7,500 miles away is to damn close!!!! (Earth, satellites, spacecraft, see)

[Grandpa Pipes]

This near miss is just to damn close!!!!!!!

Asteroid to Pass Extremely Close By Earth on Monday | Near-Earth Asteroids & Potentially Dangerous Asteroids | Asteroid Photos & Comets | Space.com

[yellowbelle]

I'm a little more freaked out that they only discovered it 5 days before the close call.

[ferretkona]

Even if it was to enter our atmosphere it would not hit ground. Small enough to break up before hitting ground, it is the size of a motorhome or so.

[plwhit]

Awwww crap, we're not going to be able to see it..

The asteroid will make its closest approach at 1:14 p.m. EDT (1714 GMT) on June 27 and will pass just over 7,500 miles (12,000 kilometers) above the Earth's surface, NASA officials say. At that particular moment, the asteroid — which scientists have named 2011 MD — will be sailing high off the coast of Antarctica, almost 2,000 miles (3,218 km) south-southwest of South Africa

[jtur88]

You're right, it is pretty close. The diameter of the earth is 8,000 miles, so a quarter of all asteroids that come that close will actually be on a trajectory to hit the surface.

[dhanu86]

What does the article mean by exceedingly remote chance of hitting satelites or "space junk". What is space junk? Crap we launched into space over the decades for tests?

[cruxan]

Originally Posted by ferretkona

Even if it was to enter our atmosphere it would not hit ground. Small enough to break up before hitting ground, it is the size of a motorhome or so.

ya but if it was an atmosheric explosion over a city, they would be fooked


Tunguska event - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[catman]

Originally Posted by dhanu86

What does the article mean by exceedingly remote chance of hitting satelites or "space junk". What is space junk? Crap we launched into space over the decades for tests?

A lot of it is rocket bodies used to get satellites into orbit.

[Peregrine]

and dead satellites.

[Bo]

Given the timing, I assume this is related:

Space debris sends ISS astronauts scrambling for cover in escape pods

New York, June 29: Astronauts on the International Space Station took refuge in emergency escape pods Tuesday morning, during a close call with potentially dangerous space debris.

According to the Russian Mission Control, the six-member crew huddled into a pair of Soyuz spacecraft docked at the station for nearly half an hour as the astro-junk sped by, reports the New York Daily News.