Newly found asteroid to pass close to Earth on Sunday

[theHandpuppet]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/04/tech/innovation/asteroid-flying-close-to-earth/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Newly found asteroid to pass close to Earth on Sunday
By Amanda Barnett, CNN
updated 3:09 PM EDT, Thu September 4, 2014

(CNN) -- A newly discovered asteroid will pass "very close" to Earth on Sunday, NASA says.

The space rock is estimated to be 60 feet (18 meters) long. It's expected to fly over New Zealand about 2:18 p.m. EDT (11:18 a.m. PDT / 18:18 UTC.)

It won't hit Earth or any of the thousands of satellites orbiting the planet, NASA says. It will give astronomers and scientists a chance to study it.

The asteroid won't be visible the naked eye, but amateur astronomers should be able to see it with telescopes.

Called 2014 RC, the asteroid was discovered on August 31 by the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona....

MORE at link posted above.

[Kalidurga]

1. The asteroid won't be visible the naked eye.

That ain't close. Well unless we can feel the tail wind or somethin.

[arcane1]

2. "Discovered on August 31"

THAT is why NASA is important. Maybe not every NASA project, but asteroid-spotting is definitely worth every penny!

[shraby]

3. They need to be spotted a tad earlier than less than a week ago.

[LongTomH]

7. Asteroid Watch pages

NASA JPL: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch/

The B612 Foundation's Sentinel Mission: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch/

Sentinel's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SentinelMission

The Sentinel Mission is a project by the B612 Foundation to build a space telescope to discover and chart Earth-approaching asteroids. B612 also has a Space Missions Planning Advisory Group to advise on asteroid deflection missions.

[Cooley Hurd]

4. We're DOOMED!!!!

Oh! The pain! The PAIN!!!!


All kidding aside, I hope everyone realizes that if there WAS a significant threat to Earth, we wouldn't hear about it anyway. It would just *happen*.

Per the Great Warren Zevon; Enjoy every sandwich... (from 3:20):

[mindwalker_i]

5. Good thing it's going to miss

Because this is our space program:

[PADemD]

6. Damn, that's close.

0.1 LD

http://spaceweather.com/