Science

Judi Lynn

(160,542 posts) Sun Mar 10, 2013, 03:58 AM Mar 2013

Earth gets a rush of weekend asteroid visitors

Earth gets a rush of weekend asteroid visitors
Irene KlotzReuters
7:21 p.m. EST, March 9, 2013

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., March 9 - An asteroid as big as a city block shot relatively close by the Earth on Saturday, the latest in a series of visiting celestial objects including an asteroid the size of a bus that exploded over Russia last month, injuring 1,500.

Discovered just six days ago, the 460-foot long (140-meter) Asteroid 2013 ET passed about 600,000 miles from Earth at 3:30 p.m. EST. That's about 2-1/2 times as far as the moon, fairly close on a cosmic yardstick.

"The scary part of this one is that it's something we didn't even know about," Patrick Paolucci, president of Slooh Space Camera, said during a webcast featuring live images of the asteroid from a telescope in the Canary Islands.

Moving at a speed of about 26,000 miles per hour, the asteroid could have wiped out a large city if it had impacted the Earth, added Slooh telescope engineer Paul Cox.

More:
http://www.southbendtribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-rt-us-space-asteroidsbre929006-20130309,0,7648861.story

3 replies

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Earth gets a rush of weekend asteroid visitors (Original Post) Judi Lynn Mar 2013 OP

I saw an asteroid on Friday afternoon SemperEadem Mar 2013 #1

It was most likely a man-made satellite localroger Mar 2013 #2

I don't think it was that SemperEadem Mar 2013 #3

SemperEadem

(8,053 posts)

1. I saw an asteroid on Friday afternoon

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Sun Mar 10, 2013, 06:26 AM

Mar 2013

in the western sky... I don't think it was the comet--it was too early in the day to see it.

localroger

(3,626 posts)

2. It was most likely a man-made satellite

Reply to SemperEadem (Reply #1)

Sun Mar 10, 2013, 11:50 AM

Mar 2013

None of the close-passing asteroids has been visible to the naked eye (except of course for the one that crashed in Russia). They're too small to make out even at "close" cosmic distances. If you see something moving visibly against the background stars that isn't an airplane, it's most likely man-made. Often these will suddenly disappear as they pass into the Earth's shadow; they will be visible for awhile because they are still illuminated for awhile while the Earth below has gone into night.

SemperEadem

(8,053 posts)

3. I don't think it was that

Reply to localroger (Reply #2)

Tue Mar 12, 2013, 07:52 AM

Mar 2013

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