Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Mickey1992 on March 18, 2004, 10:24:35 AM
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a really big squealing rock!!!!
The fact that a rather large asteroid passes between the earth and moon on a regular basis once or twice a year is scary. The fact that we don't usually know about it until after the fact is terrifying.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040318/ap_on_sc/asteroid_flyby
SAN DIEGO(AP) - As far as flying space rocks go, it's as close an encounter as mankind has ever had.
A 100-foot diameter asteroid will pass within 26,500 miles of Earth on Thursday evening, the closest-ever brush on record by a space rock, NASA (news - web sites) astronomers said.
The asteroid's close flyby, first spied late Monday, poses no risk, NASA astronomers stressed.
"It's a guaranteed miss," astronomer Paul Chodas, of the near-Earth object office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said Wednesday.
The asteroid, 2004 FH, was expected to make its closest approach at 5:08 p.m. EST, streaking over the southern Atlantic Ocean. It should be visible through binoculars to stargazers across the southern hemisphere, as well as throughout Asia and Europe, said astronomer Steve Chesley, also of JPL.
Professional astronomers around the globe scrambled Wednesday to prepare for the flyby, which could provide an unprecedented chance to get a close look at the asteroid, he added. The asteroid will pass within the moon's orbit.
Similarly sized asteroids are believed to come as close to Earth on average once every two years, but have always escaped detection.
"The important thing is not that it's happening, but that we detected it," Chesley said.
Astronomers found the asteroid late Monday during a routine survey carried out with a pair of telescopes in New Mexico funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Follow-up observations on Tuesday allowed them to pinpoint its orbit.
"It immediately became clear it would pass very close by the Earth," Chesley said.
Astronomers have not ruled out that the asteroid and our planet could meet again sometime in the future. If the two were to collide, the asteroid likely would disintegrate in the atmosphere, Chesley said.
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Mickey1992
That seems a bit small, what kind of damage would that do? would it even hit the ground or burn up?
A really big one would be scary eheheh
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30 mtrs in diameter can be quite devastating it probably is protected a bit by ice too.
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100 feet = 100 times Hiroshima??
Holly crap!
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see? we are all doomed anyway so lets get to using stuff up.
lazs
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Hell yeah Laz!!
You need to install a second big block in the bed of your Elco!!!
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I'm pretty sure it was 100 feet when it hit the ground. Not when it entered the atmosphere.
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Originally posted by lazs2
see? we are all doomed anyway so lets get to using stuff up.
lazs
ROFLMAO!! hear, hear.
bravo
encore
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(http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000G3PA.01.LZZZZZZZ.gif)
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"The important thing is not that it's happening, but that we detected it," Chesley said.
I love that quote. Yeah they detected it on Monday and it flies by tonight. Nothing to worry about?
WHAT!!!! :eek:
We get two days notice before Armageddon if the next one is on target and they say don't WORRY. :eek:
That leaves no time to launch Bruce Willis and his buddies in a Shuttle.
We are doomed. So what would do in two days? Use it all up as Lazs says. I think I would just sit around in the sunshine with my shades on drinking wine. I can watch the splash when it comes feeling really relaxed.