Asteroid coming very close to Earth today, no harm will be done. - Polidicks

[quote]A newly discovered asteroid will zip close by Earth Thursday, but poses no threat of crashing into our planet even though it is passing within the orbit of the moon. The asteroid, called 2010 GA6, is a relatively small space rock about 71 feet (22 meters) wide and was discovered by astronomers with the Catalina Sky Survey in Tucson, Az. The space rock will fly within the orbit of the moon when it passes Earth Thursday at 7:06 p.m. EDT (2306 GMT), but NASA astronomers said not to worry...the planet is safe. "Fly bys of near-Earth objects within the moon's orbit occur every few weeks," said Don Yeomans of NASA's Near-Earth Object Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in a statement. At the time of its closest pass, asteroid 2010 GA6 will be about 223,000 miles (359,000 km) from the Earth. That's about nine-tenths the distance between Earth and the moon [more asteroid photos]. The space rock is not the first asteroid to swing close by Earth this year. In January, the small asteroid 2010 AL30 passed within 80,000 miles (130,000 km) when it zipped by. Other space rocks have flown past Earth at more comfortable distances greater than several hundred thousand miles. NASA routinely tracks asteroids and comets that may fly near the Earth with a network of telescopes on the ground and in space. The agency's Near-Earth Object Observations program, more commonly known as Spaceguard, is responsible for finding potentially dangerous asteroids and studying their orbits to determine if they pose a risk of hitting the Earth. NASA's latest space telescope, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) launched in December, has been given the task of hunting new asteroids that were previously undetectable because they shine only in the infrared range of the light spectrum. So far, the WISE telescope has been discovering dozens of previously unknown asteroids every day. Some of those space rocks have been tagged for closer analysis since they may be potentially hazardous to Earth, WISE mission scientists have said.[/quote] Sauce: [url]http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20100406/sc_space/newfoundasteroidwillflyclosebyearththursday[/url] Commence some kind of horrible pun making.

Looks like we're [i]not going to die but some lunatic will scream about the end of the world and it will be on the news[/i]. :smug:

Holy shit 2012 is coming!!!!

too bad it doesn't hit, that'd be pretty fucking cool and pretty sad at the same time

Hmm. Seems a bit pointless.

See, luckily the doomsday theorists haven't discovered these close encounters, otherwise it'd be doomsday every few weeks. Someone should make a calendar that has all the possible times something bad might happen, it would sell to quite a lot of people.

If this happens all the time, why is this one news?

I wonder if we'll be able to see it. That would be pretty freaking awesome

Because this is the first one they've reported in a while. No really, if you don't like it, don't look at the thread.

How in the world are we going to stop asteroids? Futurama style?

[QUOTE=fsTyle;21228389]How in the world are we going to stop asteroids? Futurama style?[/QUOTE] Eat them.

What happens if it start dropping candy?

at least people were relaxed rather than being a bit [i]rocky[/i]

[QUOTE=Destroyertf;21228211]Holy shit 2012 is coming!!!![/QUOTE] There is no way to avoid the year 2012 so yea. No shit Sherlock.

Better be able to see it.

[QUOTE=aznz888;21228271]too bad it doesn't hit, that'd be pretty fucking cool and pretty sad at the same time[/QUOTE] Yea need it to happen. Everyone takes this world for granted.

Yea guys, end of the world.. A 71 foot asteroid.. If it even went into earths atmosphere it would burn to a size incredibly small.. Probably like 2 feet.

[QUOTE=Mikhail;21228797]Yea guys, end of the world.. A 71 foot asteroid.. If it even went into earths atmosphere it would burn to a size incredibly small.. Probably like 2 feet.[/QUOTE] Doesn't that depend on entry speed?

[QUOTE=he-did-it-->;21228699]Better be able to see it.[/QUOTE] I was actually wondering about this. If it's only 22 meters wide and is about as far away as the moon is, then the answer is probably no.

[img]http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/9285/47267838.jpg[/img] Google ads always gets things right.

[QUOTE=Mikhail;21228797]Yea guys, end of the world.. A 71 foot asteroid.. If it even went into earths atmosphere it would burn to a size incredibly small.. Probably like 2 feet.[/QUOTE] A 71 ft asteroid could easily destroy a small town. It would not burn up in the atmosphere. At best it would explode a few miles from the ground, causing a shockwave that would flatten anything below it. A similar sized asteroid exploded over Tunguska in 1908 [img]http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/images1/tunguska3.jpg[/img] [quote=wikipedia]A stony meteoroid of about 10 metres (30 ft) in diameter can produce an explosion of around 20 kilotons,[/quote]

Weird, I can't find the moon tonight. It should be a half moon tonight, if my calendar is correct, too. There's probably some clouds in the way. Oh well, guess I won't see it.

I hope that on 2012, the polar icecaps melt, we get huge floods, we all slowly die of skin cancer, an asteroid hits the earth, yellowstone blows up, aliens start attacking, and north korea and iran secretly have Ballistic missiles, but the people who say 2012 won't kill them live. That way everyone is right

[QUOTE=ProboardslolV2;21234188]I hope that on 2012, the polar icecaps melt, we get huge floods, we all slowly die of skin cancer, an asteroid hits the earth, yellowstone blows up, aliens start attacking, and north korea and iran secretly have Ballistic missiles, but the people who say 2012 won't kill them live. That way everyone is right[/QUOTE] You forgot the part about Cthulhu waking up because of the planets aligning.

[QUOTE=nicatronTg;21228301]Someone should make a calendar that has all the possible times something bad might happen, it would sell to quite a lot of people.[/QUOTE] I'd buy it.

[QUOTE=Ryzo;21228477]There is no way to avoid the year 2012 so yea. No shit Sherlock.[/QUOTE] Unless we renamed it 2013. Just skipped the whole fucking year.

[QUOTE=Bassplaya7;21238089]Unless we renamed it 2013. Just skipped the whole fucking year.[/QUOTE] Now why the FUCK would we skip a goddamn year.

[QUOTE=LarparNar;21252316]Now why the FUCK would we skip a goddamn year.[/QUOTE] Tax evasion. :v:

Lunar impacts would be cool to hear about, too. Fuck up all that expensive mapping [editline]05:24PM[/editline] oh fuck some music from Majora's Mask came on oh fuck

[QUOTE=aznz888;21228271]too bad it doesn't hit, that'd be pretty fucking cool and pretty sad at the same time[/QUOTE] Yea... Cool that we die, well drop all our st00f pl0x! go back to rs P.S. Lol Kiddin mate.