Earth Objects program office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "We have calculated its orbit several decades into the future and it does not threaten Earth."

The closest near collision in recent decades took place in 1994, when asteroid 1994XL1 passed within 65,000 miles (105,000 km) of our planet.

[Toxic-Avenger]

Yep, that be the one.

Thing is, the Tunguska blast happened when the asteroid or comet, they're not sure which, exploded somewhere between a few hundred feet and a mile above ground, which is why the damage was minimized. Still, there were winter like temperatures in the summer in the States and Europe from the comet's explosion. Had the asteroid or comet hit the ground, the damage would have been much worse, along with a deep crater.

Damage Revised

<<An asteroid the size of a football field passed extremely close to Earth . . . Cruising at 6.2 miles (10 km) per second, the big boulder could have unleashed some major firepower had it struck, >>

YOUR COLLISION PARAMETERS
Projectile Diameter is 100 Meters or 328 feet.
Velocity is 12 Kilometers pers second or 7 miles per second
Target: Earth at 12.0 km/s
Energy Released = 21 MT (MegaTons of TNT)
(Largest Nuclear Weapon: 100 MT)
QUAKE!! Magnitude 6.5 (largest recorded Earthquake: 9.5)
Crater Diameter: 914.0 meter(s) Almost 3,000 feet
Crater Depth: 178.0 meter(s) or 583 feet.
A collision this large occurs roughly once every 460 years.

If the asteroid hit an ocean
RESULT: Massive Tidal Waves!
Energy Released = 21 MT (MegaTons of TNT)
(Largest Nuclear Weapon: 100 MT)
Temporary Crater Diameter: 914.0 meters or 2998 feet
Temporary Crater Depth: 274.0 meters 898 feet
A collision this large occurs roughly once every 460 years.