Asteroid Apocalypse...

[Orion1]

PASADENA, Calif. -- A 100-foot-diameter asteroid passed close but harmlessly by Earth on Thursday, astronomers said.

The hurtling rock passed about 26,500 miles above the southern Atlantic Ocean at 3:08 p.m. MST.

Astronomers were continuing to observe the asteroid, 2004 FH, which was expected to be beyond the moon's orbit by early today.


A 100-foot-diameter asteroid impacting the Terran atmosphere would produce a one-half Megaton explosion.

Reference:
http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Mar/03192004/nation_w/149241.asp

[recon]

This is a cool simulation of the asteroid's orbit.

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db_shm?des=2004+FH

It seems to me that close shaves with asteroids are getting more common. I hear about one every two months or so.

[Nereid]

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16079
recon wrote: It seems to me that close shaves with asteroids are getting more common. I hear about one every two months or so.The Minor Planet Center (MPC) (http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/NEO/TheNEOPage.html) has a regularly (like every day, maybe even every hour) updated page on NEOs - Near Earth Objects.

"Close shaves" certainly *seem* to be getting more common! However, it's almost surely because a) the press is more readily picking the stories up, and b) we're getting much, much better at finding them. [:)]