Just on the national news. A asteriod the size of a ten story building missed hitting the earth by 50,000 miles I believe. Maybe all you fact finders can get more information on this. This defenitly happend today. Maybe, someday the next one will. It would wake us up to some basic facts. It only got a 30sec piece on the news. Then the news went right back to its political agenda, Maybe we do need a wake up call.

Google News, search on "asteroid miss", gives this:

http://news.google.com/news?pz=1&ncl...pAsbG6QQdWxu7M

The CNN story, for example:

You had a close encounter with a 40-yard-wide asteroid this week, but the astronomer who first spotted the large rock said it's nothing to worry about.

An asteroid (inside circle) passed within 38,000 miles of Earth on Monday.

Asteroid 2009 DD45 on Monday passed within 38,000 miles of Earth, less than twice the height of the geostationary satellites we depend on for communications, according to Robert McNaught of the Australian National University.

McNaught, who watches for asteroids with his telescope 250 miles northwest of Sydney, Australia, discovered the approaching rock last week.

"It's not something to worry about, but something to be aware of," he said.

While a direct hit on Earth could be a devastating natural disaster, McNaught said keeping track of asteroids can make a hit "potentially preventable."

"If discovered in advance and with enough lead time, there is the possibility of pushing it off course, if you have decades of advance warning," McNaught said. "If you have only a few days, you can evacuate the area of impact, but there's not a great deal [else] you can do."

In either case, he said, a global catastrophe as depicted in Hollywood movies such as "Deep Impact" is "very, very unlikely."

The 2009 DD45 asteroid circles the sun every 18 months, but its path will not threaten this planet at least for the next century, he said.

The number of "potentially harmful asteroids" discovered each year has grown dramatically over the past decade as "systematic programs" to scan the skies have been put in place, McNaught said. Nearly 100 new ones have been found in each of the past several years, he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science....misses.earth/

CATCH!!

mw

Yeah i saw that on the news.....just for kicks....where would it have hit? :P

Anywhere would be bad for a rock that size.

Though it might not be an earth killer. It would change everything. It would defenitly change our weather. If it hit in the ocean, It could create a 1000ft tidel wave that would destroy everything at least 10 or more miles inland. Sometimes, I wonder if they'd really tell us if one was going to hit.

Oh Crap!

Tunguska, Siberia 1908
http://www.newscientist.com/article/...zes-earth.html

Originally Posted by Bilbobaker

Anywhere would be bad for a rock that size.

when I visited Meteor Crater, AZ ,...several years ago ...the estimates given for the rock that created the crater in the first place was approximately the size of a medium sized car or mini-van.That sucker is nearly a mile across at its widest .....

Originally Posted by daddiozz

when I visited Meteor Crater, AZ ,...several years ago ...the estimates given for the rock that created the crater in the first place was approximately the size of a medium sized car or mini-van.That sucker is nearly a mile across at its widest .....

Sure hope it's orbit can be mapped accurately for future encounters.

That's where our good old moon is such a blessing. Look at all the hit's its taken for us.
No moon... likely no life here.
It's all some careful planning I tell ya.

Originally Posted by dudly

Yeah i saw that on the news.....just for kicks....where would it have hit? :P

LTUP