Close cosmic call on Monday which had devastating potential

[MrLabGuy]

An asteroid of a similar size to a rock that exploded above Siberia in 1908 with the force of a thousand atomic bombs whizzed close past Earth on Monday, astronomers said on Tuesday. 2009 DD45, estimated to be between 21 and 47 meters (68 and 152 feet) across, raced by at 1344 GMT on Monday, the Planetary Society and astronomers' blogs reported. The gap was just 72,000 kilometers (44,750 miles), or a fifth of the distance between Earth and the Moon and only twice the height of satellites in geosynchronous orbit, the website space.com said. The estimated size is similar to that of an asteroid or comet that exploded above Tunguska, Siberia, on June 30 1908, flattening 80 million trees in a swathe of more than 2,000 square kilometres (800 square miles). 2009 DD45 was spotted last Saturday by astronomers at the Siding Spring Survey in Australia, and was verified by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Centre (MPC), which catalogues Solar System rocks. The closest flyby listed by the MPC is 2004 FU162, a small asteroid about six metres (20 feet) across which came within about 6,500 kms (4,000 miles) of us in March 2004.

Video of 1908 damage

Breitbart.tv History Channel Examines Tunguska Explosion of 1908

[Wagner]

"our budget allows us to cover about 3% of the sky and pardon my language sir, but it's a big ass sky" - Armageddon.

[vegasX5]

I read about that and had a hard time even comprehending it. How could something that potentially disastrous get such a small bit of publicity? Pretty scary when you think about just how "close" that is to the earth!

[primetime]

It got small attention because they didn't want to spread a panic..especially since it wasn't going to hit us..barely..

[vegasX5]

Originally Posted by primetime

It got small attention because they didn't want to spread a panic..especially since it wasn't going to hit us..barely..

I find it funny that the media "might not want to spread panic" in this scenario, yet nearly EVERY headline from EVERY media outlet for over a year is dramatic doom and gloom and focuses on (and probably exaggerates) how awful the state of our country is! I think I care more about the fact that our world could have been slammed by a asteriod days ago then the fact that some guy on Wall Street paid $1M to redecorate his office 6 months ago.

[motordavid]

Very close, in the scheme of things. Agree on the wonderment of why
so little media or "warning"...though I suspect if it had ol'Mother Earth
right in its gunsight, it would not have been preventable. And, that "6800 Dow"
would matter very little in the aftermath.

[Lambeau]

That would be an area of destruction about 28 miles X 28 miles I believe. That would pretty much wipe out all of the greater Chicago area? Yep, don't think the 6800 dow would matter much. Could you imagine the looting on the fringe of the destruction? Refer to the gun control thread.

[primetime]

Well, since most of the earth is covered by water. Chances are it would have landed in the ocean. Then you'd have monstrous tsunami's ...Lots of destruction...

[Wagner]

[MrLabGuy]

I'm not sure how preventable or for that fact avoidable if we knew when and where. This asteroid was discovered February 27th 2009. Not much lead way in terms of doing anything to stop an impact and not very much time to evacuate a city as large as Chicago.