Four Asteroids Buzz Earth in a Single Week
Mar 11, 2013 12:11:49 GMT -5
Post by popcorn on Mar 11, 2013 12:11:49 GMT -5
SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS: Four Asteroids Buzz Earth in Single Week
In the last seven days, an asteroid 131 feet (40 meters) across and three smaller space rocks have zoomed safely by Earth, the latest demonstration that we live in a solar system that some scientists have dubbed a “cosmic shooting gallery.” All four asteroid flybys occurred between March 4 and today (March 10). The asteroids were also all discovered this month, some just days ago. The biggest space rock encounter occurred Saturday (March 9), when the asteroid 2013 ET passed just inside 600,000 miles (965,606 kilometers) of Earth, about 2.5 times the distance between the planet and the moon. Early estimates for the asteroid suggested its size could be up to 460 feet (140 meters) across – about the size of a city block – but radar observations performed in the last several days by astronomers using NASA’s Goldstone radar antenna in California revealed the smaller, 131-foot size, scientists said. “The scary part about this one, of course, is that it’s something we didn’t even know about,” said Patrick Paolucci, president of the online Slooh Space Camera during a live webcast of 2013 ET’s flyby. The asteroid was first discovered on March 3 by the Catalina Sky Survey at theUniversity of Arizona. [See a video of asteroid 2013 ET] Also on Saturday, a smaller asteroid called 2013 EC20 (discovered on Thursday, March 7) came even closer to Earth, passing at a range of about 93,000 miles (150,000 km), less than half the distance to the moon. It was about 23 feet (7 m) across. Had asteroid 2013 ET actually hit the Earth, instead of zipping safely by, it could have destroyed a large city, Slooh Space Camera engineer Paul Cox said in the webcast.
read more:
theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/wake-up-call-or-omen-three-near-misses-in-one-weekend/
In the last seven days, an asteroid 131 feet (40 meters) across and three smaller space rocks have zoomed safely by Earth, the latest demonstration that we live in a solar system that some scientists have dubbed a “cosmic shooting gallery.” All four asteroid flybys occurred between March 4 and today (March 10). The asteroids were also all discovered this month, some just days ago. The biggest space rock encounter occurred Saturday (March 9), when the asteroid 2013 ET passed just inside 600,000 miles (965,606 kilometers) of Earth, about 2.5 times the distance between the planet and the moon. Early estimates for the asteroid suggested its size could be up to 460 feet (140 meters) across – about the size of a city block – but radar observations performed in the last several days by astronomers using NASA’s Goldstone radar antenna in California revealed the smaller, 131-foot size, scientists said. “The scary part about this one, of course, is that it’s something we didn’t even know about,” said Patrick Paolucci, president of the online Slooh Space Camera during a live webcast of 2013 ET’s flyby. The asteroid was first discovered on March 3 by the Catalina Sky Survey at theUniversity of Arizona. [See a video of asteroid 2013 ET] Also on Saturday, a smaller asteroid called 2013 EC20 (discovered on Thursday, March 7) came even closer to Earth, passing at a range of about 93,000 miles (150,000 km), less than half the distance to the moon. It was about 23 feet (7 m) across. Had asteroid 2013 ET actually hit the Earth, instead of zipping safely by, it could have destroyed a large city, Slooh Space Camera engineer Paul Cox said in the webcast.
read more:
theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/wake-up-call-or-omen-three-near-misses-in-one-weekend/