Pasadena, California - Scientists say a newly discovered asteroid whizzed harmlessly past Earth on Wednesday, the second close encounter in a month.
The small space rock dubbed 2009 FH flew within 49,000 miles of the Earth's surface at 8:17 a.m. EDT.
Don Yeomans, who heads NASA's Near-Earth Object Program, says there was never any chance of an impact.
The asteroid, measuring 43 feet and 95 feet across, was spotted Monday night by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona.
An asteroid this size usually comes this close to Earth every few months.
Wednesday's flyby was farther away than another asteroid close call earlier this month. That asteroid was about the size of one that blasted Siberia a century ago came within 41,000 miles of Earth.
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Watch this movie if you wanna know that even a distance of 1.000.000 miles is a __bullet burn__ in regard to space rocks' closeness to Earth.
Now how big is Dear 2009 FH?
~20 meters across = ~65.6 feet
Is it mostly of ice or something much more hardy like nickel? Ice rocks have a high chance to break up into conveniently SMALLER fragments causing less damage, see film above.
Hard metal rocks are however an entirely another class.
I would be interested if we could simulate hard space rock impact - above surface detonation included - of different sizes on a computer.
Although my interest quickly dissipates after reading this:
[Link]
Anybody stood in the range of a tennis ball shooter machine? Tennis balls are hard enough to cause pain if they hit. What if the ball hits you in the nose? You can dodge?
[Link]
Try to dodge asteroids!