Asteroid spotted on collision course with Earth

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But here’s the cool part: This is just the second time in history that we’ve spotted an asteroid before it hit us.

You misspelled terrifying.

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I couldn’t find 2014AA in the Near Earth Object db at JPL when I checked a few minutes ago…

I moved 8 posts to a new topic: What would be worse: Asteroid or Global warming?

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Lay off the Kool-aid for 3 months and everything will be OK.

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From asteroids to global warming in 3 posts. Wow. Let’s stay on topic

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Well, this is both good news and bad news.

The good news ? It appears to have been small enough that it burned up on entry to the atmosphere. And it already likely has.

The bad news ? It certainly didn’t hit DC, and was too small to make a difference even if it had. . . . (evil grin)

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So it was only a … splinter?

The referenced article says between 6 and 14 feet. Mass (before entry) likely a few hundred metric tons.

The Chelyabinsk Meteor, in comparison, was estimated at ~17 meters in diameter, and ~10,000 metric tons.

… a splinter of the tree trunk headed our way.

Except the probability of global catastrophe due to asteroid collision is far less than one.

“It’s just a flesh wound!” –Earth

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“But here’s the cool part: This is just the terrifying time in history that we’ve spotted an asteroid before it hit us.”

Fair enough.

Actually, the probability of global catastrophe due to asteroid collision is 1.0. Given sufficient time. And it’s ALREADY happened at least once: you may have heard of the K/T Event, , ,

http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/back3.html

But here’s a preview:

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