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100-Foot Asteroid to Make Closest Pass
1 hour, 58 minutes ago Add Science - AP to My Yahoo!
By ANDREW BRIDGES, AP Science Writer
SAN DIEGO - As far as flying space rocks go, it's as close an
encounter as mankind has ever had.
Missed Tech Tuesday?
Will the government's anti-terror tactics invade your privacy? Plus,
protecting yourself from identity theft and is Wal-Mart watching?
A 100-foot diameter asteroid will pass within 26,500 miles of Earth on
Thursday evening, the closest-ever brush on record by a space rock,
NASA (news - web sites) astronomers said.
The asteroid's close flyby, first spied late Monday, poses no risk,
NASA astronomers stressed.
"It's a guaranteed miss," astronomer Paul Chodas, of the near-Earth
object office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said Wednesday.
The asteroid, 2004 FH, was expected to make its closest approach at
5:08 p.m. EST, streaking over the southern Atlantic Ocean. It should
be visible through binoculars to stargazers across the southern
hemisphere, as well as throughout Asia and Europe, said astronomer
Steve Chesley, also of JPL.
Professional astronomers around the globe scrambled Wednesday to
prepare for the flyby, which could provide an unprecedented chance to
get a close look at the asteroid, he added. The asteroid will pass
within the moon's orbit.
Similarly sized asteroids are believed to come as close to Earth on
average once every two years, but have always escaped detection.
"The important thing is not that it's happening, but that we detected
it," Chesley said.
Astronomers found the asteroid late Monday during a routine survey
carried out with a pair of telescopes in New Mexico funded by the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Follow-up observations
on Tuesday allowed them to pinpoint its orbit.
"It immediately became clear it would pass very close by the Earth,"
Chesley said.
Astronomers have not ruled out that the asteroid and our planet could
meet again sometime in the future. If the two were to collide, the
asteroid likely would disintegrate in the atmosphere, Chesley said.
(snipped from www.yahoo.com)
-A
1 hour, 58 minutes ago Add Science - AP to My Yahoo!
By ANDREW BRIDGES, AP Science Writer
SAN DIEGO - As far as flying space rocks go, it's as close an
encounter as mankind has ever had.
Missed Tech Tuesday?
Will the government's anti-terror tactics invade your privacy? Plus,
protecting yourself from identity theft and is Wal-Mart watching?
A 100-foot diameter asteroid will pass within 26,500 miles of Earth on
Thursday evening, the closest-ever brush on record by a space rock,
NASA (news - web sites) astronomers said.
The asteroid's close flyby, first spied late Monday, poses no risk,
NASA astronomers stressed.
"It's a guaranteed miss," astronomer Paul Chodas, of the near-Earth
object office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said Wednesday.
The asteroid, 2004 FH, was expected to make its closest approach at
5:08 p.m. EST, streaking over the southern Atlantic Ocean. It should
be visible through binoculars to stargazers across the southern
hemisphere, as well as throughout Asia and Europe, said astronomer
Steve Chesley, also of JPL.
Professional astronomers around the globe scrambled Wednesday to
prepare for the flyby, which could provide an unprecedented chance to
get a close look at the asteroid, he added. The asteroid will pass
within the moon's orbit.
Similarly sized asteroids are believed to come as close to Earth on
average once every two years, but have always escaped detection.
"The important thing is not that it's happening, but that we detected
it," Chesley said.
Astronomers found the asteroid late Monday during a routine survey
carried out with a pair of telescopes in New Mexico funded by the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Follow-up observations
on Tuesday allowed them to pinpoint its orbit.
"It immediately became clear it would pass very close by the Earth,"
Chesley said.
Astronomers have not ruled out that the asteroid and our planet could
meet again sometime in the future. If the two were to collide, the
asteroid likely would disintegrate in the atmosphere, Chesley said.
(snipped from www.yahoo.com)
-A
